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.

Blackboard's Mashups

Did you know that by simply adding media to your course that you add visual appeal and engage a wider student body?  Adding media to your courses in Blackboard is easy with Mashups!  Triton’s Blackboard Learn supports files from YouTube, SlideShare and Flickr.  Once you intentionally select your media, it only takes a few clicks and automagically, the media is there.  Blackboard offers step by step instructions and the video below for help.

Check out these step by step instructions on how to incorporate Blackboard Mashups.  Prefer to view a video?  Blackboard presents How to Create a Mashups in just over 2 minutes.  

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

On the search for videos

In my last two blogs, we discussed tools that we can use for creating your own videos.  This time I would like to share a few sources for videos and searching tips. The sources are primarily open educational resources (OER) that have licensing designed to make it simple for users to reuse, rework, remix and redistribute materials.  For more information, visit Creative Commons (CC) for a short video with information regarding their open licenses.

So, what are OER?  There are many definitions of OER.  In simple terms, OER are any type of resources (videos, images, tests, software, textbooks and much, much more!) that are in the public domain or licensed to permit free use and re-purposing by others.

Whew…finally, I’m onto the video sources I mentioned earlier. 

YouTube

The best way to find a video that is licensed under the Creative Commons license on YouTube is to use the CC Search tool described above in the General Search and Photo/Image Search sections. Unfortunately, YouTube does not provide a filter or advanced search capability on their home page for finding all YouTube Creative Commons licensed videos. However, http://www.youtube.com/creativecommons lets you see the most viewed and most reused Creative Commons licensed videos.

Tip:  If you are on the YouTube home page and type in your search term followed by a comma and then “creativecommons” the videos returned are CC licensed.  Also, when uploading videos, by default, the licensing is set at “Standard YouTube License”, which essentially means the creator is granting YouTube the right to broadcast the video.  See the Terms of Service (specifically, Section 6.C.) for full details.

Vimeo

Let’s you easily upload and find CC licensed videos.  This site tends to be used by businesses and organizations.

The Internet Archive has a collection of old video and movie footage.  Check out site for old cartoons, sports videos, ephermal films and news footage.

Tip:  This site allows you to download video and you burn them to a DVD or thumb drive to avoid slow internet connection (not that the internet is ever slow!).

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. In 1984, it started out as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The best talks and performances from TED and partners are made available to the world, for free. More videos are added on a regular basis.  All of the talks are subtitled in English, and many are subtitled in various languages. If you’re wondering, there’s an app too!

Do you have any go-to sites for videos?  Please share them with us.

Attribution:  “Video Search” in open4us.org, CC BY 4.0

More Video Tools

Last time, I shared a few ‘video’ tools that I have used.  However, there are many video tools out there.  You may also want to check out the following tools that others have used to create materials for their classrooms, as well as student productions.  Please let me know what you think of them and feel free to share more!

Explain Everything

This iOS, Android and Windows compatible app ($2.99) is an interactive white word and screencasting tool.  Check out these short videos, which highlight the commonly used features.  One example that I found, was that a student recorded how he was trying to balance a chemistry equation.  (Using the 'Explain Everything' App in the classroom YouTube video).  

PowToon

Create animated videos.  The basic features are free. They also have premium features for a cost.  Consider using it as an alternative to PowerPoint.

Vimeo

A video sharing site with multiple levels of membership and yes, there’s a free one too!  Vimeo is comparable to YouTube, but there are some differences.  Do you have a preference?  Let us know what you think.

Any Video Converter

This freeware converts videos to multiple formats and has editing features.  There is a Windows and Mac version. 

I invite you to share a tool and your creation with us (whether you think you're creative or not)!
  

Looking ahead…I’ll share a few tips and resources to search for videos created by others.

Video Tools

The CTE recently hosted a workshop on the Flipped Classroom.  We spent a day eating yummy food and snacks, as well as sharing instructional strategies and modeling a flipped classroom experience.  To supplement the workshop, I thought I’d share three video tools that can be used in a flipped or your current classroom.  I have used these tools in my online courses.  Essentially, screen capture refers to a process that records audio and video components on your computer screen.  (However, it may also refer to a still image of your computer screen.)

