Thursday, September 9, 2010

September 9, 2010

Good Morning Instructors,

As we get closer to finals week, I encourage you to consider implementing online flashcards into your courses to assist students in studying for their final exams. Online flashcards are an excellent study tool. As the instructor you can create the cards for the students to study from, or you can have students make the cards (this way they will be studying as they create them, which is yet another added benefit). And many online flashcard sites have various study techniques that allow students to print cards, study on their computers, send to their personal mobile devices to study on the go, etc., making studying very user-friendly.

A few online flashcard sites include:
Check these out to find one that best fits your own teaching style and course needs.

For a sample, click here to access a Jing tutorial Kris Ebent, one of our online instructors, created to share with her students for a course assignment. This is a great illustration of how you could implement a similar demonstration for your students.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Have a great rest of Unit 8!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

September 1, 2010

Good Afternoon Instructors,

It is hard to believe it is already September!

I have had a couple of requests from instructors to demonstrate how to set up and manage groups within Blackboard so this week's screencast walks you through the process of setting up, managing, and accessing groups within Blackboard. Our students will be working in groups in their careers so offering them the opportunity to work in groups in their education prepares them even further for life after graduation. I encourage you to consider implementing some type of group work into your courses if you haven't done so already. And if you have any questions on how to manage groups after reviewing this screencast, please let me know.

As a follow-up to last week's blog post on Animoto, I'd like to share a source with you where you can access photos that are copyright free. Thank you to Cathy Kennedy for bringing MorgueFile.com to my attention.

Have a great rest of the week and if there is a topic you'd like to see explored in a future blog post, please just let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman