Today CAT welcomes Sue Frantz who will be showcasing some essential technology in The Academic's Toolbox. We're learning plenty which we'll be sure to share in the weeks and months ahead.
Bb Tip #79: You Can Personalize Blackboard
The "@X@user.full_name@X@" template variable allows you to personalize messages for your students inside Blackboard. Use this template variable to create a more personalized learning environment. For example, you can personalize a welcome message and/or honor pledge by including the student’s name.
Follow these steps to do it.
1) Enter "@X@user.full_name@X@" (without the quote marks) in the content editor wherever you want to substitute the student’s name.
1st example – In a welcome message enter:
Hi @X@user.full_name@X@, welcome to the...
2nd example – For an acknowledgement in an honor pledge enter:
I, @X@user.full_name@X@, acknowledge that...
2) You will see the substitution once you click [Submit] to save the item.
Want more information?
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or email or call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.
Quality Matters Conference: Fun and Informative!
I had planned to submit my blog post while at the conference but I was so busy learning and networking that I'm back in the office now. So here's a quick summary of my experiences. The Quality Matters organization is comprised of many dedicated professionals and the member institutions are equally concerned with developing and teaching quality online or hybrid courses (QM uses "blended"; we at Xavier use "hybrid") in order to have positive student outcomes. They're also big on "takeaways" so I have literally hundreds of resources now, and will be posting several key ones to CAT's Online Faculty Resource Center (debuting soon). For your information, here are a number of the actual presentations that were posted as well.
My takeaways from the conference are
- we can offer workshops for faculty on actually teaching online, which is entirely separate from developing the course
- we need to do more to make our courses accessible from the beginning rather than create accommodations after the fact (I also learned that numbers are better than bullets for screen readers so I'll be using numbers from now on)
- we don't need to reinvent the wheel--we can partner with other institutions to offer more for our students
- size does matter, especially in online language courses
- faculty preparation and skills are necessary components for SACS approval of online and hybrid courses/programs
and I could continue, but I think having begun and ended with faculty concerns really shows how important they are to student success and therefore why CAT is dedicated to assisting our faculty in developing and teaching online and hybrid courses for our students at Xavier.
Dealing with Cheating
As the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching, I get asked about cheating a lot. Instead of focusing on student characteristics related to cheating, I typically encourage faculty (including myself) to look for ways to discourage academic dishonesty through the learning environments we establish.
Dr. James Lang, who writes a regular column for the Chronicle of Higher Education, did a thought-provoking three part series on this topic. In Part 2 he focuses on how our assessments can encourage or discourage cheating. He writes:
Why should I bother to redesign my courses to include more frequent, low-stakes assessments, which will require more time and effort on my part, just to reduce the already small numbers of students who may be cheating in my courses? The short answer: You shouldn't redesign your courses just to reduce cheating. You should redesign them in order to increase learning.
Want to know more? Read his post on Cheating Lessons, Part 2. If you are dealing with this issues, I encourage you to check out Part 1 and Part 3 as well.
Photo Credit: albertogp123 via Compfight cc
Success in Math Starts with Reading
The science of teaching and learning on math education is crystal clear – there is an undeniable and intimate link between reading comprehension and math achievement. Back in 1998, middle school math teacher, Peter Fuentes, enlightened us to the fact that effective reading, and all of the behaviors that go along with it, is a fundamental skill on the road to success in mathematics.
We must acknowledge that reading in a mathematical context (i.e., word problems, mathematical textbooks) is inherently different than other types of reading. The content presented in a math setting is often information-dense and compact. Additionally, math concepts can be abstract and difficult to concretize. Another complicating factor is the fact that math has its own language that some students may find difficult to master. Some terms are unique and students must become conversant with terms and symbols that are new to them. Some terms are familiar, but used with completely different meanings. In these circumstances, it is not difficult to understand why some students view math as a frightening and mysterious subject that they have little chance of understanding.
