Summer 2017 GRA NT R INITIATIV · 2020-07-18 · 866-353-2491 (Toll Free) [email protected] ... Under “Submission Details” are assignment types, number of attempts, and a plagia-

Congratulations to CONHS—

Family Nurse Practitioner online

program ranked #2 in the U.S. by

Affordable Colleges.com

In a review of schools across the

nation, TAMUCC’s program stood

out in both quality and affordability.

We are so proud of you!

you

can

Distance Education and Learning Technologies

361-825-2122 [email protected]

https://iol.tamucc.edu/

Information Technology 361-825-2692

866-353-2491 (Toll Free) [email protected] http://it.tamucc.edu/

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

GRADE CENTER INITIATIVE

Summer 2017

Distance Education & Learning Technologies Information Technology

Improving Feedback for Students: Integration of Bb Tools with Blackboard Grade Center Makes It Easy

This past Spring Brandon Baker, a sophomore double majoring in mathematics and computer science and student representative to the Instructional Technologies and Distance Education Committee (ITDEC), reported that students feel misguided regarding their progress in clas-ses due to inconsistent use of the Bb gradebook. Some students think they are failing when they are actually doing well, while others think they are doing well when they are not. Using Bb tools well will help you provide meaningful feedback to your students and save you time in grading and in having to answer students’ questions about their grades. Therefore, the ITDEC will develop and help ODELT disseminate strategies for effectively using the Bb gradebook to give feedback to students. For instance, when using the Blackboard Assign-ment tool follow these steps-

Under “Assignment information” name the assignment as it will display in the Grade Center column.

Enable grading by scrolling down to “Grading.”

Select “Grade: Points possible” and enter the points possible for the assignment.

You can associate a rubric with the “Add rubric” drop down menu.

Under “Submission Details” are assignment types, number of attempts, and a plagia-rism tool that can be selected based on the assignment.

Ensure that “Include in Grade Center grading calculations” and “Show to students in My Grades” are selected in the “Display of Grades” section.

Content: p.1 - Grade center initiative - CONHS program ranked 2nd p.2 - Pre-semester checklist - Open Bb course access early p.3 - Re-order Bb content - Re-link Examity in Bb course - Blackboard: Analytics for Learn p.4 - Certificate program schedule - Bb Mobile app changes - Syncplicity - Manage WebEx recordings p.5 - 20 min Bb sessions for students - Bb /IT resources workshops p.6 - Meet IT Help Desk - Add Role/Section Merge Requests - Sign up for IT list serve p.7 - Think About It course - Quality Matters - Interactive touch panels p.8 - Grades as feedback - Analytics for student success

When you click “Submit,” a column will automatically appear in the Grade Center with the same name as the created assignment.

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1. Single Sign-On. Texas A&M Uni-versity – Corpus Christi uses Single Sign-On to login to many software systems such as MS Outlook, Black-board, WebEx, Qualtrics, Banner, system SSO, office desktops, podi-ums, and labs. Use your user ID and password to login to all those sys-tems. Be aware that once you login to any classroom, lab, or desktop computer you are automatically logged and will re-main logged in to all the above systems. 2. Fall 2017 Bb courses. Login to Blackboard to see if all your courses for Fall 2017 semester are listed. If they aren’t, make sure you are listed as the instructor of record in S.A.I.L. If you are not listed in S.A.I.L., check with your college to make sure the Registrar's office has processed all the paper work in Banner, because until the paperwork is processed you will not be able to access your Blackboard course. 3. Copy Bb courses. Your Black-board courses contain the university template. You can copy your course content from the previous semester using the Course Copy tutorial. https://iol.tamucc.edu/assets/documents/Copy%20an%20Existing%20Bb%20Course.pdf or create your new content. - Use Student Preview to view your

