Teaching & Technology Tips and Tricks

Audacity

Audacity for Podcasts

Blackboard

         *MSU is using Blackboard Learn 9.1. 

Make a course available to students

Weblinks on the Tool Panel

Link to Websites
Student Preview
Notification Types

Adaptive Release

Release Content

Announcements

How to Create, Edit, Reorder and Delete Announcements

Collaborate

 

Course Entry Point

Course Style Options
Create a banner

Discussion Boards

Tips:

  • You can use the Participatns must create a thread in order to view other threads in this forum option under Forum Settings.
  • You can grade student participation in a forum as a whole, or you can grade each thread.
  • You can assign grades based on student participation, on the quality of their posts, or a combination of the two. 
  • You can manually change the status of a post to unread.
  • You can manually flag posts to review again later or mark as important.
  • You can collect posts to view them on one page and then filter or print the list.

Tutorials:

About Discussions, Forums and Threads
Grading Discussions
Create Discussions
Create Group Discussions
Create Forums (text-based tutorial)
Create Discussion Board Forums (video tutorial)
Create Threads

Email

Tips:

  •  Bb Learn does not keep a record of emails. Any email received from Bb Learn appears in your external email inbox.
  • If students are sending excessive email in the course or you want to turn off email for some other reason, you can disable the email tool in each course: >Course Management panel > Course Tools > Send email > Hide link. 
  • Recipients of each email won't see the email addresses of other recipients.
  • Remember to include a subject line so that the email is sent successfully. If you leave the subject line blank, the message may not be delivered or could be marked as spam.

 Tutorials:

Bb Learn Email
Send email to a course group

Tests (and Quizzes)

Tips:

  • Recommended Test Settings
    • Do not use Force Completion > it does not handle blips in internet access
    • On a timed test, do not use Auto Submit > students get no grace period to finish up and submit.
  • Chrome is the preferred browser for Blackboard Learn; especially for taking tests
  • Before taking a test, students should clear their cache and make sure cookies are turned on.
  • By default, tests are not available to students when they are created.
  • Each test can be added only once to a specific content area, learning module, or folder. 
  • To access and edit all tests from one space: Control Panel > Course Tools > Tests
  • Students are notified about a test via the My Blackboard Updates module. 

Tutorials:

Test Question Types
Matching Questions
Multiple Answer Questions
Fill in Multiple Blanks
Short Answer Questions

Grading

Grading Assignments

Publisher Integrations

Pearson
Cengage
McGraw-Hill
Macmillan ?
WileyPLUS

Rubrics

Tips:

Rubrics can be associated with assignments, blogs, journals, wikis, discussion board threads, and forums. Also test question types such as essays, file response and short answer.

Percentage based rubrics are more flexible that point based rubrics

Wikis

Tips:

  • Once a wiki is set for grading, it cannot be changed to no grading.
  • All pages created and edited by a specific student can be viewed under Participant's Contribution.

Tutorials:

Wikis (benefits, how to use and how to create)

 

Faculty-Student Interaction

Giving Students Feedback On Their Work

Flipped Classroom

"A new method of teaching is turning the traditional classroom on its head."

Interactive YouTube

Make an Interactive Lesson Using YouTube
Interactive YouTube & Fun with Mosquito Ringtones

Outlook

Adding Contacts in Outlook
Creating an Appointment in Outlook 2007: Recurring Meeting
The Reply Function: Who Did I Just Send That To?
Sharing Your Outlook Calendar

PowerPoint

Saving PowerPoint Presentations as PDF Handouts
Add "Alt Text" to your images in PowerPoint

Tablet PC

Calibrate Your Touch Screen: Making the Pen Work
Disable Fujitsu Touch Pad
Strategies for Dealing with Laptops in the Classroom

Tegrity 

How to Enable Student Recordings
How to Enter the Tegrity Block in Your Course
How to Install the Tegrity Recorder
How to Move Recordings from One Class to Another
How to Move Recordings Into Your Private Course