Title: Blackboard for GTFs: Getting started with Blackboard at UO
1Blackboard for GTFsGetting started with
Blackboard at UO
- JQ JohnsonDirector, Center for Educational
Technologies - University of Oregonjqj_at_darkwing.uoregon.edu
- January 2006
2This presentation
- Blackboard at the University of Oregon
- an introduction for GTFs with minimal previous
blackboard experience - Overview and institutional context
- A students view of a typical course
- How does an instructor use Blackboard?
- Using the gradebook
- Discussion
3What is Blackboard?
- A commercial, web-based Course Management
System - An integrated, easy to use environment offering
wide variety of features for teaching - access control only enrolled students
participate in course - easy web publishing of syllabus, lecture notes,
etc. - asynchronous communication announcements,
threaded discussion, surveys - synchronous communication chat room, virtual
whiteboard - online quizzes, homework submission, and
gradebook - collaborative workgroups
- A UO Library service
4Blackboard usage consistent growth since 1999
- Statistics as of 18 Nov 2005
- 18,029 student users (85 of all students)
- 1172 active fall-term or fall-sem Banner (CRN)
coursesites - 1138 faculty, GTFs, and staff teaching using
Blackboard - Approx. 49,900 fall coursesite enrollments
(estimate more than half of all UO student
credit hours now have a Blackboard component) - Approximately 1,500,000 web server hits/day,
20,000 logins/day
5The UO Blackboard home page --
https//blackboard.uoregon.edu
6Typical UO Blackboard courses
- Courses in almost every discipline
- Large lecture, small seminar, and everything in
between, plus non-course uses - Some use for true distance ed and hybrid
courses, but most supplements face to face - Different instructors use different features
- Different instructors have different pedagogical
goals - Most instructors start slow first term teaching
with Blackboard use only a few features
7Field trip
- A tour of a typical UO coursesite
8Field trip reprise A Blackboard CourseSite
9Field trip reprise Course Documents
10Field trip reprise Lecture Notes
11Field trip reprise Discussion forum
12Field trip reprise Online quizzes
13Blackboard users
- All instructors and students have accounts. Log
in as you would to wireless or to modem pool,
e.g. - Username jqj_at_uoregon.edu
- Password my darkwing/ gladstone password(dont
know your password? https//password.uoregon.edu)
- Data in Blackboard is loaded from banner twice a
day
14Blackboard coursesites
- Coursesites are created automatically for
(almost) all UO CRN courses each term. - Instructors can request a merged site combining
CRNs - UO instructor of record is Blackboard
instructor - Default to unavailable to students instructor
must activate before use - Sites created starting beginning of registration
period for term, then twice a day - Also sites for department (staff) major
(undergrad) by request to courseinfo_at_blackboard
15Getting started
- Instructors edit coursesite via Control Panel
- Add material by filling out forms in web browser
or uploading files - Reuse material by copying a previous version of
the course - Change settings for appearance, functionality
- Invoke instructor tools (email, gradebook, etc.)
- or via EDIT VIEW
16Exercise getting started
- Log in and visit your coursesite control panel
- Create a staff information entry for yourself
- (do other exercises on your own after this
workshop)
17Common Blackboard tasks (that almost every
instructor needs to do)
- Organizing your site
- Adding content
- Posting announcements
- Adding support staff
- Making coursesite available to students (and/or
guests) - Copying material from previous terms
18Common tasks organizing your site
- Site is divided into
- Content areas, which contain folders, subfolders,
items, etc. Each has a button (edit using
Manage Course Menu) - Special areas, e.g. Announcements, Tools
- Divide the site into natural pieces, e.g.,
- Chronologically
- Functionally
- Into content modules
19Organizing your site (continued)
- Think about organization in advance
- Imagine navigation from students viewpoint
- Use folders
- Include pointers
- New material in announcements
- Cross references via course links
- Links to tools (e.g., discussion forums) in
content - Disable features you definitely wont use
20Common tasks adding course content
- Visit a content area in control panel
- Add appropriate content, e.g.
- Item (may include title, explanatory text, and
attachments) - Folder
- etc.
