by Eli Collins-Brown | Jun 30, 2020 | Bb Collaborate, Bb How To, Blackboard, Blog
by Eli Collins-Brown | Apr 15, 2020 | active learning, Assessment Strategies, Bb Collaborate, Bb How To, Blackboard, Classroom, Educational Development, emergency instruction plan, Pedagogy, student engagement, Teaching and Learning
We still have a few more workshops available this week!
The end of the semester is quickly approaching and to help you prepare your final assessments for the online environment, we are offering research-based best practices segmented into four workshops. WCU does not have an online proctoring solution and, because of technology challenges and privacy concerns for students, the LMS Governance Committee, whose members include experienced online faculty, have voted not to adopt any online proctoring solution, including not requiring students to use Zoom or Panopto to video themselves while taking an exam (1). These workshops, which will be recorded, will be accessed from within the Blackboard Learn for Instructors course (2) in which all instructors are already enrolled. No need to sign up, just show up!
Additionally, the Educational Development Team is open for group or individual consultations to partner with you to complete this work. Go to https://affiliate.wcu.edu/cfc/partners-in-pedagogy/ to schedule with us!
Writing Better Exam Questions
The key to reducing cheating in online exams is to write exam questions that require knowledge application rather than knowledge recall. In this workshop, we will go through the basic steps of taking your existing exam questions and writing better questions.
At the conclusion of this workshop, you will be able to:
- Identify question stems
- Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to write higher-order thinking questions
- Write questions that require application of knowledge instead of recall
Session Schedule:
- Monday, April 20, 10 am
- Tuesday, April 21, 2 pm
- Wednesday, April 23, 1:30 pm
- Thursday, April 24, 10:00 am
Designing Alternative Assessments
Faculty looking for alternatives to deploying a final Blackboard test will benefit from this interactive workshop. We will explore strategies for connecting prior student work to a final assessment, including the use of reflection-based narratives, photography, infographics, and student presentations. We will examine various technological tools with an eye towards those that are expedient and efficient for faculty use, including considerations for grading and student feedback. Faculty will be asked to share their ideas for their final assessment with peers.
At the conclusion of this workshop, you will be able to:
- determine an alternative assessment strategy for your final exam
- select a tool which is expedient and efficient for grading
- identify various methods for providing student feedback
Session Schedule:
- Wednesday, April 22, 10 am
- Thursday, April 23, 1 pm
- Friday, April 24, 1 pm
Creating and Using Rubrics for Faster, More Consistent Grading
Multiple choice tests are popular assessment techniques because they are simple to develop, quick to deploy, and easy to grade. Using alternate assessment techniques are marginally more challenging to develop and deploy but place a considerably greater demand on an instructor’s time to grade. Well-constructed rubrics can save an instructor a significant amount of time and still provide the students with meaningful feedback.
At the end of this workshop you will be able to:
- Develop rubrics that measure the student learning outcomes of an assessment
- Associate rubrics to assessments in Blackboard
- Use rubrics in the Blackboard Grade Center to grade assessments
Sessions:
Friday, April 24, 10 am
(1) – LMS Governance Committee decision regarding online proctoring – can be accessed from within the Blackboard Learn for Instructors course.
(2) – Go to wcu.edu > QuickLinks > Blackboard or go directly to https://wcu.blackboard.com/ to log in.
Image – https://collegeinfogeek.com/open-book-exam/
by John Hawes | Mar 20, 2020 | active learning, Bb Collaborate, Bb How To, Blackboard, Blog, Educational Development, Educational Technology, emergency instruction plan, Faculty Development Workshop, Learn, Online Learning (Blackboard), Pedagogy, student engagement, Teaching and Learning
Open Help Sessions for All Instructors
The CFC is hosting additional open sessions for all instructors to learn how to effectively facilitate online learning and engage students using Blackboard and its general suite of tools. We will be offering these sessions through the following video-conferencing link:
https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/da120265dc4b4471a96d1bbd8b388946
Dates and times are as follows:
Monday, March 23 – March 25
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
by Eli Collins-Brown | Mar 18, 2020 | Bb Collaborate, Bb How To, Blackboard, Educational Development, emergency instruction plan, student engagement
We encourage maximizing asynchronous communication for almost everything. There are many great ways to use Blackboard Collaborate (or Zoom) for limited real-time communication. Here are some standard best practices (tried and true from more than 20 years of online teaching) to get you started and hopefully help you manage your and your students’ stress!
General best practices modified for this situation:
- Use announcements in BB to send a message to the entire class. I suggest one per day with reminders and encouragement. Be sure to select the email option so each student will get an email with the announcement that will prompt them to access the course.
- Email your students from within Bb because they are already enrolled and you won’t miss anyone.
- To save yourself from feeling like you are chained to your laptop and answering a million emails, create a “Questions” discussion forum and encourage students to post and read/respond in that forum. Tell them not to email you unless it is personal nature, but all course questions are to be posted in the forum. Encourage them to answer other students’ questions to get the peer to peer collaboration going. If the answer is wrong or not quite right, you can post an encouraging and tactful correction. Check this Questions forum multiple times during the day.
- Also, set specific ‘office hours’. If possible schedule these at the same time each day. Post the days & times in an announcement. Use Blackboard Collaborate or Zoom for these real-time, synchronous sessions.
