Schools use Blackboard, an online teaching and learning platform, to offer online classes for distance learning. Blackboard Inc., which has been involved in online education since 1997, is one of the leading innovators of online learning technology. Designing courses for Blackboard is no different than designing courses to be taught in the classroom. The only real difference between the two is in the mode of delivery of the course content. Classroom courses tend to be lecture or discussion-based, whereas with Blackboard much of the material and communication between professors and students is in text format.
Instructions
1. Determine your time budget. Do not try to set the entire course up in one sitting. Online Blackboard courses take an entire semester to properly set up. After the initial setup, you can tweak the course in the future as needed. Because Blackboard instruction is simply an online format for teaching, determining how much time to devote to your course each week is as essential as it would be in any class. You will be communicating with your students almost daily, so decide how much time you have to devote to that task and then how much time you have for adding content. Stick with your routine once you have it established.
2. Divide your course material into smaller units so that it is easy to manage. You should make your textbook the basis for your course if possible. Your students will all have the same text and this makes an easy point of reference for class activities. Find the natural divisions within the book and use these as the outline for your course. For instance, if you have a 15-chapter book and a 15-week course to teach, you should cover one chapter per week. You can take those 15 chapters and create three five-chapter sections as well as the break points for examinations. Your textbook and its organization will help you immensely if you let it.
3. Use your announcements page to direct your students where they should go. This is the first thing you and your students see when logging into Blackboard, so this is where you should post your communications to the entire class. Be specific about telling them which assignments are next. Students are not good at guessing or anticipating, so be explicit in your instructions. You can also use this page to link to web pages that you may wish to incorporate into your course. Simply insert the proper URL into your announcement, and your students can easily access this material as well.
4. Use either the "Course documents" page or the "Assignments" page, but not both of them. Students need simplicity. Both of these pages accomplish basically the same task--they provide you with a place to post assignments like quizzes and exams. Keep them in one place to keep it simple. A good practice is to use the "Course documents" page to post your syllabus and then post links to quizzes, exams and other material after that. Students can simply scroll down to each subsequent assignment as they navigate through their coursework.
5. Make the discussion board an important part of your course. The discussion board can be used to talk about issues germane to the text material in an online forum involving your students. Assign students a topic and have them discuss it among themselves. Be sure to assign a grade for the assignment so that they will take it seriously, and be sure to participate in the discussion as well so that you can shape and direct it as you need to.
6. Create audio and video lectures whenever possible. Students will appreciate your effort on their behalf. This part takes some technical know-how, so you may wish to consult your school's information technology department for pointers. IT personnel are usually more than willing to help with technical instruction.
7. Create reading quizzes and exams at least three or four weeks in advance. This will keep you ahead of the game as far as adding course content goes and keep your students from having to wait for assignments to post. Most students will not work more than one month ahead at a time.
Tags: your course, your students, much time, quizzes exams, course content, Course documents, Course documents page