- Once created, content can be modified, removed,
or moved
21Example adding your syllabus as an item with
attachment
- Usually placed in Course Information
- Usually uploaded as an attached copy of the Word
document you hand out, either as .doc or more
often converted to .html
22Item characteristics
- All items and folders (and many other objects)
include - Name (and font color)
- Text (usually optional)
- Smart text (auto processing of URLs, line breaks)
- Can also be plain text or html
- Can also include WebEQ or MathML equations
- Attachments (optional normally shown as a link)
- Options
23Attachments
- Any item or folder may have associated files
- Attachments are copied from your hard disk to the
blackboard server
24Choosing file formats for attachments
- HTML is universally readable, and can be created
- Using MS Words save as web page
- By hand or using custom tools, e.g. Dreamweaver
- .DOC, .XLS, and .PPT can be posted directly, but
- Require students to have appropriate reader
software - Preserve original with full fidelity (a plus and
a minus) - PDF also universally readable
- Create on PC using Acrobat or PDFCreator
- MacOS X has built-in PDF support
- Think carefully before posting specialized
formats - Consider download time
25More content links
- Use Add External Link to create a link to a site
outside of Blackboard (or just use Add Item and
type the URL in the text of the link) - Use Add course link to create a link to another
part of your coursesite. If you copy your
coursesite, the copied link is updated to point
to the corresponding point in the new site.
26More content editing
- After creating an item you can
- Change order of items in a folder
- Modify change name and text, add more
attachments, etc. - Manage control adaptive release, review status,
statistics tracking - Copy move to a different location or site
- Remove delete the item
27Demo adding some coursesite content
- Post syllabus.htm
- Link to an external page
- Create folders in Course Documents
- Upload powerpoint lecture notes
- Create a PDF file, and upload
- Add a teachers assistant
- Set coursesite to available
28Basic gradebook instructor view
- Edit gradebook through Gradebook table (Control
Panel-gtGradebook) - Can enter grades and notes
- Other parts of blackboard that create gradebook
columns - Creating an online assignment
- Creating an online quiz
- Can upload and download grades to excel
29Gradebook student view
- Student sees his/her own grades only Course
Tools-gt View Grades - Also viewable on My UO-gtView Grades
30Add Gradebook items (Assessments)
- Click Add Item
- Type Item Name
- Select Category (no appropriate category? Create
your own in Gradebook Settings-gtManage Gradebook
Categories) - Enter nominal Points Possible
- Select Display As for grades (Score is often
best) - Set available, include in calculation as
appropriate - Click Submit, then OK
31Assessment columns
- All columns have attributes
- How displayed (if at all)
- Included in calculation of totals?
- Points possible (nominal max possible not 0)
- Weight (if weighted)
- Detailed statistics
- Access column attributes via column header in
gradebook
- All cells store either a number (score) or a
string. Display As - Score
- Complete/incomplete
- Percentage
- Letter grade
- Text
- etc.
- Display As controls both input and output
32Entering grades
- Access cells
- By clicking on them individually
- Via column header
- Click the name of item on the top of the column
- Click 'Item Grade List
- Type each students score into corresponding box
(Use Tab key to move from cell to cell) - Enter scores
- As numbers (raw scores)
- As percentages (of pts possible) if output set to
percentage - As letters (translated to score using pts
possible)
33Notes columns
- Columns can also hold text. Useful for
- Notes to instructor and GTFs(set column to
invisible) - Notes to student
- Setup
- Include in score calculations No
- Display as Text
- Make item available to users No
- Beware is B a letter grade or a text note
(with score of 0)? It all depends.
