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Thibodeau l James
l Modrow l Moore l Self
Using Blackboard to Meet
Principle Seven of The Seven Principles for Good Practice in
Undergraduate Education
For
the winter quarter, the Center for Distributed Learning and
the Faculty Resource Center would like to continue our tips
for using Blackboard to meet the Seven Principles for Good
Practice. This quarter we will concentrate on the seventh
principle– Good Practice Respects Diverse Talents and
Ways of Learning.” “People bring different talents and
styles of learning to college. Students need the
opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that
work for them.” (Chickering and Gamson (1987).
As
always, we encourage you to share with us any other ways you
have used Blackboard to meet the 7 Principles. We would
love to add your ideas to our list.
Tip for Week 2:
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Putting content material
in a web-based multi-media presentation can connect with the
different learning styles of students to help them learn the
material. Make use of available on-line demos, on-line
journals, and video clips.
Tip for Week 3:
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Using the Blackboard
Discussion Forum helps non-native speakers of English or shy
students ask and answer questions and participate in
discussions without the stress of face to face
communication.
Tip for Week 4:
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Give students choices in
assignments. Have students do a multi-media presentation
instead of a five paragraph essay or design a web-page.
Tip for Week 5:
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Create a short video
tutorial to include in Blackboard to enable your students to
get help when they need it on critical issues or content.
The CDL can assist you in the creation of the video.
Tip for Week 6:
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Add animation to a
PowerPoint presentation to make a difficult-to-understand
diagram come alive.
Tip for Week 7:
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Use technology and
online resources to create learning tasks that require
students to work together and appeals to different learning
styles ,e.g. an online case study that incorporates
reflective thinking, written work and creativity and problem
solving skills.
Tip for Week 8:
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Provide practice tests
so students can self-assess their learning and focus on weak
areas before a big exam.
Tip for Week 9:
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Encourage students to
use the Discussion Forum to help resolve each other’s
questions. However, the instructor should monitor these
discussions to make sure that everyone is on track and there
is no misinformation.
My experience and some
research suggest that learning in order to be tested is
less effective than learning in order to teach others.
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require students
to create "presentations" of their study, synthesis and
application of a subject or concept (Principle #3--
Active Learning).
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The students would be
able to choose how to show what they know through their
unique perspective, skills and media preferences
(Principle #7 -- Diverse Talents).
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I would also require that
students be active in supporting each other with ideas
and technical troubleshooting through an online forum
(Principle #7 and #2-- Cooperation). Each presentation
would also be a contribution to a larger resource to be
shared with a wider audience (Principle #2).
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A core set of evaluation
criteria will guide students and ensure that certain
skills or thinking are applied no matter the media
choices (Principle 6 -- High expectations). I would be
active in coaching students through the assignment
(Principle #1 -- Feedback)
Low threshold? Perhaps
not, although there are many easy to use
internet-based multimedia tools that can be freely used
such as Odeo (audio), Flickr (photo gallery and
annotation), Spresent (animated slides), Jumpcut (video
editing) and Wikispaces (organize all of the preceding
with text and hyperlinks).
William Modrow, Florida
State
One such way I've used
technology to help teach students is using the
BlackBoard (online courseware) with a section I created
called "Research consultation assignment" which I make a
percent of the course grade.
It's like a discussion where they have to provide me
with answers to There topics, sources and search
strategies, and why they chose these. I in turn can
direct them to resources and respond to questions they
have doing research. This does follow two sessions on
doing research and using resources.
Christine Moore, Maricopa Community
Colleges
For the end of a
"one-shot" library session (when I as librarian am a
guest instructor in someone else's class), I have
created an web-based form for evaluation and
pseudo-assessment. I give students the option of
providing an email address so that they can receive a
reply from me if they wish or they can remain
anonymous. The form asks for 3 things learned, 2 things
still fuzzy, and 1 thing to improve the session.
What I like best is the follow-up opportunity the fuzzy
response provides. Those who don't speak up in class
have a chance of asking in a less public manner. If the
student provides an email address, I reply personally;
if anonymous, I forward my reply to the instructor so
that he/she can provide follow-up info to the entire
class.
The responses from the form can be viewed in a
spreadsheet, so I can look back over time to see
frequency of comments, how often something shows up as a
fuzzy/confusing point, etc.
I have mixed feelings about the usefulness of the other
two parts (what was learned and what to improve). I
called this a pseudo assessment because many students
don't take the activity seriously - I'm supposing
that's because there is no grade attached to it).
George Self, Cochise College (Applying
Principle 7 to Faculty Development)
I'm the Director of
the Online Campus at Cochise College, a small, rural
community college in southern Arizona. I've long
been concerned that adjunct faculty are too often
left out of professional development opportunities,
since those types of sessions are typically planned
during the day when adjunct faculty members work at
their "real" jobs. This problem is even greater when
distant faculty are considered since they could not
attend a local professional development session even
if they had the time available.
To help with this
problem, this spring I'm preparing a professional
development experience for our online faculty, which
I've named "PD on a CD." Over the summer I'll mail
each of our online faculty a book and a CD which
contains our "professional development" for this
year. The book is one of the "how to teach online"
books that are fairly common (I forget the exact
title just now). The CD, though, I'm creating
and will contain dozens of "movies" that demonstrate
how to do various tasks, like "How to create a
Blog." Each task also includes an introduction where
I discuss how that technology could be used in
class. For example, one lesson will be about the
Merlot site and I'll encourage faculty to use the
tools found there in their own classes. The CD will
also include a copy of our college's policies in PDF
format.
I believe
the professional development package I'm sending to
my faculty is very much in line with the 7th
principle. The book is printed (of course) and will
appeal to those who prefer reading. The CD includes
movies that are visual and aural. The movies are
fully captioned, so those who are deaf (or just
prefer reading to listening) can still use
them. They show tasks actually being done (like my
creating a podcast), so there is movement and
"clicking" on the screen (appealing to the more
tactile learners). The faculty have access to the
various tools I describe (like Merlot) and can
practice using them (again, appealing to the tactile
learners) after they have seen the movie. The PDF
policy files can be read or listened to with a
screen reader (both visual and aural modes of
learning). Since it's all either in a book or on a
CD, folks can review it as many times as desired
(permitting slower learners to see it two times).
Also, the videos are all intentionally short (less
than 5 minutes each), and organized with a menu, so
folks can skip to exactly the skill they need
(permitting an accelerated pace). For example, the
"podcast" lesson is divided into "Introduction,"
"Recording," "Uploading," and "Downloading"
segments, which are independent of each other.
My goal, as a
"teacher of teachers" is to present lessons at a
distance that utilize various means of presentation
and meet the 7th principle. Also, my "ulterior
motive" is to show faculty that this can be done and
hope that someone among them would say "Hey, how can
I create a CD for my students?" This, I believe, is
an example of using the 7th principle while teaching
at a distance.
--George Self
Director of the
Online Campus
Cochise College
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