Good Morning Online Instructors,
It is crazy to think today is already the last day of August! I hope you have all had a wonderful summer!
Today I'd like to share with you an Elluminate Live! facilitation tip that I got from one of our other full-time faculty members, Julie Phillips. If you find yourself as an Elluminate moderator and have difficulty downloading a live session in order to access it and it appears to get locked at the audio module, it may be because you have multiple versions of Java installed on your system. This confuses Elluminate as to what version should be used and the different versions basically fight one another when trying to download Elluminate, which probably will result in none of the versions winning out and your inability to download the session successfully.
Once you uninstall an older version of Java, you should then be able to download and access the Elluminate Live! session without difficulty. Thanks, Julie, for this great insight!
Also, don't forget to check out the different Elluminate tutorials found on this blog by clicking on the Elluminate tab on the right side column. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know.
And finally, if you have a great tip or trick that you think would help other instructors, please don't hesitate to let me know so I can share with the masses :)
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
August 24, 2011
Good Morning Online Instructors,
This week I'd like to share with you a quick trick on how to streamline your discussion grading so that you can grade non-participating students right along with students who have participated in a unit's discussion. Click here for a quick tutorial on how to do this quickly and easily. If you have any questions, please let me know.
And if there is anything you are wondering about in terms of using the new CampusConnect system, please don't hesitate to let me know!
Thanks!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
This week I'd like to share with you a quick trick on how to streamline your discussion grading so that you can grade non-participating students right along with students who have participated in a unit's discussion. Click here for a quick tutorial on how to do this quickly and easily. If you have any questions, please let me know.
And if there is anything you are wondering about in terms of using the new CampusConnect system, please don't hesitate to let me know!
Thanks!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
August 17, 2011
Good Afternoon Online Instructors,
This week we are in the midst of calculating midquarter grades and asking our students to participate in the midquarter evaluation. With these two things occurring it made me think about the importance of checking in with our students on a regular basis too. In a residential classroom a common "checking in" process is asking students to write down, anonymously, any questions or concerns they have about the course or the course content. As online instructors I encourage you to do the same thing, but you have an even greater advantage as you can utilize technology to assist you with this.
Why not try out SurveyMonkey.com to help you connect even further with your students by asking them at the end, or toward the end, of a unit what questions they have about the unit material or to inquire about any concerns they have about the course. It is also a great way to assess student comprehension of the unit material in yet another fashion.
The survey link could quickly and easily be emailed to your students and while you won't hear back from all students you'll most likely get the questions and concerns that students may have but haven't had a forum to ask them in before, and that is the intent of an exercise such as this. And with the surveys being anonymous, students will then feel comfortable expressing those questions and concerns.
Whether you do a weekly or even a bi-weekly survey, your questions could be simple and to the point. Some question ideas could be:
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
This week we are in the midst of calculating midquarter grades and asking our students to participate in the midquarter evaluation. With these two things occurring it made me think about the importance of checking in with our students on a regular basis too. In a residential classroom a common "checking in" process is asking students to write down, anonymously, any questions or concerns they have about the course or the course content. As online instructors I encourage you to do the same thing, but you have an even greater advantage as you can utilize technology to assist you with this.
Why not try out SurveyMonkey.com to help you connect even further with your students by asking them at the end, or toward the end, of a unit what questions they have about the unit material or to inquire about any concerns they have about the course. It is also a great way to assess student comprehension of the unit material in yet another fashion.
The survey link could quickly and easily be emailed to your students and while you won't hear back from all students you'll most likely get the questions and concerns that students may have but haven't had a forum to ask them in before, and that is the intent of an exercise such as this. And with the surveys being anonymous, students will then feel comfortable expressing those questions and concerns.
Whether you do a weekly or even a bi-weekly survey, your questions could be simple and to the point. Some question ideas could be:
- What was the main concept or idea you gained from this unit?
- What main question still lingers in your mind about the unit content?
- How do you feel about the unit content?
- What concerns do you have about the unit content?
- What questions or concerns do you have about the course content overall?
- Are you comfortable with the pace of the course?
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
August 10, 2011
Good Afternoon Online Instructors,
This week's blog posting is quick and to the point with the intent to help you as you prepare to submit your midterm grades next week during Unit 5. Click here to access a tutorial on how to set the grade center total column to display students' running total percentages and letter grade.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
This week's blog posting is quick and to the point with the intent to help you as you prepare to submit your midterm grades next week during Unit 5. Click here to access a tutorial on how to set the grade center total column to display students' running total percentages and letter grade.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
August 3, 2011
Good Morning Online Instructors!
