Engaging Students Visually for Better Outcomes

Check out link below to view the intro video for "Engaging Students Visually for Better Outcomes" that will be held at the Professional Development Day next week.

Part  1.

Learn how to get the best of up-to-date story elements, lesson training, social media and other content into your course quickly. Shave hours off of your development time and give your course content that is relevant and easy to create. Organize and use content assets across courses and share them with others in your department or across campus.

Part  2.

Create animation videos quickly and easily, and then share them with you students. This is more than sewing images together into a slideshow, or narrating over existing material. You can literally sit down at your computer and produce great-looking animation videos from scratch - within minutes - without having to draw or operate a camera.

Depending on time constraints we will then continue with easy to use imaging editing tools that can assist you in creating dynamic pictures for your courses. 

No prior experience necessary for all training.

Blackboard 9.1 Tip: Create a Test in Excel-Upload to Blackboard

Typing test questions in excel and uploading them to blackboard is an easy and quick feature added to blackboard 9.1. You can type in an excel several types of questions in excel, save your file (Tab delimited) (*.txt) format and upload the file to blackboard through the test canvas.

-   Open Microsoft Excel, type in your questions as in the following example

First column(A) in the excel sheet identifies the question type ; for example  type MC is for multiple choice and TF is for true or false The second column (B) is the question text. Type in the question The third  column (C) is for the answer For multiple choice question the fourth column (D) will indicate if the question is correct or incorrect- You need to type in correct or type incorrect. Following Columns will include the answer, followed by the column   indicating if the question is correct or incorrect.

-When you have finished your test questions, from excel file menu select save as  

-Type in the name of the test and In the Save as type, from the drop down menu select Text (Tab Delimited), and then click Save

- To upload the test questions to blackboard- From within your course shell Control Panel, Click Course Tools, Click Tests, Surveys, and Pools- Click Tests

- Click the Build Test button.

-  Enter a name for the test (required), description (optional) and instructions (optional)-  Click Submit.

-   In the Test Canvas, click the button to Upload Questions.

Browse your computer to locate your .txt file with the test questions- Enter a point value for the test questions- Click Submit.

 Your test questions will then appear in the Test Canvas. You can edit the question by clicking on the action link next to the question text or enter individual questions’ point values by clicking in the point’s box.

To deploy the test in a content area Navigate to the content area where you would like to place your Click the Assessments button and then choose Test from the drop down menu.

Select your test from the list. -Click Submit.

         Next, choose the Test Options: when to make your test available, set a timer, force completion,

Click submit

Following a video tutorial from Blackboard On demand.

http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_tests_surveys_upload_test_questions_excel.htm

Blackboard Tip: Grade Center Smart View

You can create different views of your Grade Center. Smart Views are views of the Grade Center based on a variety of student criteria . You can filter which students you view, the columns you view, or a combination of both.

·         From within your course click- Evaluation- Grade center   

·         tclick Manage -Smart Views

      

·       click Add Smart View.

     

·         On the Create Smart View page, type the Name (required) and description (optional) then select a Type of View from one of the following:

        Group (select individual groups select a Group, which was created in the course.

        Benchmark (select users based on performance criteria)

        Focus (select individual users)

        Investigate (a combination of the first three)

    Select the criteria you would like to use to limit users.

       

   

NOTE: If you would like to create a view that include all students but limits columns you view, select Benchmark for your view type and then make the criteria “Grade on Total Greater than or Equal to” 0 , filter Results to choose which columns you would like to view.

     

·        Click Submit then OK.  You can access the new smart view from  the Current View dropdown

     

Camp Yuma 2012 Effective use of Social Media

CAMP YUMA Teaching and Learning through Collaboration

August 6, 2012 through August 9, 2012

Camp Yuma will focus on using technology in collaboration with colleagues to create learning activities and modules that foster learning and engagement with students.

There will be short demonstrations highlighting the use of technology in teaching, then faculty will work with colleagues to create content for classes that can be used across disciplines.  For example, a math teacher and a psychology teacher may choose to collaborate to build a learning activity that highlights a concept relative to both subjects.

Demonstrations will be short and informative with the majority of time allotted for faculty to work together with Distance Education staff circulating and helping hands-on.

Adding Course Content

1.       Click the Edit Mode switch to “On” (this will display all content areas of the course, even those which are unavailable or have no material in them).

2.       Click the Red Plus sign to create content.

a.       Select Create Content Area

b.      Enter content area name for example Course Information

c.       Select Available to User check box

d.      Click Submit

          

 3.       You can rearrange the menu items easily by using the double arrows on the left to Drag-N-Drop the menu item.

 

4.         Click on the content area menu item to add your material.

5.       Click the “Create Item” button to upload a single document (or type in text).

6.       Type in your text in section 1 or Browse to the document in section 2.

7.       Set options as needed and click “Submit.”