Author: Fallon Saratovsky

Happy New Year! And: Getting updates through “Subscribe” for Blackboard discussions

All of us at OFDIT wish you a happy new year and hope you have had enjoyable holidays. May 2016 be a successful teaching year for all of you.

Starting last year, SPS is now also offering a 3-week winter session. When teaching an intensive course over such a short time, it can be especially challenging to keep up with new Discussion Board posts in your Blackboard course site. One solution for both you and your students is to use the Subscribe option offered for individual discussion forums. By enabling this feature — and subscribing to either entire forums or particular threads — you will receive an email every time someone in your course posts a new entry.

Aside from using this feature in an intensive course, where being responsive to students’ questions is even more time-sensitive than usual, it can also be helpful to enable subscriptions for forums such as “Q&A” or “Ask Your Instructor” in any of your spring or fall course sites.

Here is how to make subscription an option for yourself and your students:

1) On your course site, go to the discussion board.

DB dropdown menu2) Hover over the title of the discussion forum you’d like to enable Subscribe, click the downward arrow and select “Edit” from the menu.

3) On the next page, scroll down to “Subscribe” options.

DB allow subscriptions4) Here you can allow subscriptions to either the entire forum (recommended for Q&A forums, for example), or to specific threads within the forum. You can also choose to either include the body of the post in the email, or simply a link to that post.

DB subscribe5) Back on the Forum page you will now see the option to Subscribe on the banner above the list of threads. Make sure to click it to receive email notifications, and to let your students know about this option as well.

6) If you ever want to stop receiving these emails, simply click Unsubscribe.

Please note, after receiving an email reminder you will still need to log into Blackboard to leave a post or reply.

We have also created a new quick guide with more detailed step-by-step instructions for your reference.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions about this, or any other Blackboard features: Sarah Kresh and Antonia Levy

 

Troubleshooting Final Grades Calculation Brings Vacation Closer

happynewyearThe end of December signals the approach of the New Year. OFDIT hopes to help instructors manage their workload and bring those celebrations even closer with the publication of new Quick Guides explaining how to easily tabulate students’ final grades using either Total Column or the Weighted Total Columns.

Both guides outline which settings to check to guarantee that your students’ grades are accurate and easy to report.  Generally speaking, final grades correspond to the percentage of points students have earned relative to the number of point possible. In Blackboard, there are two ways you can calculate final grades: either by using Total Points and by setting up a  Weighted Total.

A Total Column calculates final grades by simply adding up all of the points a student has earned and dividing it by the total number of points possible in your course. In other words, the weighting of assignments is done by assigning a different number of points possible per assignment. For example, a paper worth 100 points counts more toward a student’s final grade than a quiz worth 10 points.

In contrast, a final grade calculated using the Weighted Total is based on the respective percentages you assign to various columns and categories of assignments. When setting up the Weighted Total column, you’ll determine the weight of either a column (i.e. a single assignment, such as the Final Paper), or a category (i.e. a group of assignments, such as discussions or quizzes). A Weighted Total is calculated independently of the actual points an assignment is worth. For example, in a scheme where essays are weighted to comprise 25% of the final grade and quizzes 10%, a paper worth 10 points and a quiz worth 10 points would have different values (weights) for the final grade. The Weighted Total quick guide walks instructors through the process of making sure their calculation is properly arranged to compute accurate grades.

Whichever method you use to calculate your grades, OFDIT can help. We are offering targeted training on this precise issue via our Brown Bag Bytes lunchtime workshop series. To register for these or other trainings please sign up here, or fill out our form for one-on-one training.

Happy New Year and Happy Grading!

Dominique & Antonia

Invitation to “Accessibility as Good Pedagogy: Universal Design for Inclusive Learning”

Come out and join the Office of Faculty Development and Instructional Technology in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We honor this milestone with a webinar on how to make teaching and learning accessible to students with diverse educational needs.wordcloud accessibility

Accessibility as Good Pedagogy: Universal Design for Inclusive Learning
Wednesday, 12/2/2015 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM ET

Please register here even if you cannot attend the live webinar. A recording will be available to all registrants.

