Why use Blackboard to teach a course?

1. Why use Blackboard to teach a course? Jennifer Van Gundy And Christina Jones 9471

2. Introduction: Blackboard is a useful tool for both online and face-to-face courses. If you implement Blackboard (Bb) you will soon find ways to use its components to save time. However, the extensive gains in time come about by restructuring the procedures of your course to take full advantage of these components. That requires rethinking the ways you choose to communicate with your students and how you will build the expectation or behavior in your students such that they are in sync with your communication process. With Blackboard, many students will come to class prepared for and expecting revised course structures and methods that incorporate the use of Blackboard components.

3. Say Things Only Once: Even if you don't teach online, it is easy to accrue a large number of emails from students asking for clarification of content, schedule, procedure, due dates, etc., many of which are repetitive. An easy way to reduce time spent emailing multiple students is to have an understanding with students that questions will be answered in a discussion board posting or on the course announcement page. Let students know to check there first to see if their question has already been addressed. It is also a good idea to post changes to the course syllabus, policies, due dates, etc., to the announcements page of the course. Both you and the student will have a record to refer to if questions arise later.

4. Students Answer One Another's Questions: A popular use of discussion forums in Bb is to set up a Q & A forum where students are encouraged to answer each other's questions. The instructor then monitors the discussion and steps in if something needs explaining or if students are unable to answer the question. Having a forum like this in place can help you prepare for classes, as you will be aware of areas where students are having trouble. Another use of discussion forums is to have students discuss topics that were brought up in class. This allows students to be active in their learning as they continue conversations and ask questions of each other.

5. Become a Paperless Course: There is both an expense and a time drain associated with paper copies. Often there are students who were not present when hardcopy handouts are distributed or who lose them, demanding additional trips to the copier, etc. If handouts are posted then they are available anywhere/anytime and cannot be lost. When posting documents to Bb, be sure that they are in a universal format, most suitable for posting like RTF or PDF.

6. Expand Classroom Time: Providing quizzes and tests online allows you more time for discussion and activities in the classroom. You can present problems/questions that require an understanding of the material in an online quiz or test that can be timed or untimed. If you have group assignments, use Bb to provide group space. Groups can be set up with their own discussion boards, chat rooms, and file exchange areas. This allows students a place to share ideas as they work on their projects. This works well for students who are in different locations.

7. Reduce Your Homework Load. You can save some time on every homework assignment that you grade. Bb's assignment function allows you to download all assignments at once for later reading on a home or other computer, without needing to access the Internet. You are also able to post the grade and feedback (including files) for the student. Students can get their grade and feedback through the Bb grade book. Bb allows you to easily roll assignments over into future classes or to copy assignments created in one section to other sections you are teaching. You may, with some minor changes, be able to use the same assignments multiple semesters, saving set-up time in the long run.

8. Computerized Grade Calculations and Feedback: You can make a student's grade available to her or him as soon as it is posted. That tends to eliminate some email requests for grades. You can also let Bb's grade book add and weight individual test and assignment scores for you. You are also able to provide feedback on assignments through the grade book.

9. Share Materials: You can share anything you create in Bb with teachers. Consider, for instance, the situation wherein three teachers are teaching different sections of the same course. Suppose they all want to have a practice quiz or an on-line test for each chapter. Each teacher could create the material for one third of the chapters and adopt material from the other teachers for the rest of the chapters.