Fortunately, the math education literature has provided a variety of instructional techniques to improve students’ math reading comprehension and retention skills. These include math journaling, math-specific vocabulary exercises, and integration of math vocabulary and concepts into other subjects (e.g. language). We can look to a middle school ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher to see one of these techniques in action. In a journal exercise, she provides the students with a list of lesson-related math vocabulary words. Students are then required to write a paragraph using as many as the words as possible. This exercise requires students to demonstrate a level of understanding of targeted concepts sufficient to construct meaningful writings.
The example above is seen in a middle school context, but the idea can be expanded and scaled to any level of math education. It is important to for us to help students to embrace the language of mathematics. With fluency, students can approach math problems (word and otherwise) with an understanding and confidence that leads to improved math performance. The following sources may be useful for a better understanding of the relationship between reading and math.
- Fuentes, Peter. (1998) Reading Comprehension in Mathematics. The Clearing House, 72(2), 81-88.
- Vilenius-Tuohimaa, Piia Maria, et al. The association between mathematical word problems and reading comprehension
- Beliveau, Jacqueline. What Strategies Strengthen the Connections Between Literacy and Math Concepts for Higher Math Achievement with Culturally Diverse Students?
- Shepherd, Mary D., et al. Difficulties First-Year University Students Have In Reading Their Mathematics Textbook
Bb Tip #78: Master Copies of Courses
Courses remain on the Blackboard system for three semesters before they are removed. You can request a Blackboard Master Course Shell that you can use to develop and maintain your course materials. Master Course Shells will not be removed from the Blackboard system. If you would like your course content/materials to be available in Blackboard beyond the current retention period of three semesters, you should request a Master Course Shell for the course.
Follow these steps to do it.
If you want your course/materials to be available in Blackboard, you should:
- Fill out the Master Course Shell Request form.
- Use Course Copy to copy the course content you want to keep into the Master Course Shell. Alternatively, you can start from scratch building content in your Master Course Shell.
- Copy the Master Course Shell contents into your “empty” Blackboard course once the course becomes available.
Note: You can share your Master Course Shell with other faculty members by filling out the Request to Grant User Access form.
Want more information?
Step-by-step instructions are available [PDF].
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional Blackboard information
or email or call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418
RT8 Video Now Online
Rising Tide 8 is over — but video coverage of this "conference on the future of New Orleans" is now online. If you missed the live event, which has been hosted at Xavier and sponsored by CAT for three years running, you can still experience some of it vicariously.
All of the main stage panels offered substantive content with potential application for teaching and learning. I've linked these below with suggestions on what disciplines might find the content most relevant.
- Beyond Tourism, Beyond Recovery (Business)
- Charter School Access & Accountability (Education)
- Creating Community for Writers of Color: MelaNated Writers Collective (English, African American Studies, Communications)
However, for sheer inspiration and oratory, keynote speaker Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré surely takes the prize. There are some minor technical problems with the audio, but the substance of his speech more than compensates. Listen to this for a strong and stirring message on social and environmental justice in Louisiana. It's a true "call to arms" and must be seen to be appreciated.
Keynote: Lt. General Russel Honore
Of course, no matter your special area of interest, all these videos will be of interest to anyone who cares about the future of New Orleans.
I just tweeted @FlorenceNightingale
I have to admit that I’ve been skeptical about using Twitter for students. I know all of the research is saying to make use of the social media services that they’re already using if you want to reach them and have good student participation but I've been hesitant to try Twitter.
Well I found out about one project that actually seems to work well! Twitter sites have been set up for historical figures and characters. You can have your students follow people like William Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale, Benjamin Franklin or King Henry VIII, sites that are already in place. You can also set up your own historical figure on Twitter. (See how to be a historical figure on Twitter.)
The idea of having the students tweet questions and comments to @KingArthur would probably not find favor with the Society for Creative Anachronism, but why not? I can see where the students could become fully engaged in tweeting @BenFranklin (after he’s had a few beers and would be in a happy mood of course). Setting up a Twitter account like this could have uses in several disciplines other than history. As a French instructor, I can certainly see the value in setting these up for famous writers and historical figures we were studying, and then having the students tweet en français.
