Real Time Rubrics to the Rescue

Would you like to decrease the time it takes to score assignments?  Be more consistent while you grade?  “A rubric is a scoring tool that explicitly represents the performance expectations for an assignment or piece of work.  A rubric divides the assigned work into component parts and provides clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each component, at varying levels of mastery.”  (Carnegie Mellon)  Rubrics provide clear guidelines for the students and instructors.  Rubrics can reduce the time to score assignments, reduce bias, and increase grading consistency.

Blackboard offers a tool that provides a simple integration into Blackboard assignments or for assignments outside of Blackboard.  Here’s a short video on how to create a rubric within Blackboard.

Need help?  We’re ready for you!  CTE offers a workshops on creating rubric, Tips for Effective Rubrics.  Also, Teri Judge is facilitating a workshop on how she successfully implemented rubrics to assess her students’ skill performance.  The Real Time Rubrics workshop is using a flipped classroom strategy approach to identify best practices for creating rubrics to evaluate your students' work.  The workshop will conclude with a hands-on opportunity for you to develop a basic rubric related to that assignment.  Read her article in the November/December 2015 CTE Newsletter, Rubrics-Not so Intimidating After All!  Register for a workshop through the CTEregistration system.

Are you tired of dealing with plagiarism?  Looking for a tool to help you and your students? Safe Assign is a tool in Blackboard that identifies unoriginal content in a paper by comparing the submission to a comprehensive database.  Safe Assign provides an Originality Report with the results including specific sources where the match is suspected.  The files accepted included docx, dox, rtf, ppt, pptx, txt, pdf and html. 

Instructors can take advantage of the Direct Submission feature and submit a paper you have or copy and paste text you believe to be suspicious.  Furthermore, faculty can use Safe Assign to manage plagiarism by helping students detect text that needs to be quoted.

If your students need additional support, the Triton College Library offers plagiarism and citation workshops! Email refdesk@triton.edu to schedule a workshop for your class or encourage your students to attend one of the library’s Master Midterm events.

Check out these instruction on how to create a SafeAssign Assignment  and how to read the Originality Report.  

For more help with this Blackboard tool and may others, stop by the CTE, send an email to cte@triton.edu or call extension 3371.

Web Conferencing

Are you looking for an opportunity to engage your online students?  Enhance classroom instruction with live guests?  Conduct virtual meetings or office hours?  Blackboard Collaborate is a web conferencing tool that will allow you interact with students and colleagues. 

Personally, I use a web conferencing tool to hold a “live chat” during every week of my online courses to review materials, answer questions and hold discussions.  Furthermore, in the CTE we use it to hold division meetings and monthly faculty meetings.  The opportunities are endless!  

Check out this video for more details:  Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing Orientation for Moderators!  

We are holding regular training sessions for Collaborate this fall.

• Monday, August 31, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
• Tuesday, September 8, 10:00 – 11:00 am
• Wednesday, October 14, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
• Thursday, November 19, 3:00 – 4:00 pm

For help with this tool and many others, stop by the CTE, send an email to cte@triton.edu or call extension 3371.

Tell your students about Smarthinking

Tell your students about Smarthinking

Smarthinking is an online tutoring service that Triton makes available to its students, and it now has an app! 

Smarthinking provides tutoring in mathematics (basic math through Calculus including Bilingual Math), Biology, Human Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Economics, Accounting, Finance, Statistics, Spanish, Writing, Reading, and its own technical support. Please join one of the following sessions to learn more about this service and the ways in which it can help your students succeed.

• Tuesday, Aug. 11, 1:00, 3:00 or 6:00 p.m.
• Thursday, Aug. 27, 1:00, 3:00 or 6:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, Sep. 16, 1:00, 3:00 or 6:00 p.m.
• Tuesday, Sep. 29, 1:00, 3:00 or 6:00 p.m.

Register for the session of your choice at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/2223425084930371073. You will receive a confirmation email with information for joining your selected session.

For more information about Smarthinking, visit  http://www.smarthinking.com/

Smart Notebook 14

Triton is installing a new version of Smart Notebook on the Smart Boards across the campus.  Already installed on 13 of our newer Smart Boards, Smart Notebook 14 includes a number of exciting features.  Watch the video below for a taste of what's coming.



Smart Notebook 14 has improved math functionality through the new Smart Math Tools powered by Geogebra! Write equations, create interactive graphs, and use new Smart Board features that are available for all levels of math instruction and for disciplines that use equations and graphs. Watch the video below to see these new math features in action.



Two of our Math Faculty will be facilitating "Smart Board - Math Tools" workshops on Monday, April 27 and Tuesday, April 28 from 2:00 - 3:30 in the Faculty/Staff Computer Lab (E-210W). Come and be sure to bring lots of questions!

To register, please go to http://www.triton.edu/cte and click on the "Click here to register..." link.

321 Free Tools for Teachers

What's in your teacher toolbox?  I know that overtime we accumuluate various tools, some are free and some we had to purchase.  A few of these tools we continue to use, but some of them, are outdated. Well, this is an excellent time to update your toolbox!  Here’s a recently posted list of 321 free tools for teachers categorized in 18 educational technology areas, including tools for creating infographics, text to speech, digital storytelling, podcasts, survey, polls and quizzes, screen capturing, social bookmarking, bibliography and citation, sticky notes, photo and image editing, testing and quizzing, web conferencing, authoring, annotation, video, PDF, Royalty free and Creative Commons music, and stock photos.  They’re all available in the article, 321 Free Tools for Teachers on eLearning Industry’s website.

Open Educational Resources LibGuide

Do you often find yourself asking, “Can I include this image in my presentation? Do I have permission to share this video in my Blackboard shell?” Learn the basics of Open Educational Resources (OER) and how to access free, sharable images, audio files, course texts, recorded lectures and more using the newly created OER LibGuide. Created by Triton College Librarian Lauren Kosrow and Instructional Design Specialist Sara Gallagher, this online guide is an introduction to OER for faculty, students and staff who are interested in incorporating OER into teaching and learning.  And don’t forget that there are more LibGuides on many subjects available, and you can work with the library to create LibGuides specifically for your courses. For more information about LibGuides, contact Lauren Kosrow Ext. 3478 or laurenkosrow@triton.edu.

For more help with this tool and many others, stop by the CTE, send an email at cte@triton.edu or call extension 3371.