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
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
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
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
June 8, 2011
Good Afternoon Online Instructors,
Throughout the quarter I have been sharing various audio and video resources you can quickly and easily add to your online courses, but I haven't yet talked about how using the features within PowerPoint may be a great option for you, particularly if you already have publisher created PowerPoint lectures as part of your course units.
Simply using your headset you can click on the "Slideshow" feature of PowerPoint and then "Record Narration" as you walk your students through the PowerPoint presentation, just as you would if you were presenting to them in a physical classroom. What a great way to add additional insights, information, and even examples to the prepared slides. And also what a great way to personalize the "lectures" for your students!
Give this feature a try and let me know what you think!
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Throughout the quarter I have been sharing various audio and video resources you can quickly and easily add to your online courses, but I haven't yet talked about how using the features within PowerPoint may be a great option for you, particularly if you already have publisher created PowerPoint lectures as part of your course units.
Simply using your headset you can click on the "Slideshow" feature of PowerPoint and then "Record Narration" as you walk your students through the PowerPoint presentation, just as you would if you were presenting to them in a physical classroom. What a great way to add additional insights, information, and even examples to the prepared slides. And also what a great way to personalize the "lectures" for your students!
Give this feature a try and let me know what you think!
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
June 1, 2011
Good Evening Online Instructors,
With the new CampusConnect Instructor training course now available to you, I thought I would take this opportunity to encourage you to look through your courses and archive any enhancements you have used so that you can continue to use them in the new CampusConnect system starting Early Fall 2011 quarter.
In the training course it discusses and outlines the "My Content" area within CampusConnect's Content Collection area. This is the perfect place to save any course enhancements, whether they are files (which you would then use the "upload files" feature) or links (which you could then use the "links" tab). By storing these items within "My Content" you will have easy access to them each quarter and if you make a change, the change you make will only need to be made in one location (within "My Content") and will be reflected in all sections that you may use that item in.
So, as you are going through the instructor training course, remember all of the great enhancements you may have already added to your courses or some enhancements that you've been wanting to add and how the "My Content" section of CampusConnect will be a great place to house these items!
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
With the new CampusConnect Instructor training course now available to you, I thought I would take this opportunity to encourage you to look through your courses and archive any enhancements you have used so that you can continue to use them in the new CampusConnect system starting Early Fall 2011 quarter.
In the training course it discusses and outlines the "My Content" area within CampusConnect's Content Collection area. This is the perfect place to save any course enhancements, whether they are files (which you would then use the "upload files" feature) or links (which you could then use the "links" tab). By storing these items within "My Content" you will have easy access to them each quarter and if you make a change, the change you make will only need to be made in one location (within "My Content") and will be reflected in all sections that you may use that item in.
So, as you are going through the instructor training course, remember all of the great enhancements you may have already added to your courses or some enhancements that you've been wanting to add and how the "My Content" section of CampusConnect will be a great place to house these items!
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
May 25, 2011
Good Morning Online Instructors,
This week's video resource will be particularly beneficial to any instructor that teaches business, finance, communications, or general organizational courses. The Wharton Video Lectures from the Wharton Leadership Lectures Series and the Wharton Entrepreneur Workshops at the University of Pennsylvania can offer our students first-hand exposure to industry leaders and executives.
I encourage you to check this great video resource out by clicking on the above link, browsing through the numerous videos, and adding one or more to your course.
Let me know what you think, how your students respond to the videos, and whether or not you have any questions.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
This week's video resource will be particularly beneficial to any instructor that teaches business, finance, communications, or general organizational courses. The Wharton Video Lectures from the Wharton Leadership Lectures Series and the Wharton Entrepreneur Workshops at the University of Pennsylvania can offer our students first-hand exposure to industry leaders and executives.
I encourage you to check this great video resource out by clicking on the above link, browsing through the numerous videos, and adding one or more to your course.
Let me know what you think, how your students respond to the videos, and whether or not you have any questions.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
May 18, 2011
Good Afternoon Online Instructors,
For much of this quarter I have blogged about many different audio resources that are readily available to you for use in your classrooms. I encourage you to continue checking these resources out. In addition, I encourage you to also personalize your classes with your own audio presentations (and maybe even give video recording a try too).
There are many great, free tools available to you for audio development, but the three that I'd like to highlight today are: Jing, Screencast-o-Matic, and Screenr.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
For much of this quarter I have blogged about many different audio resources that are readily available to you for use in your classrooms. I encourage you to continue checking these resources out. In addition, I encourage you to also personalize your classes with your own audio presentations (and maybe even give video recording a try too).
There are many great, free tools available to you for audio development, but the three that I'd like to highlight today are: Jing, Screencast-o-Matic, and Screenr.
- Jing: Some of the great features of Jing are that you can create short 5-minute screencasts that allow you to share a URL link or save and upload the actual file within Blackboard.
- Screencast-o-Matic allows you to record 15-minute screencasts without the requirement of any software downloads. You do need to share via some form of a YouTube account though. AND a really fun feature of Screencast-o-Matic is that you can do webcam recordings if you'd like to physically demonstrate something for your students or even just talk to them more "in-person" with the video feature.
- Screenr , in essence, is a blend of the best of both Jing and Screencast-o-Matic. Screenr has the user-friendliness of Screencast-o-Matic in terms of not needing any software downloads (you simply click record and talk) but also the sharing friendliness of Jing as you can quickly and easily share the recording's URL with others rather than needing to upload to a YouTube site, etc.
Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
May 4, 2011
Good Afternoon Instructors,
As promised, I will continue this week's blog with another video and podcasting resource, but there is one caveat, it is a resource geared directly to science instructors. So, science instructors, here you go!!! Check it out and let me know what you think! (And for the rest of you - and myself included, since I'm not a science instructor either - if you have found a discipline specific resource that you use in your own courses that you think others that also teach in your program could benefit from, please send it my way so I can share it with your colleagues too!)
The Wildclassroom is a science focused online resource with the tag line "Education for the Next Generation." This online resource offers many professional, educational, and intentionally humorous video episodes, podcasts, lesson plans, and other resources. As stated by The Wildclassroom, the following is its mission:
"As an organization of next generation scientists, The Wild Classroom and sister site Explore Biodiversity work to promote an interest in conservation, ecology and biology in a manner appealing to our youth and young at heart" (http://www.thewildclassroom.com/home/nav/mission.html).
I encourage you scientists to check this resource out and once again, let me know what you think.
Thanks!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
As promised, I will continue this week's blog with another video and podcasting resource, but there is one caveat, it is a resource geared directly to science instructors. So, science instructors, here you go!!! Check it out and let me know what you think! (And for the rest of you - and myself included, since I'm not a science instructor either - if you have found a discipline specific resource that you use in your own courses that you think others that also teach in your program could benefit from, please send it my way so I can share it with your colleagues too!)
The Wildclassroom is a science focused online resource with the tag line "Education for the Next Generation." This online resource offers many professional, educational, and intentionally humorous video episodes, podcasts, lesson plans, and other resources. As stated by The Wildclassroom, the following is its mission:
"As an organization of next generation scientists, The Wild Classroom and sister site Explore Biodiversity work to promote an interest in conservation, ecology and biology in a manner appealing to our youth and young at heart" (http://www.thewildclassroom.com/home/nav/mission.html).
I encourage you scientists to check this resource out and once again, let me know what you think.
Thanks!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist
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