Engaging Learners through Communication and Collaboration Blackboard Learn ™ R9.1

1. Engaging Learners throughCommunication and CollaborationBlackboard Learn™ R9.1 Sinora Dabney Sinora.dabney@blackboard.com

2. Session Roadmap Topics: • Supporting Student Interaction  • Communicating with Email and Messages • Interacting with the Discussion Board • Creating and Managing Groups • Teaching with Blogs and Journals • Collaborating with Text Chat and the Virtual Classroom • Locating Resources

3. Supporting Student Interaction: Objectives • Define online communication and collaboration methods and tools • Discuss tips for planning a communication strategy.

4. Online Communication • Exchange ideas • Work collaboratively • Achieve higher levels of learning • Asynchronous & Synchronous

5. Communication Strategy • Choose appropriate tools to meet outcomes/objectives • Define usage, methods, policies and procedures • Set expectations by communicating to learners

6. Session Roadmap Topics: • Supporting Student Interaction  • Communicating with Email and Messages • Interacting with the Discussion Board • Creating and Managing Groups • Teaching with Blogs and Journals • Collaborating with Text Chat and the Virtual Classroom • Locating Resources

7. Communicating with Email & Messages: Objectives • Communicate using the Email and Messages tools • Compare and contrast the use cases, benefits and challenges of each

8. Using Blackboard Email • Enables electronic communication to external email addresses of course members only • Attachments, CC, BCC available • Blackboard keeps no record of emails, but sends copy to sender • Subject includes Course ID automatically

9. Sending Email • Access Tools and click Send Email. • On the Send Email page, click the link for the desired recipient group. A new page appears.

10. Sending Email • Select Users and move them into the Selected box. • Enter the Subject and Message. • Optionally, Attach a file. • Click Submit.

11. Your Turn: Send an Email • Access Tools and click Send Email. • On the Send Email page, click the link for the desired recipient group. A new page appears. • For Select Users or Select Groups, click to highlight the recipients in the Available to Select box and click the right-pointing arrow to move them into the Selected box. • Enter the Subject and Message. • Optionally, Attach a file. • Click Submit.

12. Send Messages • Enables electronic communication within the course to course members only • Attachments, CC, BCC options available • Automatic Inbox and Sent Box • Messages can be managed in folders

13. Sending Messages Click the Inbox link to view received messages. Click the Subject link to read the message.

14. Sending Messages

15. Sorting Messages

16. Sending Messages • Access Messages. • Click Create Message on the Action Bar. • On the Compose Message page, click To, and a list of course members appears. • Select recipients, and move them to the Recipients box. • Enter a Subject and Body. • Click Submit.

17. Your Turn: Send a Message • Access Tools and click Messages. • On the Messages page, click Create Message on the Action Bar. • On the Compose Message page, click To, and a list of course members appears. • In the Select Recipients box, click to highlight the recipients, and click the right-pointing arrow to move them to the Recipients box. • Enter a Subject and Body. If desired, use the Text Editor to format the text. • Click Submit.

18. Messages vs. Email • Compare and Contrast Messages and Email • Why use one over the other? • How can each be useful? • What are the limitations?

19. Session Roadmap Topics: • Supporting Student Interaction  • Communicating with Email and Messages • Interacting with the Discussion Board • Creating and Managing Groups • Teaching with Blogs and Journals • Collaborating with Text Chat and the Virtual Classroom • Locating Resources

20. Interacting with the Discussion Board: Objectives • Define Discussion Board hierarchy, roles and settings • Create and manage Discussion Board forums and threads • Search, collect, tag, flag, and grade forums and threads • Review Discussion Board statistics within the Performance Dashboard

21. Forums, Threads, and Posts • Each Discussion Board contains one or more forums. • A forum is an area where a topic or a group of related topics are discussed. • Within each forum, there can be multiple threads. • A thread includes the initial post and any replies to it. • A post is a message within the thread. Forum: World Politics

22. Access the Discussion Board Course Menu link

23. The Discussion Board

24. Within a Forum • View threads in either List View or Tree View.

25. Thread Actions: Contextual Menu Using the Thread Actions drop-down list, students can flag important posts and delete the flags. In addition to flagging important posts and deleting the flags, the instructor can also chose to publish, hide or lock/unlock a thread. When a post is set to anonymous, the instructor can also change the author.

26. Changing the Displayed Threads The instructor sets the thread status, but students choose which type of threads to display. By default, published threads are displayed.

27. Within a Thread The Thread Detail page is thoroughly redesigned yet maintains all of its existing functions. All of a thread's posts are now visible at the same time on one page. Larger avatars help you easily identify the author.

28. Within a Thread: Replying, etc Original post Functions appear when you point to the page - point your mouse anywhere on the Thread Detail page, and action bar functions such as Search and Refresh appear at the top. When you point to a post, the Reply, Quote, and Expand or Collapse functions appear. This increases the vertical screen space available for viewing posts.

29. Best Practice: Discussion Etiquette • Group Discussion: • Are there guidelines you would add to the list in the • manual? • Will you share any guidelines with your students? • If so, how will you distribute this information?

30. Creating Forums • Enter the forum title and description. • Determine availability settings.

31. Creating Forums • Specify Viewing preferences for forum participants. • Specify grade options: • No Grading • Grade by Score • Grade by Rubric • Set Needs Grading Indicator • Add Alignments • Enable Subscription Capability

32. Creating Forums • Specify delete and edit capability for forum authors (students/learners. • Additional options include: • File Attachments • Reply with Quote • Moderation • Tagging • Rating

33. Copying Forums • Discussion forums can be copied and added to the current Discussion Board or to a Group Discussion Board in the same course. To copy a Discussion Board to another course, use the Course Copy utility. • QUICK STEPS: Copying Forums • Click the forum’s Action Link to access the contextual menu. Then select Copy. • Enter a Name of New Forum. • Select what to copy: Entire forum OR Forum settings only. • Select the Location and click Submit. • Note:Forums copied to a Group Discussion Board only include messages authored by the Group’s members.

34. Best Practice: Crafting Effective Questions • Essential questions: • Require higher level thinking skills • Guiding questions: • Help students answer the essential question

35. Assigning Forum Roles • Each user in the forum has a forum role, and may only have one role per forum. Course instructors automatically have the role of Manager and students have the role of Participant. • Forum roles can be assigned to limit access to a forum or to help with forum administration. • QUICK STEPS: Assigning Forum Roles • Click the forum’s Action Link to access the contextual menu. • Select Manage. A list of users appears. • Click the user’s Action Link to access the contextual menu. • Select a new forum role. • *** The manual provides complete descriptions of forum roles and what permissions each one receives. Dr. C could be discussed at this time also. • The Dr. C section is about the moderator, and the moderation of posts is on the next slide.

36. Moderating Posts • When a moderated forum is created, all posts to the forum are added to a Moderation Queue. The Moderator reviews each post and does one of the following: • Publishes the posts • Returns the post to the sender without a message • Returns the posts to the sender with a message

37. Moderation Queue Though feedback is optional, this is an opportunity to provide guidance, ask questions, or redirect a student’s focus. Enter a comment in the text box explaining why the post was returned. Returned posts no longer appear in the Moderation Queue. In the forum, in Tree View, the student sees the returned post and an explanation.

38. Tagging Threads Instructor View: Management Tags are text labels that act like bookmarks. The instructor can attach tags to group similar messages together. For example, if the subject of scientific notation comes up often, tag each of the posts with scientific notation. Students can read, filter, and search messages using these tags. Students cannot create their own tags. Student View: Filter and View Only

39. Deleting Forums and Threads You can delete forums and threads which are no longer used. When a forum or thread is removed, all content and grades are permanently deleted. For example, delete an ungraded forum used to discuss questions about a completed assignment.

40. Your Turn: Create Forums & Add Threads • Enter the course where you are enrolled as an instructor. • From the Discussion Board, click Add Forum. • Create the Forum • Click Submit. • Access the forum. • Click Add Thread in either List View or Tree View. • Add the thread. • Click Submit.

41. Assigning Forum Grades Discussion grades can be entered within the forum or thread. Students can be graded on their participation in a discussion, on the quality of their postings, or a combination of the two. Note: Students cannot create new threads in a forum where graded threads are enabled.

42. Best Practice: Define Grading Criteria • To discuss: • When grading discussions, it is important to have • reasonable expectations about what can be • accomplished. What is reasonable? • Students need to know exactly what is • expected of them. How will you do this?

43. Your Turn: Grade a Discussion • Enter the course where you are enrolled as an instructor. • Click the forum’s title containing the graded thread. • In List View, on the thread listing page, click Grade Thread. • On the Grade Thread Users page, from a user’s contextual menu, select Grade. • On the Action Bar, enter the grade in the Grade text box. • Click Submit to add the grade to the Discussion Board and the Grade Center. • Click OK at the bottom of the page to return to the Grade Thread Users page. The grade appears in the Grade column.

44. Session Roadmap Topics: • Supporting Student Interaction  • Communicating with Email and Messages • Interacting with the Discussion Board • Creating and Managing Groups • Teaching with Blogs and Journals • Collaborating with Text Chat and the Virtual Classroom • Locating Resources

45. Creating & Managing Groups: Objectives • Identify collaborative learning use cases and considerations; Describe Group Settings • Create and populate Groups and Group Sets with self-enroll, manual, and random enroll options • Create a Group Module Page • Add, monitor and Grade a Group Assignment • Discuss tips for enabling successful group work

46. Session Roadmap Topics: • Supporting Student Interaction  • Communicating with Email and Messages • Interacting with the Discussion Board • Creating and Managing Groups • Teaching with Blogs and Journals • Collaborating with Text Chat and the Virtual Classroom • Locating Resources

47. Creating & Managing Groups: Objectives • Identify Blog and Journal use cases • Enable individual, group, and course Blogs • Assign individual and group Journals • Discuss best practices for monitoring Journals and Blogs.

48. Best Practice: Benefits of Reflective Learning Reflective learners tend to: Be motivated and proactive Use existing knowledge to understand new ideas Understand new concepts by relating to their own previous experiences Understand additional research and reading improves understanding Use critical evaluation and are self-aware 48

49. The Journals Tool

50. Students: Creating a Journal Entry 50