Tools for student collaboration in blackboard
Student satisfaction and retention is highly correlated to student interaction. If a student feels isolated he/she is more likely to be dissatisfied, resulting in poor performance and/or dropping out of the course. There are several different ways to facilitate student interaction within Blackboard such as Discussion Boards, Wikis, Blogs, Blackboard IM, Blackboard Collaborate and Groups. In the following sections you will investigate these various tools.
Interactive Tools in Blackboard | |
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Tools Comparion | |
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Blogs - Online Journals with Comments
A blog—a shorthand term that means web log—is a personal online journal. Blogs encourage students to clearly express their ideas. Blogs are an effective means of gaining insight into students' activities and provide a way to share the knowledge and materials collected.
Blogs consist of two elements:
A blog—a shorthand term that means web log—is a personal online journal. Blogs encourage students to clearly express their ideas. Blogs are an effective means of gaining insight into students' activities and provide a way to share the knowledge and materials collected.
Blogs consist of two elements:
- Blog entries: Text, images, links, multimedia, mashups, and attachments added by course members open for comments.
- Comments: Remarks or responses to blog entries made by other course members, including the instructor.
- Course Blogs: You can create a course blog and determine the topic to be addressed. All course members can add blog entries and comment on blog entries.
- Individual Blogs: Each person can add entries only to their own blog. All other course members can view and add comments to it.
- Group Blogs: If you enable the blogs tool for a group of users:
- Group members can add blog entries and make comments on blog entries, building upon one another.
- All course members can view group blogs, but non-group members can only add comments.
Discussion Boards & Journals
Video about Discussion Boards here:
atu.sharestream.net/ssdcms/ip.do?u=8b99bd256ce24cf
Video about Discussion Boards here:
atu.sharestream.net/ssdcms/ip.do?u=8b99bd256ce24cf
Wiki? What's a Wiki?
Wiki. Strange name. Wiki is actually Hawaiian for "quick, quick".
Students use a wiki to collaborate on shared content from different times and locations. Users can create and edit pages quickly while tracking changes and additions, allowing for effective collaboration between multiple writers. They can view previous changes, comment on content or changes, include new content, and revise existing content.
You can create one or more wikis for all course members to contribute to and wikis for specific groups to use to collaborate. Similar to the discussion board, you act as a facilitator instead of the provider of all course content. Unlike a blog, which can be quite personal, wikis require intense collaboration, where information is linked to and built upon.
Wiki? What's a Wiki?
Wiki. Strange name. Wiki is actually Hawaiian for "quick, quick".
Students use a wiki to collaborate on shared content from different times and locations. Users can create and edit pages quickly while tracking changes and additions, allowing for effective collaboration between multiple writers. They can view previous changes, comment on content or changes, include new content, and revise existing content.
You can create one or more wikis for all course members to contribute to and wikis for specific groups to use to collaborate. Similar to the discussion board, you act as a facilitator instead of the provider of all course content. Unlike a blog, which can be quite personal, wikis require intense collaboration, where information is linked to and built upon.
Bb IM
Blackboard Instant Messaging (Bb IM) is an online communication and collaboration interface. Bb IM is tied to your active Bb courses.
You can use IM for virtual office hours, small group interaction or quick tutorial sessions.
It includes a variety of tools:
Blackboard Instant Messaging (Bb IM) is an online communication and collaboration interface. Bb IM is tied to your active Bb courses.
You can use IM for virtual office hours, small group interaction or quick tutorial sessions.
It includes a variety of tools:
- Instant messaging
- Voice Conferencing
- Video Conferencing
- Whiteboard sharing
- Application sharing
- Web sharing
Blackboard IM Intro | |
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Blackboard IM Audio & Video | |
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Before moving onto the next section, name two Blackboard tools you could use in your classroom to facilitate student collaboration. Why would you choose these two tools over others? Share your suggestions with at least one peer.
Utilizing Tools within a group
Groups
One of the most important activities in online courses is student-to-student interaction. If students are not interacting with other students in the class they can feel isolated and alone – many withdraw from online courses for this reason.
Requiring students to interact and share ideas makes the course more interesting and provides a much more realistic environment as few workers in today’s world work in isolation without collaborating and cooperating with others. By using Groups in Blackboard you can organize students to work on group projects. You have several different tools available for groups depending on the group project.
One of the most important activities in online courses is student-to-student interaction. If students are not interacting with other students in the class they can feel isolated and alone – many withdraw from online courses for this reason.
Requiring students to interact and share ideas makes the course more interesting and provides a much more realistic environment as few workers in today’s world work in isolation without collaborating and cooperating with others. By using Groups in Blackboard you can organize students to work on group projects. You have several different tools available for groups depending on the group project.
How to Create a WikiYou can create one or more wikis for use by students in your course. You must create topics before students can add their entries. Wikis can be class-wide or just for groups. Here's how to setup a class-wide group.
- In the Control Panel, expand the "Course Tools" section and select "Wikis".
- On the Wikis listing page, click "Create Wiki" on the action bar.
- On the Create Wiki page, type a name for the wiki.
- Type optional Instructions for the wiki. Format the text and add images, links, multimedia, mashups, and attachments using the functions in the content editor, if needed.
- For Wiki Availability, select the Yes option to make it available to users.
- For Wiki Date and Time Restrictions, you can set a wiki to display on a specific date and time and to stop displaying on a specific date and time.