- Use Blackboard Collaborate to hold real-time, one-on-one tutorial sessions with any student who aren’t able to ‘attend’ office hours. Keep these short – 15 minutes max. If you choose to use Zoom, be sure to post the link in your Bb course in the announcements or Questions discussion forum.
by Terry Pollard | Mar 18, 2020 | Activity, Bb Collaborate, Bb How To, Blackboard, Blog, Educational Development, emergency instruction plan, Pedagogy, Pitfalls
The Coulter Faculty Commons has developed a planning organizer for faculty use for the remaining spring 2020 term.
The simple Word document contains weekly dates and boxes for each week remaining in the term. Faculty can use the document to notate “before” activities and “now” activities–to help them reflect on prior activities and chart a path forward, now that instruction is moving online.
Faculty can download the documents below. It comes in two forms–for a single course, and for a five-load course.
Single Course Template
5 Course Planning Template
by Eli Collins-Brown | Mar 15, 2020 | Bb Collaborate, Bb How To, Blackboard, Blog, Course Design Studio, emergency instruction plan, Event, Faculty Development Workshop, Learn, Online Learning (Blackboard), Pedagogy, Pitfalls, student engagement, Teaching and Learning
Virtual Open Sessions
The CFC is hosting multiple open sessions for all instructors to learn how to access Blackboard and its general suite of tools. Due to new social distancing guidelines set forth by Human Resources established on March 16, we will be offering these sessions through the following video-conferencing link:
Dates and times are as follows:
Monday, March 16 – March 20
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/f96dcd803b1f4fa5b75fe74f6a1576fa
New!
The library has Free and Discounted Distance Education Resources During COVID-19 –
https://researchguides.wcu.edu/distance-ed-during-covid19
Blackboard Collaborate Training
We already had three Collaborative Training sessions scheduled for Wednesday, March 18.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 9 am – 11 pm
Module 1: Collaborate Essentials
This module is designed to give participants a solid foundation, enabling them to successfully deliver live, interactive Collaborate sessions. Participants will learn about the key features and core functions of the Collaborate user interface. They will learn about session roles and how to effectively manage the communication tools, understand audio indicators, manage session and participant interaction, display the whiteboard and PowerPoint content, and record a session.
- Identify key features and core functions of the user interface
- Understand the communication tools
- Utilize the whiteboard and display PowerPoint content
- Use the recording features
- Recognize best practices and use cases
Guest Link: https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/ed44ccd7dab349688a66992db8e8d6d2
Please Login 10 minutes before the event to check audio.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 11:15 am – 1:15 pm
Module 2: Creating Engagement using Collaborate Web Conferencing
In this module, participants will build upon what they learned in the Essentials session. They will learn about the advanced Collaborate features and how to use them to support dynamic, interactive learning.
- Review essential Collaborate tools
- Discover the reasons for engaging the virtual learner
- Recognize how to use the timer and utilize it to facilitate sessions and breakout groups
- Understand breakout groups and how to facilitate small group collaboration
- Utilize the polling tool to engage participants
- Access session administration reporting tools
- Identify key accessibility features
- Identify best practices for engaging participants
Guest Link: https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/ed44ccd7dab349688a66992db8e8d6d2
Please Login 10 minutes before the event to check audio.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
Module 3: Increasing Web Conferencing Success
Ever wonder why some sessions seem to be effortless, while in others there are difficulties entering the session and getting participants to interact? In this session, moderators will learn best practices for creating interactive, problem-free Collaborate sessions. In addition, there will be an open Q&A forum designed to answer your questions on how to accomplish specific activities in your Collaborate sessions.
- Differentiate between the Collaborate Original and Ultra experiences and effectively switch between the two
- Understand the importance of using the best web browser to deliver successful sessions
- Access Collaborate from a LMS or from the Collaborate server
- Implement best practices for delivering problem free sessions
- Develop interactive sessions to engage participants into active learning
- Locate resources for moderators and participants
https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/ed44ccd7dab349688a66992db8e8d6d2
Please Login 10 minutes before the event to check audio.
Available at any time
Blackboard Tools for Western Carolina Live Session I
-
- Forums, Blogs, and Journals
- Create, Manage, and Grade
- Advanced Discussion Settings
- Group Discussions
- My Blackboard Posts
Join link: https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/bc2c7428a59a45e3a5be62621dfdc6c2
Blackboard Tools for Western Carolina Live Session II
-
- Create Tests and Surveys (6)
- Question Types: Auto Graded and Instructor Graded (7)
- Reuse Questions: Pools, Random Blocks, and Question Sets (8)
- Advanced Test Creation Settings (9)
- Deploy Tests and Student Exceptions (10)
- Due Date Exceptions (11)
- View Assessment Item Analysis Statistics (12)
Join Link: https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/bc2c7428a59a45e3a5be62621dfdc6c2
Blackboard Tools for Western Carolina Live Session: Grade Center Intensive
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- Columns and Manual Grade Entry (13)
- Configure Default Total or Weighted Total Columns (14)
- Column Options and Organization (15)
- Grading Periods and Smart Views (16)
- Letter Schemas (17)
- Add Additional Calculated Columns (18)
https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/bc2c7428a59a45e3a5be62621dfdc6c2
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