Screencast-O-Matic

This is a free web based screen capturing tool for up to 15 minutes of recording time or feel free to purchase for more features.  I use the free version.  Screencast-O-Matic allows video creation in multiple formats (mp4, avi and flv) for uploading to its site or YouTube.

Student Strategies:  

• Use Screencast-O-Matic to provide a video introduction of yourself or a course, whether it’s online, hybrid or face-to-face.
• Need to respond to a student question, but it would take too long to type it out or need to "show it", use this tool to personalize your response or keep it general and use it again later.
• Keep your first video short until you become more familiar with the tools and process.  
• Don’t sweat the small mistakes-the show must go on!

Most of you are already familiar with YouTube.  But…did you know that YouTube has editing capabilities and an automatic text captioning feature?  It’s not perfect-but it’s a start.  You may also upload a transcript.   Check out this YouTube video that quickly walks you through closed captioning.  Also, you can categorize your video files as public, private or unlisted. 

Tech Tip:  Use “Mashups” in Blackboard to easily view and share YouTube videos.

Here’s an example of how I used the videos tool to provide my students a tutorial for formatting Microsoft Word for a College 101 type course.

This is my first attempt at blogging.  I hope you found it helpful.  Is there something you’ve been wondering how to add to your classroom?  Need help with any of these tools?  The CTE is here to help you!  Send an email to cte@triton.edu or call extension 3371. 

Announcing the Blackboard SP12 Upgrade!

Blackboard Learn SP12 has been installed for our Blackboard Learning Management System.  What are some of the new features for faculty?

• The Global Navigation Menu provides one-click access to your Courses, Settings, Blackboard Help, and the new My Blackboard tools.
• A new "My Blackboard" where critical information from all your courses is consolidated in a simple, modern, easily consumable way.  This includes Posts, Notifications, and Grades for students.
• A new and improved Content Editor
• A redesigned Discussion interface
• A completely rebuilt Calendar system which automatically synchs course due dates, supports drag and drop changes, provides customizable views, and can be exported to other third party calendars
• The Retention Center that highlights retention factors and student engagement
• Inline Assignment Grading where you can review and grade student submitted files in the Blackboard environment
• Test Enhancements that improves the design and deployment of tests.

This video will quickly show you some of the new key features that may change the way you work...

There's definitely more to Blackboard Learn!

Triton College Has an App!

Triton College is making Blackboard Mobile Learn available for all Students and Faculty. Now, much of the core content of your Blackboard courses will automatically be available from your mobile device on the free Blackboard Mobile Learn App.

What does this mean for Faculty?

Using the same Blackboard Learn platform you already use to manage your courses, you can quickly and easily disseminate information to your students via their primary means of communication.

Updates that you make to courses loaded onto the Blackboard Learn platform, whether via your computer or your mobile device, will seamlessly sync with the content in the Blackboard Mobile Learn application.

You can now meet the needs and expectations of millennial and non-traditional students, who want to be able to do EVERYTHING on their mobile devices.  The Blackboard Mobile Learn application is available on the following networks and devices:

• Android™ devices
• BlackBerry® smartphone devices
• HP webOS devices
• iPhone®, iPod touch®, and iPad™

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS
////////////////////////////////////////////////

1. Visit the:
   
   • App Store on your iPhone®,iPad™,or iPod touch®
   • Android Marketplace™ on your Android device
   • BlackBerry App World® on your BlackBerry® smartphone device
   • Palm App Catalog on your HP webOS device
2. Search for “Blackboard Mobile Learn”.
3. Install the app.
4. Search for your institution
5. Login to Mobile Learn with your personal credentials.

Questions? Please contact our CTE department at mzicher@triton.edu or ext. 3269 for further assistance or visit Blackboard.com/Mobile for more information.

Click here to see a demo of the software on the different platforms.

