Blackboard+LMS

Blackboard LMS - what do you think of this online learning management system?

Tricia used "WebCT" for a course many moons ago, and found it easy-peasy, however, when she was encouraged to use it as a tool for her own students, she was intimidated. Luckily she and her Allied Health Department colleagues had a wonderful, articulate, beautiful, individual to mentor them throughout the process. Once Tricia became comfortable with the bare minimums, she decided to get adventurous and post a test for her students to do while she was at a conference in a far away land. Little did she know that with the click of one little icon, she would traumatize her class FOREVER. You see, Tricia didn't know that release criteria and "Hide Item" were different. Her poor students searched and searched, but their test was no where to be found. Fortunately Tricia was able to access her accounts from afar and reset the release date and clicked on "Show Item" and her student joyfully completed their test, albeit a day later. Tricia was overjoyed when she learned that Blackboard also created assessment reports to verify the students success rate on each and every question-a great tool for verifying the validity of a test. Now that our adventurous Blackboard user has been sucessful, she anxiously awaits the outcome of her recently organized Blackboard blog as a forum for a debate. Will her students live happily ever after or will Tricia doom them with her reckless use of this fascinating wizardry? Stay tuned...

That Tricia, such an adventurous young lady :-)

I mentor a lot of people at NBCC who are interested in learning how to use Blackboard in their teaching. This morning I worked with someone who has not used Blackboard. I suggested that we //start with the basics// and introduced her to the different tools that are available. Right away she could see the value of posting her course outline with the Syllabus tool and she knew she could make good use of the Calendar. I knew we were on the right track when she said "I will get the hang of this". By the end of the session she had put folders and files on her home page and was thinking about ways to have students submit assignments via Blackboard. She was telling me that some of the benefits would be Blackboard is like any other tool, it has benefits and drawbacks. As Tricia mentioned in her posting above, sometimes the technical details can throw you off. I have been fortunate to have great people around me who help me troubleshoot when I run into difficulty. I have taught many courses fully online and I love facilitating my distance learners to help them reach their goals. I would even go so far as to say that some of the discussions that my students have online are far superior to those we had in the traditional classroom. In my opinion, the best option is to be able to have blended or hybrid courses - a mix of traditional and online learning. Sue Davis
 * everything is in one place
 * students can access information before class
 * students can access files/presentation for review
 * if students submit things online, items do not get lost

I've taken several how-to-use-Blackboard sessions but haven't incorporated it into my course planning at all. Why? First, no time to properly prepare materials for posting. Second, haven't figured out how to manage the equal-access issue: the Engineering Technology programs I teach in are not wired, and these students don't have dedicated computer labs. --Signe

Hi Signe: In a survey I did recently with students in Engineering fifty students took part. Of the 50 who completed the survey, 47 had home computers. So the vast majority have access. The remaining 3 could use labs here or in the library (or at a friends, etc.)

In the same survey the students said that they would like to see better use of technology in their courses. If you would like to see the survey, let me know.

As to preparing materials, not everything needs to be "prepared". You could post handouts, PowerPoints that you presently use in Blackboard and cut your copying to next to nothing. If you need a hand figuring out Blackboard I would be glad to sit down and give you some tips.

Sue