course as a student. The link is an icon with 2 curved arrows located at the upper right corner of the Bb screen. - Use Date Management tool in the Control panel – Course tools to re-view and adjust all dates for the Fall semester. - Use Blackboard to send your stu-dents a welcome announcement and syllabus so that they can pre-pare for the semester. Let them know when they can access your online courses. 4. (Optional). If you want to make the course available prior to the start date, follow the directions listed here: https://iol.tamucc.edu/assets/Set%20Course%20Availability%20Dates.pdf. By de-fault, blackboard courses are sched-uled to become available to stu-dents on the first day of class. 5. Request courses or sections to be merged by submitting your re-quest using this procedure http://it.tamucc.edu/gethelp/pdf/blackboardmerge.pdf at least two weeks before the semester starts. Note: Courses and Labs cannot be merged. Allow 48 hours for your request to be processed. 6. To add a TA to your course, fill out and submit this form http://it.tamucc.edu/gethelp/pdf/Add%20Role%20Request%20Form.pdf.

7. Familiarize yourself with the audio/visual equipment in the classrooms. Media Services is avail-able for tutorials and training on the use of classroom audio/visual tech-nology. To schedule a training ses-sion, submit a request to [email protected] . It is im-portant to note that audio visual equipment has been updated in the Center for Instruction, Bay Hall, and Island Hall. 8. Free MS Office 365. Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi is provid-ing Microsoft Office to every stu-dent, faculty, and staff free of charge. Advise your students to down-load it from http://it.tamucc.edu/Office365/Office365.html Additional Resources: - Visit the ODELT website (https://iol.tamucc.edu/) to find information on Blackboard resources, tutorials, certificates, award opportunities, and help from the Office of Distance Education and Learning Technolo-gies. - Visit the IT website (http://it.tamucc.edu/) for help desk hours of operation, telephone numbers, and email addresses to facilitate IT requests or issues. For Ad Hoc com-puter lab reservations or to see what software is installed in the labs, etc., visit http://it.tamucc.edu/computerlabs/index.html.

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

LOG OFF the

systems when

you leave

classrooms

and labs!

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

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Pre-semester Checklist

2 Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

Making Bb Course Materials Available to Students Before or After the Term. Courses are available to

students on the first day of class unless otherwise specified. One way to deal with this is to send your class an email with the

syllabus attached a week or two before the term begins. You can also make the course available to students using our

tutorial at https://iol.tamucc.edu/assets/TutorialGuides/Set%20Course%20Availability%20Dates.pdf.

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Blackboard Analytics for Learn (A4L)

Soon you will be able to access A4L to get

detailed information about what your students

are doing in your courses so that you can help

keep them on track. You will see A4L listed on

the left in your course menus.

Once you enter the application, you will see

Course at a Glance, Activity & Grade Scatter

Plots, Activity Matrices, and Course Submission

Summaries. You will be able to use the tools to

see what, how often, and for how long

individual students access specific course

materials, submit content in the course, and

interact with each other and with you.

You will also receive data about how your

courses are designed and how they compare to

other courses in your department. More

information and workshops will be available

soon.

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

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Workaround for Reordering Bb Learn Content

A complication with the Black-board update that occurred July 22nd and the Examity tool temporarily made Examity unavailable. The issue was reported and resolved July 24th. However, the “Examity” link in the left side Blackboard menu had to be deleted when the fix was applied. In-structors will need to relink to Examity by following the tutorial below. Step 1: Once you have logged into Blackboard, open a course that uses Examity.

Step 2: Click on the green plus sign “+” at the top of the left side menu for the course. Step 3: Select “Tool Link” from the drop down menu. Step 4: Name the link “Examity” and select “ExamityTAMUCCSSO” from the “Type” dropdown menu. Step 5: Check the box next to “Available to Users”, and then click “submit”.

Step 6: The new Examity link will appear at the very bot

tom of the left side menu. Click and drag the up/

down arrow symbol to the left of the link to drag

it upwards.

