Week 1 - orientation activities

1. Practice with Journal function in Blackboard:

(note to instructors - practice with this is important; students do not understand difference between adding and attaching photos and are not good at choosing appropriate sized images; having images embedded at a reasonable size facilitates grading.)

• Journal: Import an online plant photo of a plant that you use

The goal of this exercise is to help you practice downloading images from the Web, saving the files, and uploading them to Blackboard. See the example in the detailed instructions above to make sure you include everything needed for this exercise. The linked journal help page from Blackboard explains journal entries. For images, don't attach them, instead you need to insert them for journals using the insert button found on the 3rd row, 3rd button from the left and looks like this below:

2. Instructions to upload an image to Padlet.

NOTE TO INSTRUCTORS: Padlet is an easy way for students to share images, text and videos with the instructor and with classmates. There is free version and reasonably priced subscriptions. When I use Padlet for assignment submissions, I assign each student a column (it helps for grading to pre-label their columns with their names in alphabetical order. I usually add a template of what assignment submissions should look like in the first row. Padlet is great if you want students to see each others' work (it helps create a sense that the tasks being required are able to be accomplished, and it helps create a sense of community - students working together. For assignments where student submissions should all be very similar (e.g. a graph of the same shared data set) then Blackboard journals or assignments are better to reduce potential for cheating.

This explains how to upload an image to Padlet:

1. Save the image on your computer. Make sure you know in which folder you saved it.

2. Follow the link given in the Week 1 Detailed Directions above to open the Padlet page using the given password. When you do so, click the plus sign under the "Flowers" or "Leaves" column (you'll do both). Title your image with your First name and Last initial (Kate F) then write a brief description. You can edit your entry by hovering over your entry and selecting the pencil symbol.

3. Click "Upload" symbol (Up arrow) and then "Pick File" at the right of the resulting screen.

4. Navigate to wherever you saved your file on your computer (check downloads if you are not sure). Then click "Open".

5. The image should appear in your column. Add whatever text is asked for.

Laboratory Entrance Survey

We use this linked survey to gauge interest and knowledge; ideally, used as a pre-test/post-test.