Blended Learning with Blackboard Ÿ Spring 2015 Institute

The Blended Learning with Blackboard institute is focused on enhancing online design elements to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and overall quality of your face-to-face or hybrid course or virtual community. By the end of the institute participants will:

• Critically apply course design effective practices to the target course

• Assess and align Blackboard tools with target course content and objectives

• Design and deploy a variety of communication items in the target course

• Design and deploy a variety of assessment activities for the target course

The Blended Learning with Blackboard institute will begin with a three day intensive kickoff event at the MSJC Academy January 12-14, 2014. During the kickoff event, participants will receive a variety of instruction on the topics listed below. After completing the kickoff event, participants will meet four times during the Spring semester to continue the design and development process. Throughout the semester participants will create deliverables related to the institute objectives and capture formative feedback related to the blended learning strategies implemented. At the end of the semester participants will work together to develop a showcase presentation for the August 2015 MSJC Academy.

Topics to be covered:

Getting your Bearings: Learning to Successfully Navigate Blackboard

Participants will be introduced to the Blackboard system, become comfortable with the system layout, navigate the environment as both instructor and student, become comfortable with the interface including the use of Action Links, Contextual Menus and buttons as well as learn where to find help & support.

From the Foundation Up: Utilizing Effective Course Design to Build

In this session, participants plan the course structure to align with course content. Participants will be introduced to different instructional design models and online teaching effective practices and will utilize Blackboard tools and features including content areas, tool links, URLs, and Course Links to build and add content while structuring the added content using custom course menu links, Folders and Learning Modules.

Staying Connected: Using Blackboard Communication Tools

In this session, participants will plan a course communication strategy to ensure regular effective contact and learn how to utilize Blackboard communication tools to implement that strategy. Participants will promote interaction, reflection and collaboration through the use of tools such as the Discussion Board, Blog, Journal, and Wiki. Additional resources for fostering community, along with how these can be integrated with blackboard, will also be briefly discussed.

Moving Beyond Paper & Pencil: Assessing Learners Digitally

In this session, participants will explore the different assessment tools in Blackboard including how to: create assignments with in-line grading, deter plagiarism with SafeAssign, create and deploy Tests and Surveys, as well as learning about the value of features for managing questions using Pools and Random Blocks. Lastly, participants will be introduced to the Grade Center as it relates to completing the assessment process.

Monitoring Student Success: Delving Deeper into the Grade Center

The Grade Center in Blackboard Learn is more than just a way to record students' grades. It is a dynamic and interactive tool, allowing you to record data, calculate grades, and monitor student progress. In this session participants will learn how columns are created, and how to enter grades in the system. In addition, attendees will learn how to customize the grade center view using color coding, grading periods, and filters as well as learning about how Blackboard calculates totals.

Making Data-Driven Decisions: Using Blackboard Performance Monitoring

Participants will explore how Blackboard performance monitoring features, found in the Performance Dashboard and the Retention Center, can provide information about user progress and activity in the course based on preconfigured rules and rules created by you. These tools allow you to quickly identify students who are potentially at risk. From the Retention Center, you can communicate with struggling students and help them take immediate action for improvement.

Do you think this sounds like something you’d be interested in participating in? If so, complete the application online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BLwBb-15SP.

Please submit your application by December 15, 2014 to be considered for selection.

There will be a small stipend for those who complete the semester long institute. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact astirling@msjc.edu.