34Online quizzes
- Quizzes consist of
- A set of questions
- A link to the questions in a content area
- A gradebook column that holds all answers and
computes overall score - Create link (and maybe questions) with Add Test
- Many options for question type and mode of
presentation - When student takes quiz, multiple choice
questions are automatically scored and grades
entered - Surveys are similar, but record only aggregate
data and whether student completed it
35Assignments
- Create a homework assignment in a content area
using Add Assignment (pulldown list) - Student accesses this link and uploads Word
document (or whatever) as attachment - Instructor views uploaded document in gradebook,
assigns grade, maybe adds comments - Student sees comments in View Grades or by
returning to the assignment link - N.B. use this tool instead of digital dropbox
36Grading rubrics
- Simplest is to sum raw scores into Total
- All columns have a score, e.g. percent converted
back to score complete/incomplete unchecked if
score is blank - Only include in calculation columns are
included - Points Possible also summed
- Weighted columns
- By item
- By category
- Use Points Possible to indicate full credit for
assessment. - Assign percentage weight for item or category in
total - Special challenges
- drop the lowest score
- Extra credit
37Example rubric and gradebook 1
- SyllabusYour grade will be computed by combining
scores in the following overall categories for a
total of 200 points
- Gradebook
- 4 columns in gradebook, all included in totals
- No weighting
- Points possible set to 60, 20, 120, 0
- Hide Weighted Total column
- Set display of columns to score. Maybe set
Total to letter or add a separate Final Grade
column not included in calculation
38Example rubric and gradebook 2
- SyllabusAll grades will be given as letters
(A-F). Your final grade will be based on the
following
- Gradebook
- 3 columns in gradebook, all included in totals
- Points possible for each set to 100
- Weight by item, with weights set to 30, 20, 50
- Hide Total column
- Set display of columns to letter
- Enter grades as letters
- Extra credit, if any, as part of participation
39Grading gotchas
- Instead of displaying as percentage, consider
points possible 100 then display as score - Enter letters only in columns set to display as
letter (new version of Bb enforces this) - Always set a non-zero points possible if
- Using weighting
- Entering or displaying grades as anything except
score - Beware rounding. Score of 89.5 displays as
89.5, 90, or B
40More gotchas weighted grades
- Once you enable weighted grades, you cant
disable - Weights must always sum to 100
- No obvious way to do extra credit
- If weighting by category, then all items in a
category have same weight the specified weight
is for category as a whole
41More gotchas management
- No way to freeze the first column, so confusing
if you have many columns - If you accidentally click the triangle at top of
a column gradebook will be sorted by that - Be especially careful if multiple people (GTFs)
will be entering grades
42Uploading and downloading gradebooks
- Download from blackboard to .csv file
- View result using Excel
- Useful for
- Complex grade manipulations
- Backup
- Upload of final grades to Banner
- Upload from Excel file (saved as .csv)
- Must use blackboard format edited copy of
downloaded file! - Blackboard prompts for which column and rows to
import, and where to put them in gradebook
43The discussion board
- A general-purpose tool for student participation
- Asynchronous (like email)
- Threaded
- Hierarchical structure
- Discussion board
- Forum
- Thread
- Message
44Setting up a discussion board
- Create forum (or link to existing one) in any
content area using Add Discussion Board
(pulldown list) - Choose appropriate forum settings
- Can control who posts, who manages, what sorts of
posts are allowed, etc. - Admin can remove posts
- Freeze a forum by blocking all users from posting
- Post a message to start a new thread
45Typical uses of discussion board
- Post a question and solicit answers/comments
- Forum for unstructured discussion
- Allow students to post assignments/website
critiques/projects for peer review - Mid-term course evaluation
- Signup sheets
- Brainstorming, test review, Dumb Questions,
FAQ,
46Some further discussion board reading
- UO Teaching Effectiveness web pages
http//tep.uoregon.edu/technology/discussion/enric
hdiscuss.html - Susan Ko, Steve Rossen (2001). Teaching online a
practical guide. Boston Houghton Mifflin. - Marguerita McVay Lynch (2002). The online
educator A guide to creating the virtual
classroom. Routledge/Farmer. - Palloff, R. M. Pratt, K. (1999). Building
Learning Communities in Cyberspace Effective
Strategies for the Online Classroom, Jossey-Bass.
47Common tasks adding course support staff
- We create blackboard accounts for all students,
instructors, and most staff, so your GTF will
already have a blackboard account. We enroll all
instructors and students in the right
coursesites, but don't have information on GTFs,
so instructors must enroll them - Use Control Panel ? Enroll User add your GTF to
site - Use List/Modify Users change role to teachers
assistant - Optional Control Panel ? Staff Information
- N.B. You can't create accounts for non-UO
people.