I hope you are becoming more and more comfortable with CampusConnect now that you have a couple of weeks under your belt. The below questions are some questions I've connected with various instructors on over the past week, so I thought I'd share them (and their answers) with all of you in case you had similar questions.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
I hope you are becoming more and more comfortable with CampusConnect now that you have a couple of weeks under your belt. The below questions are some questions I've connected with various instructors on over the past week, so I thought I'd share them (and their answers) with all of you in case you had similar questions.
- Have you tried out the new and improved discussion board grading feature within CampusConnect? Click here for a tutorial on how to do this.
- Would you like to pull up your class roster? Click here for a tutorial on how to do this.
- Curious on what your level of participation is in discussion boards? Or curious where and when your students are participating in areas in the course? Click here for a tutorial on how to run reports.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
July 27, 2011
Good Morning Online Instructors,
As you are becoming more involved in the grading of your students' work now that we have completed Unit 1, I'd like to share with you some grading tips and tricks to help make your grading more efficient so you have more time to focus on feedback and content rather than navigation and downloading.
Previously, in Blackboard 8, I shared with you how to download grade center columns into an Excel document to be able to enter all student scores and feedback on one document to then upload back into the grade center quickly and easily. We can do the same thing in CampusConnect and this tutorial will walk you through the process that is specific to CampusConnect.
Within CampusConnect you can also download all assignment submissions for a particular column, making downloading of assignment documents more efficient. Click here to access a quick tutorial on how to download all submitted assignments at once.
If you have any questions on how to use either of these great features, please let me know. Happy grading :)
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
As you are becoming more involved in the grading of your students' work now that we have completed Unit 1, I'd like to share with you some grading tips and tricks to help make your grading more efficient so you have more time to focus on feedback and content rather than navigation and downloading.
Previously, in Blackboard 8, I shared with you how to download grade center columns into an Excel document to be able to enter all student scores and feedback on one document to then upload back into the grade center quickly and easily. We can do the same thing in CampusConnect and this tutorial will walk you through the process that is specific to CampusConnect.
Within CampusConnect you can also download all assignment submissions for a particular column, making downloading of assignment documents more efficient. Click here to access a quick tutorial on how to download all submitted assignments at once.
If you have any questions on how to use either of these great features, please let me know. Happy grading :)
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
July 20, 2011
Good Afternoon Online Instructors! And welcome to Early Fall Quarter!
As much of the country is being blasted by a heat wave, I hope you are fairing the weather okay. Personally, I am ready for a bit of reprieve from the oppressive Minnesota heat. I love warm weather, but I could do without the extreme dew points and high humidity.
I also hope you are becoming comfortable with the new CampusConnect system. It truly has so many great features for both instructors and students! If there are things within CampusConnect you have questions on, please don't hesitate to let me know. Even if I don't have the answer immediately, I'll definitely look into it and see if I can't find an answer for you. And if you have a question, others may have the same question so it could be a great benefit for all of us...just let me know what your questions are :)
For today's blog, I'd like to show you how to navigate Elluminate Live! within the CampusConnect system. If you are used to using Elluminate Live! in Blackboard 8, you'll be very familiar with how to use it in CampusConnect. If this is your first time considering facilitating an Elluminate Live! session, hopefully you'll find these tutorials helpful.
Let me know if you have any questions and have a great rest of the first week of the quarter!
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
As much of the country is being blasted by a heat wave, I hope you are fairing the weather okay. Personally, I am ready for a bit of reprieve from the oppressive Minnesota heat. I love warm weather, but I could do without the extreme dew points and high humidity.
I also hope you are becoming comfortable with the new CampusConnect system. It truly has so many great features for both instructors and students! If there are things within CampusConnect you have questions on, please don't hesitate to let me know. Even if I don't have the answer immediately, I'll definitely look into it and see if I can't find an answer for you. And if you have a question, others may have the same question so it could be a great benefit for all of us...just let me know what your questions are :)
For today's blog, I'd like to show you how to navigate Elluminate Live! within the CampusConnect system. If you are used to using Elluminate Live! in Blackboard 8, you'll be very familiar with how to use it in CampusConnect. If this is your first time considering facilitating an Elluminate Live! session, hopefully you'll find these tutorials helpful.
Let me know if you have any questions and have a great rest of the first week of the quarter!
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
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