Remember the party game of explaining your “Last Supper” list of people with whom you’d like to share a meal once you get to heaven? Well, here’s a way to converse with your dream list via Twitter! Let’s see, I need to look for a Twitter account for @BobMarley, @CocoChanel, @ElinorofAquitaine, @LéopoldSédarSenghor and @MahatmaGandhi for starters. Who’s on your dream list? Happy Tweeting!
P.S. Check out this blog post (where I read about this topic) for more ways to promote creative learning: http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2013/09/5-technologies-to-promote-creative.html
Don’t Lose the Learning in the Pedagogy
When I think of teaching, I think of classrooms filled with eager students who are ready to absorb the knowledge saturating the room. I further envision students using that knowledge to advance humankind to new and exciting heights. Okay. My vision may be somewhat fanciful, but we, as teachers, have the ability to spark a curiosity and a desire to learn in our students that no one else can. The quality of our teaching is a powerful factor in maintaining the interest of our students and supporting their achievement in their chosen fields of study and beyond.
We take seriously the influential power that we have over our students’ educational experience. We read about, and meet to discuss with our colleagues, those teaching tools and techniques that will be most effective in helping our students to learn. We learn about all of the latest pedagogical approaches being used in classrooms around the world. We hear phrases like “flipping the classroom”, “problem-based learning”, “team teaching” and “integrative learning”, and we willingly conduct the research necessary to determine if these ideas can be successfully incorporated into our teaching process. Then, we begin to incorporate the practices that we believe will work. We find that some work better than others, some work only for a finite period of time and some don’t work at all.
Our willingness to see what works, and what doesn’t, makes us better teachers. At a given time, any of a number of pedagogical strategies can work in a classroom, but it is important to understand that their effectiveness can ebb and flow. Students may transition from or outgrow a particular method of teaching or a particular method may lend itself to one discipline and not another. The important part is to try. If it works, that’s great. If it doesn’t work, then try something else. In either case, always share the hits and the misses with others so that they can benefit from what we’ve already learned. Ultimately, it is the students who benefit.
It is a safe assumption that some form of the old tried and true lecture will always be a part of teaching, but never be unwilling to transform the learning experience with new and innovative practices. Conversely, appreciate when a practice is not supporting the goal of educating students. In The Flip: End of a Love Affair, we are reminded of the power of pedagogical tools and the even greater power of understanding when we should move on to the next one.
Bb Tip #77: Inline Grading for Assignments and Tools
The new Inline Assignment Grading feature introduced new capabilities for grading Assignments in Blackboard and a new user experience for the grading sidebar.
Highlights of Inline Grading for Assignments:
- Assignment Tool includes collapse and maximize buttons for more screen real estate.
- By default the rubric and comment fields are collapsed. Click on the Show/Hide Grading Panel arrow to expand it.
- Rubrics can be viewed inline in the grading sidebar.
- Instructors can override individual grades for group assignments.
This past weekend’s Blackboard update added inline grading and a more consistent grading sidebar to other activities in the course that already had inline grading (i.e. Blogs, Journals, Wikis, and Discussion Boards).
Highlights of Inline Grading for Blogs, Journals, Wikis, and Discussions Boards:
- Blogs and Journals:
- The grading sidebar can be expanded to view the comment and rubric panel.
- Instructors can navigate between students within Blogs and Journals.
- Instructors can navigate between entries submitted by the currently selected student.
- The grading sidebar can be collapsed or expanded for more screen real estate.
- Discussions Boards:
- Instructors can navigate between students within Discussions.
- The grading sidebar can be collapsed or expanded for more screen real estate.
- Wikis:
- The grading sidebar can be expanded to view the comment and rubric panel.
- Instructors can navigate between students within Wikis.
- A participation summary is displayed.
- The grading sidebar can be collapsed or expanded for more screen real estate.
Important Note: Students will see the updated sidebar when they access assignments, blogs, journals, and wikis. Before the update students would see the assignment instructions automatically. Now students should click on the view/hide content arrow in the sidebar to see instructions and additional information.
Want more information?
View short video: Inline Assignment Grading [1:53]
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or email or call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418