- In most cases a GTF should be a "teacher's
assistant". Other possibilities - guest -- can only access Course Information, etc.
- student -- just the basics (note, though, that UO
discourages unofficial auditors only add a
student to your coursesite if there is a
legitimate educational reason) - grader -- access to gradebook, but can't add
course documents - course builder -- can add course documents, but
no gradebook access (particularly good for an
undergrad assistant who should not be able to see
other students' grades)
48Common tasks activating your site making it
available to students
- Your site starts out listed as (unavailable)
you can see it, but your students can not - To activate a coursesite, set it to available
(Control Panel ? Settings ? Course Availability) - Until you do this, site is invisible to students!
49Changing guest access
- Guests (including strangers logged in as
preview) can view portions of your site - No guest access ever to private student
information (roster, discussion board, gradebook) - Change access if you wish
- Settings ? Guest Access sets overall access
- Manage Course Menu ? "Modify" allows you to set
guest access for particular areas.
Default allow guest access to course
information, announcements
50Common tasks copying a coursesite (from a
previous term)
- Use Copy button in content areas to copy single
items - Use Course Copy to copy a whole coursesite
- Visit the OLD course control panel
- Click Course Copy, then Copy Course Materials
into an Existing Course - Browse for the destination course
- Select materials to copy (do not copy enrollment
information)
51Developing course materials
- Faculty develop their own materials
- Center for Educational Technologies (Room 19
Knight Library) provides training and resources,
and limited production assistance - Library and Teaching Effectiveness Program
provide additional guidance, especially in how to
use tools effectively for teaching - Some departments assign GTFs or clerical staff to
Blackboard support and development - Library can provide assistance in locating
materials (reference material for students and
learning objects for instructors)
52Helping students use Blackboard
- Most students need no help using basic features
of system - Refer student questions
- Login refer to Computing Center if cant log in
to email - Knight Library ITC (only common problems are
first-time login and realizing that not all
courses use blackboard) - http//blackboard.uoregon.edu/local/help.html
- For distance ed, department must provide
additional tech support - Typical text for a syllabus
- This course uses "Blackboard,"
http//blackboard.uoregon.edu. On the coursesite,
you will find general announcements for the
class, all documents for the course (including
this syllabus), lecture notes, on-line
discussions, links to relevant web sites, and
more. You can get help starting by going to the
Knight Library Information Technology Center
(ITC). - Plan to check the course site at least twice a
week. In addition,
53Blackboard features in widespread use at UO
- Fill in the blanks easy web page creation
(e.g., announcements, annotations) - Posting syllabus and course assignments
- Posting lecture materials (html, MS Powerpoint,
PDF, etc.) - Gradebook (if only for securely distributing
grades to students) - Threaded discussion forum
54Features in moderate use
- E-mail interface
- Online quizzes (usually low-stakes e.g.,
self-assessment), often built using Respondus - Surveys
- Group communication features
- Assignment manager (for student-submitted
assignments) - Student web pages
- Less widely used (so far)
- Chat tools
- Integrated calendar, to-do lists
- Programmed instruction (learning units, SCORM
learning object content, etc.) - Course cartridges (publisher-provided content)
- Rich (locally developed) multimedia content
video, animation, simulation, etc.
55Future plans for the Blackboard system
- New mechanisms for access (course-specific trial
accounts) - Encouraging more use as course content delivery
tool, not just course management hybrid courses - Continued addition of new features
- Controlled release of content
- Better non-Roman language support
- Better online quiz support (computed question
types) - Possibly new modules for blogs and wikis
- LDAP authentication
- More integration with library services, e.g.
e-Reserve, streaming video - More use of modern tools for creating course
content, e.g. WebEQ, Camtasia, Softchalk
LessonBuilder, Respondus
56For more information
- This presentationhttp//darkwing.uoregon.edu/jq
j/presentations/bb-1.ppt - University of Oregon Blackboard site
http//blackboard.uoregon.edu - UO Blackboard help filehttp//libweb.uoregon.edu
/cet/blackboard/help/ - UO Center for Educational Technologies
http//libweb.uoregon.edu/cet/ - JQ Johnson jqj_at_uoregon.edu