Putting it all Together: Designing a Great BlackBoard Course

Office of Learning & TechnologyPurdue University North Central

Outline

We will cover: What makes a “great” BlackBoard

course How to use available tools to create a

consistent and student-friendly course experience

How to generate more student engagement through course design strategies

Introducing a Learning Experience

• The first step in many instructional models is gaining students’ attention and orienting them to learning

• What are your usual approaches/strategies for introducing a lesson in the face-to-face classroom?

• How can you adapt these strategies for the online environment?

Building Well-Structured Online Learning At any level, students

work best when they know where they are heading, and have the support they need to get there

A syllabus or introduction to the learning activity helps, especially online

It doesn’t have to be long and complicated, just clear and complete

Components of a Good Syllabus Description of the

course Objectives Orientation to

technical elements Explanation of

grading and assessment

Description of communication expectations

About BlackBoard

You will be enrolled in a BlackBoard course for faculty that leads you through almost every tool and technology possible

This is available at all times Students are enrolled in a similar course just for

them New updates for the recent SP14 version

upgrade are available You may also view videos and other tutorials

anytime at http://www.pnc.edu/distance/learn-tutorials/

Strategies to Support How People Learn

AlignmentStructureInteractionAssessment

Alignment (organizing framework)

Learning Objectives

Resources, Materials & Technology

Assessment and Measurement

Learner Interactions & Activities

http://www.qualitymatters.org/

Tips for Alignment Implementation

Orient students to the course Use headings and descriptions to aid

organization Name files (or label) so they have meaning to

the learner Be consistent in the organization of lessons Bundle activities, assignments, interaction,

assessment in the same place

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Orientation

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Setting Objectives

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Structure and Navigation

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First - What not to do:

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Better - Organized

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Best - Functional + Conceptual

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Learning Modules / Folders

• Center learning on broad, related topics• Or, separate the course into weeks• Allows you to sequence access to content and tools

• Limit access to the relevant tools/content only

• Integrate processes/activities with concepts

• Ideally, limit extra clicks

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For example….

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Strategies for Student-Content Interaction

Advance organizers and case studies

Similarities and differences

Essays and mini-essays

Summarizing and note-taking

Debates and collaboration

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Tips for Good Interaction Activities Focus on what’s important, not unusual Higher level organizers and prompts will

produce deeper learning Most useful with information that is not well

organized and problems that are not easy to solve

Collaborative and group activities can ask students to learn from each other and teach one another

Be sure to participate yourself!

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Student-Student Interaction

Asynchronous Threaded discussions-text-based and multimedia Blogs - online diaries, reflection Wikis - collaborative writing File sharing

Synchronous Instant messaging and video chat (Skype, Adobe

Connect, etc) Telephone F2F meetings

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The Technology

Assignments: Use the Assignment, Wiki, Discussion, Journal, or Blog tools to allow students to send work files and projects Word, Excel, PowerPoint, other types of files Links to Google Docs, Prezis, etc. Don’t be afraid to encourage students to use a variety

of technologies to construct projects Assessments: Essay questions and File

Response (sending in a file) questions are available options in making a test/quiz

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Assessment

• Students should be assessed formatively, serving to inform future learning experiences.

• Summative assessment comes after opportunities for practice and feedback

• Teachers serve primarily as guides and facilitators of learning, not “sage on the stage” and “knower of all”

• Students are then encouraged to become more self-regulatory, self-mediated, self-motivated, and self-aware.

Tools

Timed/untimed examinations Surveys - developmental/summary Assignments and discussion with rubrics Projects that build up toward a final goal over

time, with checkpoints throughout

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Clear expectations, criteria

and alignment

Examples

Take home exams Laboratory case

study analysis Discussion

assessment Activity

assessment

Thanks!

Reach us at: pncolt@pnc.edu Twitter and Facebook: @PNCOLT http://www.pnc.edu/distance for all

workshop notes, links, and training needs