I am happy to co-facilitate the webinar with Christopher Leydon from the Office of Student Services. In this presentation and Q&A session we will introduce the principles of universal design for learning (UDL) and how their use not only accommodate students with disabilities but also benefit other diverse populations within the SPS faculty and student body. The importance of these practices lies not only in the requirement to make our educational environments inclusive, but in their ability to help us as effective educators.

Please register here. We look forward to you joining us next week!

Teaching Tip: VoiceThread introduces threaded comments

If you have used VoiceThread in your course then you already know that it is a great tool for creating a discussion around a multimedia presentation, a PowerPoint slide show, a song, or even just a page of text. Recently VoiceThread introduced a few new ways for participants to interact with VoiceThread slides: direct replies, threaded replies, and private replies.
comments in VT

  • Direct replies allow you to click on a comment and have your reply appear directly below that comment, instead of putting your response at the very bottom of the comments bar.
  • Threaded replies are like direct replies, but they start a thread from the original comment and they are visually distinct so you can see who is participating in a particular thread of comments.
  • Private replies are recommended for individual feedback or for private “sidebar” conversations between VoiceThread participants.

See this VoiceThread video for a short overview of these new reply options.

Here’s what a thread of replies looks like:

VoiceThread threaded repliesAllowing threaded replies is not a default setting in VoiceThread. Here’s how to enable them:

  • On your VoiceThread Home screen, hover over the VoiceThread in which you want to enable threaded commenting, and select Edit in the lower left corner.
  • On the next screen, click on the blue pencil on top to edit the VoiceThread settings. In the window that opens, select the Playback Options tab and tick “Enable threaded commenting.”

The threaded reply icon will now be available when participants click on a comment.VoiceThread add threaded replyIf you have any questions about replies (or any other feature) in VoiceThread, please feel free to contact Sarah Kresh or Antonia Levy.

Fall: Sweaters, Pumpkins, and Video Bootcamp!

It’s that time of year again, SPS Faculty: warm layers, the return of all-things-pumpkin, and the Office of Faculty Development and Instructional Technology helping you to bring tech innovation to your teaching.

Sarah Kresh & Dominique Nisperos, our new ITAsAs we enter the fall season we are also happy to welcome our two newest Instructional Technology Assistants, the indomitable Sarah Kresh and Dominique Nisperos who are joining us from the CUNY Graduate Center programs in Linguistics and Sociology respectively. They look forward to sharing their knowledge and helping you to create the best possible experience to your students.

We begin October with new sessions on how to make your course content accessible and dynamic. If you are new to video-lectures, fear not! If you’re a seasoned video vet, you can take your skills up a notch. Sign up for our Course Video Bootcamp (Oct. 26 – Nov. 2), and in just over a week we will get you on track to produce hauntingly engaging videos that your students will scream over! This bootcamp is learner-focused and will be adapted to beginners and experienced video-makers alike.

We are also kicking off a new endeavor this fall semester: In our training Making Your Course Accessible to All, we will introduce the principles of Universal Design in Learning and explain how a few considerations help ensure that all students can understand, navigate, and contribute to your online courses. Register today!

And don’t forget our weekly online TechHelp Drop-In Hour on Wednesdays from 6-7pm EST in case you’d like some immediate one-on-one support.

Join us! We are looking forward to working with you in trainings that are all treats, no tricks.

Faculty Development Day 2015

Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners: Incorporating Universal Design and Adult Learning Principles into our Teaching

Friday, April 24, 2015

For Faculty Development Day 2015 we have chosen to address two topics related to supporting our learners: adult learning principles and universal design in online/hybrid learning.

At SPS, we have a high percentage of adult learners. A greater awareness of adult learning principles can enable faculty to make teaching and learning more effective and stimulating for our students.

The goal of universal design in education is making learning spaces – rooms as well as online courses – foster learning for diverse learners of different capabilities, abilities, and preferences. This means that we not only try to eliminate barriers, but actually strive to find approaches that will make learning effective for all learners. For example, adding captions to a video may help a student who is blind, but it may also enhance the learning of a student who can read what is being said rather than simply watching. While accessibility issues may seem a specialized area, all faculty can benefit from knowing how universal design principles can be incorporated into course design and content preparation.