- Select the Display After and Display Until check boxes to enable the date and time selections.
- Use the pop-up Date Selection Calendar and Time Selection Menu to select dates and times or type dates and times in the boxes.
- Display restrictions do not affect the wiki availability, only when it appears.
- In the Wiki Participation section, select “open to editing” (otherwise your students will not be able to add anything to the page.)
- In the Wiki Participation section, choose open or closed to commenting. This means the student will or will not be able to make comments about the wiki page. If open to commenting, all class members can comment on the page – not just the group of students authoring the wiki.
- In the Grade Settings section, select Grade (and type the number of points possible).
- Select the check box for Show Participants in "needs grading status" and select the number of entries required.
- Click Submit.
How to Create a Blog
You can create one or more blogs for use by students in your course.
- In the Control Panel, expand the "Course Tools" section and select "Blogs".
- On the Blogs listing page, click "Create Blog" on the action bar.
- On the Create Blog page, type a name for the blog.
- Type optional Instructions for the blog. Format the text and add images, links, multimedia, mashups, and attachments using the functions in the content editor, if needed.
- For Blog Availability, select the Yes option to make it available to users.
- For Blog Date and Time Restrictions, you can set a blog to display on a specific date and time and to stop displaying on a specific date and time.
- Select the Display After and Display Until check boxes to enable the date and time selections.
- Use the pop-up Date Selection Calendar and Time Selection Menu to select dates and times or type dates and times in the boxes.
- Display restrictions do not affect the blog availability, only when it appears.
- In the Blog Participation section, select either individual or course.
- An “individual” blog will be created for each student. The individual student is the only one that can post on the blog, but any classmate can comment on the content of the blog.
- A “course” blog allows all students to post to the same blog. It is different from a wiki in that it is time stamped and the order of the contents cannot be rearranged on the page.
- In the Blog Settings section select weekly. Do not allow users to edit and/or delete entries or comments.
- In the Grade Settings section, select Grade (and type the number of points possible).
- Select the check box for Show Participants in "needs grading status" and select the number of entries required.
- Click Submit.
Practice Time
Create a Group Wiki in a Blackboard shell. Visit www.coursesites.com and log in or register. If you don't already have a course available in Blackboard, create one. Then, create Groups for the course. Be sure to include both a Discussion Board and a Wiki for the groups you create.
Journals to facilitate student interaction
Why use a journal?
As stated in an online article in Educause Quarterly, "Reflective learning can aid learners in synthesizing new information, and it is often used to improve reading comprehension, writing performance, and self-esteem via self-examination." Journals need to be more than just a list of what a student did. The writing experience is used to communicate the thinking process: the how and why for each activity and thoughts about the activity at its conclusion.
The journal tool offers students the opportunity to reflect on course content and communicate privately with you.
You can use the tool to gauge understanding and guide students in their knowledge acquisition.
As stated in an online article in Educause Quarterly, "Reflective learning can aid learners in synthesizing new information, and it is often used to improve reading comprehension, writing performance, and self-esteem via self-examination." Journals need to be more than just a list of what a student did. The writing experience is used to communicate the thinking process: the how and why for each activity and thoughts about the activity at its conclusion.
The journal tool offers students the opportunity to reflect on course content and communicate privately with you.
You can use the tool to gauge understanding and guide students in their knowledge acquisition.
How to Create a JournalYou can create one or more journals for use by students in your course. You must create journal topics before students can add their entries.
- In the Control Panel, expand the "Course Tools" section and select "Journals".
- On the Journals listing page, click "Create Journal" on the action bar.
- On the Create Journal page, type a name for the journal.
- Type optional Instructions for the journal. Format the text and add images, links, multimedia, mashups, and attachments using the functions in the content editor, if needed.
- For Journal Availability, select the Yes option to make it available to users.
- For Journal Date and Time Restrictions, you can set a journal to display on a specific date and time and to stop displaying on a specific date and time.
- Select the Display After and Display Until check boxes to enable the date and time selections.
- Use the pop-up Date Selection Calendar and Time Selection Menu to select dates and times or type dates and times in the boxes.
- Display restrictions do not affect the journal availability, only when it appears.
- In the Journal Settings section, select Monthly Index Entries.Allowing students to delete entries is not advised.
- In the Grade Settings section, select No Grading or Grade (and type the number of points possible).
- Select the check box for Show Participants in "needs grading status" and select the number of entries required.
- Click Submit.
Video Tutorial on Setting Up Journals, Wikis, and Blogs
Follow the link here:
http://www.atu.edu/etech/train/creating_blogs_journals_wikis/story.html
Practice Time
Create a Journal assignment in a Blackboard shell. Visit www.coursesites.com and log in or register. If you don't already have a course available in Blackboard, create one. Then, create a Journal assignment for the course.
Embedding Media in blackboard
Various types of media can be embedded into Blackboard to support student learning. These media types include podcasts, SlideShare presentations, and YouTube videos among others. Media offers a way to reach students with diverse learning styles and can be very useful in reinforcing concepts taught in the classroom. Below is a tutorial for embedding media.
Practice Time
Your turn. Enter your Blackboard course and select a content file you that you feel would benefit from a YouTube video. Find the desired video and insert it as an item in the content file.
Practice Time
Your turn. Enter your Blackboard course and select a content file you that you feel would benefit from a YouTube video. Find the desired video and insert it as an item in the content file.