Re-linking Examity in Your Course

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu 3

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The Certificate is offered to faculty cohorts throughout the year and is designed to support instructors as they integrate technologies in their courses to improve instruction and provide students with highly engag-ing learning experiences as well as flexible scheduling. Instructors can take, one, some, or all of these workshops according to their time and interest and can par-ticipate in whichever combination of cohort offerings work best for them.

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

4 Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

you

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Users of the “Mobile Learn” Blackboard app should transition to Black-

board's new "Blackboard" app (formerly "Bb Student"). “Mobile Learn”

will be removed from app stores August 1, 2017 and support will be

dropped August 31, 2017. Users of the current “Bb Student” app should

download the newest update which will convert the “Bb Student” app

into the “Blackboard” app. A new "Blackboard Instructor" app is availa-

ble for download from App Store and Google Play.

Important Changes to Blackboard App

Download Bb app for iOS Download Bb app for Android

The Certificate of Professional Development in Best Practices

for Online Course Design

Fall 2017 schedules and registration links: Series 1 (Aug 23-25, +Sep, Oct) - Schedule - Registration Series 2 (Sep 8-Dec 15, Fridays, 1-3pm) Schedule - Registration

Series 3 (Dec, 18-21) - Schedule - Registration

Please, register at https://iol.tamucc.edu/ so we can keep you up-dated.

Manage WebEx recordings

In order to save storage space on our shared TAMUCC WebEx server, please delete any unnecessary recordings by following the tutorial found here: https://iol.tamucc.edu/assets/webex/how-to-delete-a-webex-recording.pdf.

For Students

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Online support for students is available at iol.tamucc.edu. Materials include Online Student Orientation, Bb and IT workshops, Blackboard Resources, Technical Requirements, Testing/Proctoring Online, Learning Online, Islander Email, Continuity of Learning, Accessibility, Library for Online Learners, and Student Services. Workshops are held at the

beginning of each semester and are open for all students on a walk-in as needed basis. Each 90-minute workshop provides an overview of Blackboard navigation and hands-on activities for learning tools such as the discussion forum, wikis, blogs, journals, and quizzes. Please, advise your students to attend if they need more hands-on learning. Workshops are also available online using WebEx online meetings. Contact us at 361-825-2122 to make a reservation to attend the workshop in a web conference.

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu 5

Day/Date Time Location

Friday, August 25, 2017 5:30-7:00 pm Corpus Christi Hall, rm .123

Monday, August 28, 2017 5:30-7:00 pm Corpus Christi Hall, rm. 123

Monday, August 28, 2017 7:00-8:30pm Corpus Christi Hall, rm. 123

Tuesday, September 5, 2017 5:30-7:00 pm Corpus Christi Hall, rm. 123

Blackboard and IT Resources Workshops for Students

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The IT department at TAMUCC would like to keep you better informed about system outages, scheduled maintenance and new services.

Go to https://listserv.tamucc.edu and select the IT-notifications link for more information and to sign up.

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

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IT Help Desk—Who We Are/ What We Do

Mr. Robert Wilson specializes in customer service. He is respon-sible for assisting customers with hardware, software, and account generation issues as well as managing, and training the student workers for the TAMUCC Help Desk. He creates policies, proce-dures, and FAQ’s for the Help Desk and IT division. Since joining TAMUCC, Mr. Wilson has created over 250 documents, written service manuals, and expanded the scope of service for the Help Desk to include the oversite of CCH 201 computer lab.

Mr. Derek Vest specializes in I.T. customer support for faculty, staff, and students. He provides incident reporting, tracking and resolution for hardware, software, account, audiovisual (AV), phone as well as other IT related systems. Mr. Vest also provides IT Website Development, FAQ, and training document development in addition to training support for Help Desk staff. Ms. Ashley Dyckman assists faculty, staff and students with technology related issues and requests. She specializes in web de-sign, graphic design, as well as training and tutorial development. She is also proficient in the use of Adobe products. When she is not fixing computer issues, she is developing the IT website, creating graphics, creating communication plans, and serving as a Staff Council representative. Mr. Miguel Munoz specializes in Telecommunications and Gen-eral IT support; he serves as our phone, voice mail, and infrastruc-ture expert. Miguel also assists with inventory of supplies, assists with workshops, meetings, and events, and conducts research on new software the university is rolling out to stakeholders. Mr. Richard Longoria specializes in faculty, staff and student IT Help Desk support; provides incident reporting, tracking and reso-lution for hardware, software, infrastructure, audiovisual (AV), phone or other IT related matters

