Blackboard Unavailable Dec. 23 - Jan. 5

Spring 2017 courses in new UA Blackboard

Spring 2017 and spring and summer 2016 course shells are now in the UA Statewide Blackboard at classes.alaska.edu. My advice: Set up your spring 2017 classes now in the new site. Log in with your usual username & password.

·      Build your spring course shells now:

o   To copy content from spring or summer 2016 to a spring 2017 course, use course copy in UA Blackboard

o   To copy content from fall 2016, log in to the UAA Blackboard, export and download the course zip file and then log in to UA Blackboard to import into the spring 2017 course

o   Export from fall 2015 or earlier courses at bbarchive.uaa.alaska.edu 

·      Recommended: Make a backup of each spring 2017 course by exporting a copy and saving it to your computer

·      All 2016 and 2017 courses (including fall 2016) will be available in UA Blackboard on January 6, 2017

·      Help: IT Services Call Center at 786-4646 or 877-633-3888, option 1

I will be available through December 23 to assist you or answer questions about the new Blackboard.

Guiding the Learner Through Your Course

When meeting with instructors about course design, I often bring up the concept of using weekly folders and putting all the directions and activities for the week in the folder. Students generally like it.

I was reminded of why I recommend this by an email from Tom Kluhmann. Tom calls this providing instructions at the point of need. I like it because the directions are right there with the tasks/activities and are at the right time and place for the learners to use. The learners don't have to go find the instructions elsewhere. Tom points out, too, that the learners are not overwhelmed with content and instructions at the beginning and they have time to develop a sense of the course. The downside is that this can take more time to plan and build. To make this process easier, I use a template for the unit that includes the learning goals, readings, and activities for the unit.

In contrast, some instructors provide all the instructions up front, typically in the syllabus or a separate schedule. These documents are typically created as part of the planning process, so this is easy to implement.  The disadvantages are that it can be overwhelming to the learners, they may not understand all the instructions at that time, and they have to keep going back to that source document.

If you are interested in weekly folders, there is an export file of weekly folders in the *CTC Faculty Resources Blackboard shell.  You can download it and import it into a course.

CTC Ed Tech News Nov. 17, 2016

Dear Colleagues,

First off, plan now for spring course shell development:

Blackboard unavailable

12/23/16 to 1/5/17

Spring 2017 courses in new UA Blackboard

Spring 2017 and spring and summer 2016 course shells are now in the UA Statewide Blackboard at classes.alaska.edu. My advice: Set up your spring 2017 classes now in the new site. Log in with your usual username & password.

·      Build your spring course shells now:

o   To copy content from spring or summer 2016 to a spring 2017 course, use course copy in UABlackboard

o   To copy content from fall 2016, log in to the UAA Blackboard, export the course and then log in to UA Blackboard to import into the spring 2017 course

o   Export from fall 2015 or earlier courses at bbarchive.uaa.alaska.edu 

·      Recommended: Make a backup of each spring 2017 course by exporting a copy and saving it to your computer

·      All 2016 and 2017 courses (including fall 2016) will be available in UA Blackboard on January 6, 2017

·      Help: IT Services Call Center at 786-4646 or 877-633-3888, option 1

Gmail: archive vs. delete - the Smackdown

Gmail stores all your filed mail in a folder (or label) called "All Mail."  Email messages can be in "All Mail" with the label "Inbox" for example. All messages not in the trash label or in the spam label are in "All Mail."  When you are removing a message from your Inbox, you can Archive it or Delete it.  

Archive simply removes the "Inbox" label – the message remains in "All Mail."  When you delete a message, the label "Inbox" is removed, and the message is moved from All Mail to Trash.  Dragging a message to a folder has the effect of removing the "Inbox" label and adding the folder name as a label.  

Be careful when moving messages on your phone – the Archive option is easier to access than the Delete option (at least on my iPhone).

 Accessible Videos, Part 2

We are required by Federal law to provide alternative formats for students who cannot access course materials that do not provide accommodation for their disabilities.  This means for students who can't hear a video, we can close caption (best choice), provide a transcript, or provide an equivalent alternative.  

If you can, start with videos that are already close captioned. When looking for videos in YouTube to use in your course, add "-cc" to your search items.  The search results will only include videos that are already close captioned.

End of Semester Surveys

The end of semester surveys for classes with 11 or more students opens on November 28.  You have until November 27 to add questions to the survey.  See the IDEA dates on the Faculty Services website andcontact them if you have any questions about the survey.

If your class has 10 or fewer students, you will need to collect end of semester data from your students on your own.  Qualtrics is a good tool – it's similar to Survey Monkey.

CTC Ed Tech News November 1, 2015

Dear Colleagues,

Lots going on: the new Blackboard is up and ready for you- with your spring 2017 course shells..  The eTech Fair is next week. Relax, enjoy the ride, and learn something new! 

SIBL is Here (Single Instance of Blackboard)

Woohoo!

The new single instance of Blackboard (SIBL) is now available with your spring 2017 course shells. Log on at classes.alaska.edu with your usual username and credentials.

Spring and summer 2016 courses are already in SIBL. 

Getting ready for spring

·      If you are rolling content from spring 2016, you can do a course copy in SIBL

·      If you are rolling content from fall 2016, you will have to log in to the UAA Blackboard, export the course and then log in to SIBL to import the course data –or wait until January when you can do a course copy.

See the Edutip on Course Copy and Export/Import.

Something to think about

You can work on your spring courses in a dev shell in our current Blackboard (request a dev shellfrom IT Services). You can work on them in SIBL.  In both cases, I recommend exporting a copy just in case.

Please note

·      Both SIBL and our Blackboard will be unavailable Dec 23, 2016 – Jan 5, 2017.

·      Fall 2016 courses will be available in SIBL on Jan. 6, 2017

·      All 2015 and older courses will still be available in https://bbarchive.uaa.alaska.edu/ until they reach their 3-year deletion

·      All dev shells will still be in classes.uaa.alaska.edu on Jan. 6, 2016.

·      Add-ons such as Collaborate, VoiceThread and Atomic Learning won't work in SIBL until January

eTech Fair

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's the UAA eTech Fair 2016, coming to a computer near you …live next week. It's a great way to learn more about teaching with technology from the comfort of your office. 

Check out the schedule, register, and show up (at your computer). 

I'll be offering three sessions:

·      Gmail Unveiled

·      Lecture Capture in YouTube with Google Hangouts on Air

·      Curriculum Mapping Demystified

·      Stump the Instructional Designers: Google Edition (with other instructional designers

Gmail Only Has 3 Folders

"What," you say, "I have all my folders from Outlook."  Ah, but they are no longer truly folders.  They are… labels," I'll explain.

The three folders in Gmail are:  All Mail, Trash, and Spam.  All the other "folders" that you had in Outlook are now really "labels."  The big difference is that an email message can have multiple labels, but it can only be in one folder (with or without any labels).  Check it out for yourself.  Find "All Mail" in the menu on the left and scroll down the email list. Some of them have the label Inbox beside the name.  Here's a lesson on labels in Gmail if you're curious.

Next newsletter:  Archive vs. Delete in Gmail – the Smackdown

Warmly, 

Lee

Lee Maria Henrikson

Instructional Designer

907-786-4903

http://ak-lee.blogspot.com

UAA Community and Technical College

Building Alaska's Workforce