A November 9, 2006 USA Today article entitled "Number of students taking online classes rises" indicates that approximately 3.2 million people took at least one online course the previous Fall. With economic conditions sending people back to school, online instructors may feel overwhelmed with larger class loads. Planning ahead and utilizing helpful Blackboard (Bb) settings can help online instructors save time while providing efficient and quality education.
Clearly Communicate Online Class Expectations
Post an announcement to appear when students first enter the online classroom that briefly and clearly explains what they should do upon entering the class. Provide a brief overview of the layout of the class.
Develop a document detailing class expectations that tells students exactly how to successfully complete the course. Include subheadings, step-by-step instructions, and bulleted lists. Encourage students to print this document for future reference.
Create a Bb quiz on class expectations. Some versions of Bb allow the instructor to set a requirement that students achieve a score of 100 in order for any other quiz to appear. This greatly improves chances that students are reviewing course expectations. This can prove helpful later if a student claims to be unaware of expectations.
Anticipate Technical Problems With Online Classes
Assume nothing. Many students may be unfamiliar with computers or using old equipment or services. Provide step-by-step trouble-shooting tips in the class and contact information regarding who, when, and how to obtain technical assistance.
Some instructors may wish to use announcements as a quick reminder of upcoming assignments. Some versions of Bb enable instructors to email these announcements to students. Unfortunately, the email feature does not have a way to set the emails to launch on a future date at this time.
Utilize Discussions Wisely in Blackboard
Discussions can easily take up a large percentage of instructional time, particularly with large classes. Students are more likely to learn more from the discussions if the instructor actively participates and responds to each student individually. Providing detailed individual responses can become quite time-consuming, redundant, and many students may miss important information unless they read all of the replies listed by the instructor.
Instructors may wish to post short individual responses and then post one detailed response that includes critical points for all students. This information can be saved in a document to use and update with future classes if similar discussions are used.
Create a Question & Answer (Q&A) discussion for students to post general questions. If students effectively utilize the Q&A discussion, then the instructor may be able to efficiently answer questions with one post rather than responding to each individual student via email. Sometimes students will answer Q&A discussions, but it is helpful for the instructor to verify whether or not the student answer is correct.
Test Banks and Pre-Designed Online Classes Can Save Time
Many suppliers of educational material offer a pre-made class complete with test questions. This can greatly reduce the time required to set up a class. Creating a bank of test questions can also prove quite helpful in time management. Wise instructors review each test question, answers, and feedback to ensure that tests reflect material covered before making them available to students.
At this point, Bb requires instructors to individually set each test's properties. Hopefully in the future, an option will be provided in which instructors can choose to apply the same settings to multiple tests and perhaps set dates for all tests to appear within one page on the control panel.
Be selective in the types of test questions selected for the class. Fill-in-the-blank questions and essay questions can take much more time because the computer can only grade one response as correct. If a student types the response in any other way, the instructor may end up reviewing these questions and manually grading that part of the test.
If the students are required to review online material before accessing a quiz, an adaptive release can be set in some versions of Blackboard so that the student must review a particular piece of the class before the test will appear. If this adaptive release is set, the instructor will save a large amount of time because it is no longer necessary to track whether or not students accessed that information.
If test questions are used for future classes, it is helpful to review which questions students tend to answer incorrectly and either tweak the question or provide feedback within the test. Blackboard instructors can enter feedback on individual questions. This tool would be even more useful if instructors could set a minimum score that students must achieve in order to view the feedback. Enabling multiple attempts on quizzes can also save time because instructors may need to re-set quizzes for students who are experiencing technical problems on tests that allow only one attempt.
Instructors should beta test the class to ensure that class items are appearing as anticipated.
How to Save Time Teaching a Blackboard Class
Computers can save a huge amount of educational time but only if settings are available and used. Blackboard instructors who provide classes with clear instructions, objectives, and appropriate learning modules often find that their classes run more smoothly. These instructors can enjoy more time teaching and less time trouble-shooting and answering the same question by multiple students.
Disclaimer: Always ensure that teaching techniques are in compliance with the associated teaching institution. Some instructor options may not be available with certain versions of educational software.
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