Resetting Your Blackboard Course? Keep Track!

If you're preparing for the next semester by resetting your Blackboard course, updating the calendar, changing due dates on assignments, hiding future discussion topics, and so on, it's a good idea to keep a list of what you've done (and what needs doing).

Depending on the complexity of the course, it's easy to forget all the resets and tweaks that needed to be made in preparation for last semester. In the midst of doing the reset it's been easy for me to say, "Well, I need to update the calendar. Surely I won't forget that!" But then I do; that simple task gets lost in the welter of all the other details that need tending to.

As the ghost said to Hamlet, "List, list, oh list!" It's good advice.

Productivity Alert: Ta-da List

The number of so-called Web Apps (Web applications, or programs that you can access through a browser) is growing exponentially. One that has proven most useful is one of the simplest, the Ta-da List (from a company called 37Signals). As with most Web Apps, it's entirely free, though you do need to set up an account (which takes just a few seconds).

The Ta-da List allows you to create to-do lists and check off items as you complete them. It's accessible from any computer connected to the Internet as well as phones (like the iPhone) that have browsers.

What's useful is that the Ta-da List enables you to put all your to-dos in one place and check them off or simply delete them. Here's an example:

You can create additional lists or rename old lists and reorder individual to-do items. Nothing fancy here, but the Ta-da List is great for entering spur-of-the-moment items related to classes or your personal life. I've used it over a year now, I think, and have added it to one of my browser tabs (I'm using Firefox 2, but Internet Explorer 7 also supports tabs). That way, every time I start my browser my to-do list is right there.

Productivity Alert: OneNote 2007

I'm a big fan of Microsoft's OneNote 2007, part of the company's Office suite, especially in the way it helps organize materials I use for my online classes.

The software is available free on District computers, but Butte College faculty and staff can also obtain the entire set of Office programs (including OneNote) to use at home for around 50 to 80 dollars through the Foundation for California Community Colleges. Click here for details.

In OneNote I first created a set of section tabs for each class, as well as a "boilerplate" tab for generic text, such as orientation information or announcements of new content posted online. I also made tabs for keeping notes to myself about the courses, including my impressions on whether certain assignments were effective and even a list of typos to correct and adjustments to make next semester. Here's what the tabs look like:

Next, for each tab, I created multiple pages on which to store information, comments, or quotes (from student postings or outside sources) that would be useful in responding to students, either as a class or individually. For instance, one page could contain notes to myself about what points to look for as I'm grading short-answer writing assignments. Here's what some of the pages look like for my Eastern Religions course:

 

When I'm ready to use OneNote, I simply open it and click on the appropriate class tab, then log into Blackboard and begin working. If your monitor is large enough, you can park the OneNote window off to the side as you work on your course, then click on the OneNote page you need as you go along.

My Bout with Craplets

Walt Mossberg, the Personal Technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, frequently warns buyers of new PCs that consumer models come packed with a host of software come-ons he calls "craplets." His October buying guide column, available here, spent a paragraph on those little nasties.

I had occasion this holiday season to get some first-hand experience with craplets in a brand new Sony Vaio laptop with Vista Home Premium. This is not to pick on Sony, though, since most all computer manufacturers (save Apple) do the same thing.

In order to get the new machine set up the way I wanted it, the first order of business was craplet removal. Most of the icons on the desktop pointed to trialware: software that's installed but can only be used for a limited time (usually 30 days) before it either ceases to work or you ante up to purchase it. Microsoft office was among the crowd, along with anti-virus Norton 360. There were a host of services and third-party media tools, too, all of which I wanted off the machine.

Getting rid of most of the trialware ended up taking several hours. Apparently one of the installed third-party applications had changed the Windows registry (deep in the catacombs of the operating system) so that, out of the box, the computer's DVD player was not recognized. I went online, found several discussions of the issue, and learned that I had to perform a registry hack, deleting some cryptic numbers in an operation better suited to a skilled surgeon.

Eventually my ministrations proved successful. But then I discovered something else. New computers don't come with system restore disks (in case something major goes wrong with Windows); instead, a pristine copy of the computer's software is stored, tucked away, in an obscure corner of the hard drive. Should the computer ever need to be restored, it can be done pretty simply.

But wait. As I poked into that shadowy corner of the hard drive, I saw copies of all the craplets I had just deleted. Then it dawned on me: a full system restore brings the computer back to way it came out of the box. That means all the craplets would be reinstalled and I'd have to remove them all over again, even those whose "free trial" offers might have expired long ago.

What does any of this have to do with TMI @ Butte College? Well, the obvious answer is that as my experience is repeated in households of faculty, staff and students, all dealing with the joys and frustrations of new computers, we need to comfort one another. The student support Help Desk and we in TMI faculty support will do the best we can in helping to resolve some of the technical issues so everyone can use our campus learning technologies to their best advantage.

Meantime, if you've had to struggle with new computer issues, please know that you are not alone.

Closing the Pedagogical Loop in Blackboard

THE ISSUE

For years now I've required my online students to make substantial postings to threaded discussion topics. In order to earn a grade, students must post a thoughtful response to my topic question and then respond substantively to at least one other posting.

When the discussion was due I would read all of the postings, assign individual grades (easy to do in Blackboard) and then write an email to the class summarizing what I had read. Often I'd include anonymous quotations from posts that illustrated a point I was making. In my email I'd try to build on insights from the class discussion and encourage students to think more deeply about the issues raised.

But once I'd sent the email the class moved on to the next discussion. I didn't know whether students were helped by my comments. I didn't know whether students actually thought more carefully about the topic or whether they may have changed their mind about the position they had taken.

Was there a way to find out?

I think so. In the fall 2007 semester I added a series of journal assignments to some of my online courses. Journal entries are seen only by the student and the instructor. I created a journal in Blackboard for each discussion topic, and required students first to read the email summary I sent for a given topic and then to re-read their own postings and answer a series of questions posed in the email in light of what they read. Each journal entry was graded.

THE RESULT

Students seemed to embrace the assignment, often writing far more in the journal than in the original postings. More to the point, their journal entries showed not only their reading of my summary email but a revisiting of their own postings. Some students took issue with my email comments, and said why; others wrote that they had changed their mind or point of view as a result of reading my email to the class. Still other students said they had been mistaken, and took the time to correct themselves.

Their understanding of the subject matter seemed to improve overall, leading to slightly better grades. It was evident that students were gratified at the time I spent looking at their postings and interacting with their ideas, and pleased that they had a chance to amend their original comments using their journals. Since my summary emails were sent out a week or two after the postings assignments were due, revisiting older postings provided students a good refresher.

As you might guess, the journal assignments created about a third more postings to read and grade each week. But the benefits to student learning and success outweighed the increased work load. As I read the journals, sometimes I saw students begin to understand unfamiliar ideas in ways I had not seen in the class discussions. That was certainly gratifying; the whole journal process seems to me to close the "pedagogical loop" in helping students become more self-reflective.