Wednesday, October 13, 2010

October 22, 2010

Good morning instructors,

Building off of last week's blog post, I'd like to share one additional tip with you if you are using the Download/Upload Excel document grading feature within Blackboard's Grade Center. If you find that you need to alter a score that you have already uploaded for a student via an Excel document, you will need to modify it using the Modify Override option rather than via the View Details tab. To view a demonstration on how to do this, please click here.

My hope with these various tips and tricks is to help you streamline your grading process so that you can focus on the student content rather than the grading process. Next week I will be moving on to a different topic, but if you have any questions on the grade center at any time, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Heather

October 15, 2010

Good morning instructors,

Previously I used the following Screencast (click here to view) to demonstrate how to grade multiple assignments as well as enter scores and feedback to multiple students in an efficient and easy manner within Blackboard's grade center. I continue to recommend this approach as it is a great way to streamline your grading process. However, if a student has not submitted an assignment and you need to enter a score of zero, simply entering that score on the spreadsheet to then upload will NOT block students from being able to submit the assignment at a later date, which can lead to a great deal of confusion and miscommunication between instructor and student.

Click here to view the steps you will need to take to enter zeros into the grade center for non-submitted assignments so that it is calculated in the running total as well as blocking late submissions (remember it is important to enter a score for every assignment/discussion board/exam for every student so the running total calculates accurately). This demonstration of entering zeros for non-submitted assignments using the grade details view is needed regardless of the grading approach you use.

If you have any questions on how to most effectively and completely use the grade center, please let me know.

Have a great rest of the day and a great weekend!

Thanks,
Heather

Friday, October 8, 2010

October 8, 2010

Good Afternoon Instructors,

It is an absolutely gorgeous fall day here in Minnesota! I hope it is just as beautiful where ever you are, and that you are able to enjoy some fun, fall activities as we close out the first week of a new fall quarter.

As you are getting into the full swing of things with a new quarter, I encourage you to think of ways to help your students connect with the course material on an even deeper level. A great way to do this, particularly in online courses, is through audio and video lecture implementation. There are many ways you can record lectures or presentations to share with your students, and I'd be happy to work with you individually on any you'd like to do. But there are also some great audio/video lecture resources readily available to us to simply add in to our courses. The following is a list of some great online resources I encourage you to check out for possible course implementation. These resources offer you the opportunity to bring into your courses expert guest lecturers without your students even needing to leave the comfort of their homes (or where ever it may be that they complete their coursework).

Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner

TED
Khan Academy
UC Berkeley Webcasts
Academic Earth
World Lecture Hall
LearnersTV
TeacherTube

If you do locate and choose to add a lecture to your course from one of the resources listed, please remember to select the "Open in New Window" option so as to comply with Internet copyright regulations. Also, let me know how the lecture is received by your students. It may be a lecture we'd want to add to the master course shell for all future sections to benefit from.

If you have any questions on searching within any of these resources or adding a resource to your course, please let me know.

Have a great rest of the day and an enjoyable fall weekend!

Thanks!
Heather