Weekly surveys

After each of my classes in eLive, I ask my students to fill out a quick Qualtrics survey. It's easy to make a new copy each week and post it to the announcements. Here are my survey questions:

1. When did you feel most engaged in class tonight?
2. When did you fee most distanced in class tonight?
3. What about the activities and materials used tonight surprised you the most?
4. When did you feel most engaged with the homework?
5. How much time did it take to do the homework?
6. Add any other comments here.

I have found out that my students in EDFN302, Educational Technology, consistently like the small group conversations in the breakout rooms. They have been surprised at how interactive our eLivesessions are and have given me some good feedback on how my teaching can be improved. I post the survey result in Blackboard so they can see what the group is thinking. Many of them read the results and learn that for the most part, they share some common likes.

Common Craft Videos

In my Ed Tech class at some point I feel that I have to address tech skills. It sort of goes with the territory. I do a survey at the beginning of the semester to see where they are at. There is usually a range. My favorite activity to improve their tech expertise is to have them watch theCommonCraft videos on technology. I let the students select 4 to watch and they often watch more than the four. It's fun to read their discussion board posts on the experience of watching the videos.

I appreciate the CC videos on security issues: passwords, phishing, keeping your computer secure. These help people become responsible digital citizens. And since we are working toward using educational technologies in the classroom, understanding the Web 2.0 tools such as podcasting, RSS, and social bookmarking are good to learn about.

This assignment also models differentiated instruction and giving choice in learning activities, while providing a basic structure.

Final Word Protocol in eLive

We used the Final Word protocol in breakout rooms this week. It worked really well. The students liked interacting with their book this way, liked hearing the different parts of the reading that each student picked, liked the structure in which each student had a voice (and the talkers had a time limit and the quiet ones had space). I modeled our version after the National School Reform Faculty protocol. In general, the students love the discussion time in small groups in eLive, so I try to find different formats for them to use. Last week we did a think-pair-share (one of those Kagan structures). Now my appetite is whetted to find more ways for us to interact in small groups in eLive that can also model what they might do in their classroo

Breakout Rooms in eLive

I use breakout rooms regularly in my eLive classes. In a 2½ hour class, we may go to breakout rooms 2-3 times for small group discussions. I have sometimes assigned a note taker and a facilitator and sometimes let the students choose how to manage their tasks in the breakout rooms. The feedback from students is that they are very engaged in the class during these activities.

It’s pretty easy to send a whiteboard to the break out room to guide their conversation: a chart to fill in, a list of questions to answer, etc. I monitor the discussions by watching the whiteboards in Explore Screens and by visiting the breakout rooms. I also glance at the participant list to see who’s talking (glowing microphone). It’s easy to bring the whiteboards back to the main room for discussion or reporting.

Here’s a video on moving whiteboards to and from the breakout rooms. To send a whiteboard to the breakout rooms: right click on the whiteboard, select Current Screen from the menu, select Copy Screen to Breakout Rooms from submenu. To copy whiteboards from the breakout rooms back to the main room, right click in the participant window and select Copy All Whiteboards to Main Room.

Some guidelines for tests in Blackboard

One of the complaints we get in the FTC and ITS is a student getting bumped out of a test in Blackboard. There are no stats on how often this happens; estimates are in the 5% range of tests taken. It does create a lot of frustration for students and more work for both the instructor and student.

1. Here are some guidelines to help insure successful online tests:

1. 1. Give a sample low-stakes test earlier in the semester. Use the same format and restrictions as in a real test.This insures that your students know how to take a test properly. A test on key points of the syllabus could both make students aware of your class requirements and make sure that they can take a test successfully.

2. 2. For each test, give explicit directions on how to take a test successfully. Here are some suggestions to add to your test directions:

·Don’t use a wireless internet connection

·Use Firefox, not Internet Explorer

·Close all other applications on the computer before starting the test

·Click to take the exam when you are a ready; if you pop in to take a look, you may not be able to come back (only necessary if Forced Completion is checked)

·Save the test after each question

·Do not open another browser window or tab while taking a test

·Do not use the back button on Firefox

·Do not click elsewhere on the computer while taking the test

·Click Submit when you are done

·If you are disconnected from the test, don’t panic, email the instructor immediately

3. Students are disconnected or bumped from an exam for a variety of reasons. They clicked somewhere Blackboard didn’t like, their ISP went down, or they accidentally did something.

4. If a student is disconnected from the exam before it is completed, make it clear what you are going to do. Here is what some instructors do:

·No resetting of the exam; the student is graded on what they complete

·Print out the exam and then let the student finish from where she left off and manually enter the grade

·Print out the exam and let the student retake it if the questions are randomized and the compare the two tests (this is very tedious).

SafeAssign

UAA now has SafeAssign antiplagiarism software as part of Blackboard. Use it instead of the assignment feature in Blackboard to collect student work or run suspicious papers through the direct submit rather than plugging phrases into Google. All student work is compared to four databases, including the Internet and a repository of papers submitted to UAA. You can look at the SafeAssign report to quickly determine if a student has plagiarized. See SafeAssign in the Knowledge Base for more information. Let us know if you are interested in a workshop on SafeAssign.

Horizon Report

The New Media Consortium and Educause have published the 2011 Horizon report. The eighth annual report, it lists six emerging technologies in higher education on three different horizons: one year or less, two to three years, and four to five years out. It’s not surprising that the two key emerging technologies highlighted for one year or less are e-Books and mobile devices. I encourage everyone to at least read the Executive Summary of the report. Please drop me an email if you are using or thinking about using one of these technologies.

Some Blackboard Tips

Here are some simple things to do to make managing your course in Blackboard easier.

Logging in as a student to your classes

You can do this to see how a test works or what your students see:

Username: your username followed by _student e.g. aflmh_student or lmhenrikson_student

Password: your 30-million UAA ID no. followed by _student e.g. 34567890_student

Logging out of Blackboard

To log out of Blackboard, click on the little door with an arrow at the top of the screen. Just closing the window doesn't log you out. When switching between your faculty account and your student account, you need to log out! If you see the control panel in a course, you are logged in as an instructor.

Hiding Grade Center Columns from Students

In the Grade Center, just because a column is hidden from your view, doesn't mean it's hidden from the students. Log in as a student and see what they see.

a. If there are columns that you don't want them to see, go back to your instructor account and go to the Grade Center.

b. If necessary, unhide the column from your view by going to Manage > Organize Grade Center.

c. Select the columns you want to see, select show columns, then click submit.

d. Back in the Grade Center, click on the chevrons in the column heading, select modify column. In section 3, click the radio buttons for no. Then click submit. You will now see a red slash to the left of the column title.

e. You can hide the column from your view again if you want.

Customizing your courses list

Is your course list too long in the UAA Courses list? You can hide the courses that you don't want to see.

a. Click on the pencil at the top of the listing on the right.

b. Uncheck the names of old courses you don't want to see anymore (you can still see them in the Courses tab if you want to).

c. Only do one page at a time.

d. Click Submit.