Our early morning session will focus on adult learning principles while our lunchtime panel of faculty, students and staff will introduce and then address issues of universal design in online/hybrid courses. We will again offer labs in morning and afternoon on two topics. One lab will provide a hands-on opportunity for faculty to learn how to apply universal design principles to both the design of their course sites as well as the format of course materials. The other lab will focus on the Content Collection in Blackboard, specifically on how to organize and manage your course content area folders, and how to collaborate and share content with other faculty.

Faculty Development Day will take place at 119 West 31st St., Friday April 24th from 9am – 3:30pm. This on-site event is open to and appropriate for all SPS faculty, whether teaching face-to-face, online or hybrid courses. Faculty are welcome to attend any or all sessions during the day, but we ask you to register and to indicate your preferred lab session and whether you are joining us for lunch, so that we are able to accommodate as many faculty as possible.

SCHEDULE

 

9 – 9.15 am Coffee and check-in Room 407, 4th floor
9.15 – 9.30 am Greetings Room 407, 4th floor
9.30 – 10.30 am Plenary Session: “Adult Learning Principles”
Discussion and hands-on activity		 Room 407, 4th floor
10.30 – 10.45 am Break
10.45 – 11.55 am
Morning Labs 		(1) Designing an Accessible Online Course
or
(2) Introduction to the Content Collection in Blackboard		 Room 322, 3rd floorRoom 306, 3rd floor
12 – 2 pm Lunch & Lunch Panel (from 12.15 – 1.45pm)
“Perspectives on Universal Design and Accessibility in Online /Hybrid Courses”		 Room 407, 4th floor
2 – 3.30 pm
Afternoon Labs		 (1) Designing an Accessible Online Course
or
(2) Introduction to the Content Collection in Blackboard		 Room 322, 3rd floorRoom 306, 3rd floor

Questions, please contact Susan Ko: susan.ko@mail.cuny.edu

Faculty Development Day 2014

Raising the Bar: New Approaches and Tools for Teaching and Learning

March 28, 2014

Hold the date of March 28, 2014 and register below for our faculty development day workshop event organized around the theme of continuous innovation and improvement of instruction. Activities will include a morning plenary session, a lunchtime panel, a lab session to get better acquainted with some features of Blackboard Enhanced and another lab to explore various multimedia tools for your courses. You can attend as many sessions as you like at our new offices at 119 West 31st St. during the 9:00-3:30 pm schedule.

Our morning plenary session will set the stage for the day’s events as we consider the how and the why of new approaches and tools for teaching and learning. As part of our lunchtime panel, “What are students telling us about the course experience?” we will have a chance to hear some feedback on the course experience from students and those staff who engage with students in a variety of contexts, and to discuss faculty perspectives on these issues.  In the labs (each of the two is offered in morning and afternoon sessions), faculty will have an opportunity to explore some special features of Blackboard Enhanced and to become familiar with a number of multimedia and interactive tools that the Office of Faculty Development and Instructional Technology will be supporting.

This on-site event is open to and appropriate for all SPS faculty, whether teaching face-to-face, online or hybrid courses. Faculty are welcome to attend any or all sessions during the day, but we ask you to register and to indicate your preferred lab session and whether you are joining us for lunch, so that we are able to accommodate as many faculty as possible.

Where: 119 West 31st St, 4th floor (registration checkin, plenary session and lunch) and 3rd floor computer labs, t.b.a.

SCHEDULE

9:00-9:25 am Welcome and Introduction
9:30-10:45 am Plenary Session: “New Approaches for Student Engagement in Online Learning”

Discussion and hands-on activity
10:45-10:55 am Coffee Break
11 am-12:25 pm

Morning Labs

 Blackboard Enhanced: Managing your course more effectively and efficiently

    OR

Multimedia and Interactive Tools
12:30-1:50 pm Lunch 12:30

Panel starts 12:45
2:00-3:30 pm

Afternoon Labs

 Blackboard Enhanced: Managing your course more effectively and efficiently

    OR

Multimedia and Interactive Tools

Questions, please contact Susan Ko: susan.ko@mail.cuny.edu

Teaching Tip: Rubrics for Teaching and in Blackboard–Some Resources

Scoring or grading rubrics are a way to analyze, assess, and provide feedback to students on assignments.  By providing a set of descriptive categories and criteria for evaluating student work, not only is grading made more efficient, but students are also provided with guidelines as they plan and complete their assignments.