Getting Your Blackboard Learn Course Ready for the New Term

We have converted all courses to the Blackboard Learn (9.1) environment. There are a few procedural changes regarding how to copy course content from one course to another, and making the course available to the students at the start of the academic year.

First of all, copying content to a new course involves logging into Blackboard Learn at https://tritonbb.blackboard.com/, opening the old course which is the source of the content, and, by selecting "Packages and Utilities" and "Course Copy" in the Course Management Area. The key items that one must do is:

• Select the new course into which the content is being copied
• Select the Course Menu items that are being copied
• Select the Tools (Blogs, Discussions, Journals, Tests, Rubrics, etc.) that are being copied
• Submit the Copy Course form

Once the course is copied, it is necessary to open the new course and do the following:

• Change dates that were set for any assignments, test, documents, discussions, learning modules, etc.
• Clear out any old discussion postings
• Confirm that the tests are deployed on the proper content pages in within Learning Modules, and, if they cannot be opened, redeploy tests
• Confirm that all external links are opening properly
• Change the Course Entry point to the page that you want the students to see first. The following link will take you to a demonstration on how to set the Course Entry point.

The following procedure explains how to copy existing course content to a new course shell.


In addition, if the course shell for the new term was created in Blackboard CE8 and was a blank shell when converted, the only item in the Course Menu will be "My Grades." If the new course shell was created in Blackboard Learn, you will see in the Course Menu the default links:

• Home Page
• Information
• Content
• Discussions
• Groups
• Tools
• Help

Please delete any of the links that you will not be using.

Finally, it will be necessary to make the course available to the students on the first day of class. The following video from Blackboard explains how to do so: Setting Course Availability. A printable procedure that explains how to do this is available by clicking on Making the Course Available.

Blackboard 9.1

Hello everyone!  Just a short note to keep you up-to-date with the news about our migration to Blackboard 9.1.  We are planning to go "live" with the new platform for the fall term. We will begin the conversion this spring with a pilot group of faculty who will be teaching their summer online courses in the new platform.  Over the course of the summer, IT will be converting CE8 courses to the new release.

As far as getting ready, "What's New?" workshops are currently being held face-to-face as well as online.  To register for these workshops please go to the CTE/PDC Registration System.  In addition, a new set of workshops are being developed for Blackboard 9.1.  The schedule for the new workshops will be published in the CTE Summer Catalog.  I'll be keeping this blog posted regarding our progress, so check here often to see new developments and news.

Blackboard Brown Bag: Managing Discussions

We all appreciate the importance of good discussions in an online course; however, what is the best way to manage discussions? Terry Fencl, one of our most experienced online faculty and an ION instructor, has agreed to talk about managing discussions at a “Brown Bag” workshop on Monday, November 23, 12:30-1:30 in the PDC (E-204).

Please register at the PDC web site.

Please note: Terry Fencl agreed to having her presentation recorded, and, for those of you who couldn't make the session, a video of the workshop is available in the PDC. Contact Marie-Ange Zicher (x3269) for information.

Logging In

Now that we've finally settled into our new space, new term, and new user ids; it's time to really try to launch this blog! We will be posting on PDC activities, using technology at Triton, Blackboard, and "soft" skills like time management, customer service, etc.


Today's post is going to talk about a common login problem that keeps popping up for students and staff. In an effort to minimize keystrokes, people like to bookmark their "Favorite" sites. While it's heartwarming to know that Blackboard is considered a "Favorite" by many of our faculty and students, it is important that the correct page is bookmarked. The first page that one sees when they either select "Blackboard" off of the Quick Links menu on Triton's main web page or when they type in the http://blackboard1.triton.edu/ url is the page with which everyone should start. By clicking the "Login" button on this page, code is executed that prepares the actual login page to operate correctly.


When the actual login page is bookmarked, there is a slight chance that it will work. Typcially one sees cryptic error messages or nothing at all happens. Therefore, if you are going to add our Blackboard login page to your Favorites, please make sure it's the one shown above.