Slack is a community workspace website, desktop app and phone app where we can talk to each other, exchange ideas, work on projects, clarify dates, etc. instantly. Things can be shared in themed groups called channels, or in private messages between users (like a text), or to the group in general.
You know, like what people who actually like each other and work together do. 😉
As faculty members deeply committed to student success in online education, we are delving into a crucial topic today and exploring strategies to make interactions more meaningful. You can access the article here: Link to the article. Here are some highlights of strategies you can implement to ensure regular and substantive interaction without overwhelming yourself
Structured Discussion Boards: Creating structured discussion board activities with clear prompts and expectations can help maintain regular interaction without the need for constant monitoring. This structure encourages focused and substantive conversations.
Peer Interaction: Encouraging peer-to-peer interactions and group work can distribute the interaction load and foster substantive learning. When students engage with each other, they benefit from diverse perspectives and collaborative learning.
Scheduled Office Hours: Setting specific times for virtual office hours or Q&A sessions provides dedicated times for students to interact with you. This ensures regularity without being overwhelming and allows for more in-depth discussions.
Automation: Leveraging technology to automate routine tasks, such as scheduling the sending reminders or announcements, can help you stay engaged with students without the need for constant manual intervention. This way, you can focus on meaningful interactions.
Our collective goal is to enhance student success in online education. By implementing these strategies, we can keep creating engaging online learning environments that empower our students to thrive.
I encourage you to read the article! Together, we can strengthen the quality of online learning and set our students on a path to success.
Happy teaching, and here’s to fostering a more interactive and effective online education environment!
We are beginning the process of transitioning to Blackboard Ultra. You’ll find the workflow and aesthetic to be simpler and cleaner for both you and your students. Here’s our project timeline:
Spring 2024- Blackboard will be on campus to demo/ information session at in-service!
Summer 2024- Work to convert volunteer/ early adopting faculty’s courses to Ultra
Fall 2024- Launch first Ultra pilot live for early adopting faculty courses; work to convert more subject/ departments to ULTRA for Spring 2025
Spring 2025- Launch remaining pilot courses; convert the remainder of courses for use in Summer and Fall courses
We are SO THANKFUL for our early adopters, who will be recieving training and coaching starting in March:
Nursing (all NUR courses)
Allied Health (all AHS courses)
Child Development
Environmental Science Technology
Occupational Health and Safety
Instructors in these areas should now have access to their Fall 2024 shells WAY ahead of time, so that we can convert those to Ultra, train, explore and build. Training is coming in March 2024! Funds have been secured for live training from Blackboard Ultra experts, who will also help us convert our existing course content to the Ultra look and feel.
If you have any questions, or would like to get on the next early adopters list, email the Director of Online Learning (Sarah Brown) at [email protected]
In this tutorial we will be showing you how to access and utilize the media library.
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As you can see over on the left hand column here we have a number of folders that are already created. To create a folder you’re simply going to click on this little icon with a plus symbol and it will create a folder for you. Then you’ll just name that and it will add it to the list. For this purpose I’m just going to hit cancel.
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Now to add items to folders you can do it one at a time or you can do it in bulk. To add one to a folder we’re going to grab this Trio logo and we’re going to add it to branding. I’m simply going to grab the Trio logo, then I find my branding folder and I’m going to drag it into that folder. In order to grab multiple we’re going to hit bulk select. We’re going to select all three of these Cafe menu photos and we’re going to drag that into Cafe menu. Those disappear, and go into the cafe menu folder. Likewise we’re going to grab the rest of the documents here that are in the unorganized folder and we’re going to grab all of those. We’re going to find our documents folder here on the left, we are going to grab all eight of these items and we’re going to drag that into the documents folder and that’s pretty much how we’re going to organize our photos and documents.
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Now you can easily navigate each folder and see what photos/documents are in these folders. This also makes it easy to remove any older items that we don’t need anymore. For instance in the degree programs folder here we have a bunch of 2023 degree programs that are uploaded so we can go in here and delete the older degree programs that way it doesn’t continue to clutter the server up.
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That’s a quick tutorial on how to use the media library.
