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.