For an introduction to rubrics, you might want to review the following articles and web resources:

  • Mertler, Craig A. (2001). Designing scoring rubrics for your classroom. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(25). http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=25    (Note: While Mertler provides some examples at the end from K-12, the principles and step-by-step procedures enunciated here are relevant for higher ed as well. )
  •  Moskal, Barbara M. (2000). Scoring rubrics: what, when and how?. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(3). http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=3
  • DePaul University Office of Teaching, Learning and Assessment webpages on Assessment and Rubrics—short explanations and additional resources at http://condor.depaul.edu/tla/Assessment/AssessmentRubrics.html

 

While rubrics can be constructed as separate documents and housed with the syllabus and other course information documents, with Blackboard 9.1, we also began to have a way to connect rubrics so that they can become part of the Blackboard grade center processes.

The following are resources for learning how to deploy rubrics with Blackboard’s grade center:

“How-to” quick guides:

  • Using Rubrics
  • Creating a Rubrics Content area

both available at our faculty tutorials page at http://sps.cuny.edu/ofdit/blackboardtutorials.html

Video tutorials:

Rubrics—covers setting up of rubrics, https://tegr.it/y/kf06  (this is housed on our tutorials page as Bb Essentials Part 8 at http://sps.cuny.edu/ofdit/blackboardessentials.html#part8)

Runs about 6 minutes, Video format: Tegrity

Rubrics—covers setting up and grading with rubrics, adding individual feedback to rubrics, https://media.sps.cuny.edu/filestore/1/5/0/5_4cc1836429498d8/1505_1cc19f80222e389.mp4

Runs about  4 minutes. Video format: Quicktime (Note: Contains a reference to other video tutorial “in this folder” which is actually the Tegrity video listed above this one)

There are also several short video recordings on the Bb 9.1 tab help website–look under User Guides>Assignments, Tests and Grades>Grade Center

Teaching Tip: Using Collect Feature in Blackboard to Organize Discussion Posts

Blackboard’s discussion boards contain a number of features that can help faculty to navigate and organize their review of student postings and their own postings as well as contribute to better time management. One of these is the “Collect” feature. This allows you to select a set of messages to read on one screen as a continuous conversation rather than limiting you to reading one message on a screen. Using this feature means you can save time and provides continuity as you read a particular set of messages.  You may want to read an entire thread this way, or just those from a particular student.

To learn more about Collect and other organizing features in the discussion, see our quick guide, Viewing and Navigating Discussions at http://sps.cuny.edu/filestore/1/5/5/1_6f54b32cb951a62/1551_9c7f3d600281155.pdf

 

Code for Change: Student-to-student text book exchange challenge

Paul Russo, Ph.D., our Director of Online Programs, is working with a team of current CUNY students and graduates to develop a free student-to-student text book exchange as part of the ApplicationsforGood hackathon sponsored by the Motorola Mobility Foundation, Center for Social Innovation, Blue Ridge Foundation, and New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.

While textbooks represent 17% of tuition costs in various majors, the team believes that there are simple ways in which technology can make books more affordable. Their application—much like other online communities such as Match.com or Craigslist—combines the broad reach of the Internet with the benefits of local face-to-face interactions. Focusing on urban areas such as NYC, offers the project access to a critical mass of potential users, which is necessary to make participation valuable to all textbook swappers.

The team is committed that the bookswap will “student owned” and “student operated” following the OpenSource model, to ensure future use will have only “student friendly” policies. Their model is also distinct from other services such as Amazon.com because the primary mode of exchange is student-to-student swapping or monitored low cost reselling, so there will be no high markups or shipping costs. The group says that over time, they are interested in adding more functionality to the site such as links to affordable housing, health services, and various types of student discounts.

The group currently has a working prototype, and as the next version of the platform comes online, Russo hopes there will be interesting research opportunities or chances for students to study the system as part of a capstone project. To learn more about their plans for the textbook exchange, see: http://applicationsforgood.org/challenges/university-students-local-text-book-exchange-challenge.