Blackboard: Add Role and Section

Merge Requests:

For the convenience of our faculty and

to make preparation for each semester

easier, two important forms are

available: the Blackboard Add Role

Request Form and the Blackboard

Section Merge Request Form. Faculty

may use the Add Role form to request

to have a user with a specific role

added to their Blackboard course. Use

the Section Merge form to request to

have multiple Blackboard course shells

merged into one master course. Both

forms can be found in the Forms

section of it.tamucc.edu. Once

completed, send them to

[email protected] no later than

at least two weeks before the semester

starts. Note: Courses and Labs cannot

be merged together.

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu 6

Information Technology 361-825-2692 or 866-353-2491 (Toll Free)

[email protected] http://it.tamucc.edu/

Information Technology wants

to keep you informed!

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Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

Distance Education & Learning Technologies

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New Course Aims to Promote Healthy Lifestyles for Students

Quality Matters (https://www.qualitymatters.org)

Think About It is an innovative, engaging, and informa-

tive online course, created with and for students. In the

course, students examine the interconnected issues of

hooking up, substance abuse, sexual violence, and

healthy relationships through a variety of interactive,

realistic scenarios and guided self-reflection. Think

About It will promote a safer campus environment for

students thru healthier, better informed decisions

about relationships, sex, drugs, and alcohol. Think

About It is a mandatory course and it takes about 60

minutes to complete. Students can work at their own

pace from any computer (requires Flash player). Think

About It does not work on a cell phone or iPad/tablet.

Students can leave and return to the course at any

time, and when they return, it will open to the page

where they left off.

For more information, visit the website at edcs.tamucc.edu/think_about_it/

The Texas A&M University System has joined a con-sortium, Quality Matters (QM). While focusing on online learning, the QM quality assurance system provides an institutional toolset and process to meet quality expec-tations in online course design, student learning, improved instruction, assessment and feedback loops, and profes-sional development. As an instructor in the TAMU-S, you can become a certified QM reviewer. Once you have taken trainings to become certified, you can receive payments ranging from $100-350 for reviewing online courses. For more information, contact the Office of Distance Education and Learning Technologies.

Interactive Touch Panels on Campus

A new technology is emerging in classrooms and conference rooms around the world. The interactive flat panel (IFP) is an all in one solution with a built-in computer and speaker bar eliminating the need for cables in most situations. Some of the many benefits compared to projectors and other interactive technologies are no wait time for it to turn on, no down time due to replacing a bad projector lamp, no washed-out image due to ambient light or degradation of the picture over time, no projector light shining in your face, and no need to calibrate it. Everything you can do on your computer this can do as well. So, what makes it interactive? It’s a giant touch screen. The IFP

has 10 to 20 points of touch simultaneously. That means multi-

ple people can use it at a time and you can do hand gestures

like pinching to zoom and two-finger rotate to spin an object.

With the growth in touch devices you will find this technology

very intuitive. IFP screens are located on campus at the follow-

ing locations: ECDC 219 a, b, and c, the Engineering Lab and

CCH 206, 207, 208, and 210.

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Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu

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Grades as Feedback – Oldies but Goodies

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and teaching in higher education, (1), 3-31. The authors identify 10 conditions of assessment that support stu-dent learning out of class and justify these with reference to theo-ry, empirical evidence and practical experience. These conditions are offered as a framework for teachers to review the effectiveness of their own assessment practices: 1. Sufficient assessed tasks are provided for students to capture

sufficient study time. 2. These tasks are engaged with by students, orienting them to

allocate appropriate amounts of time and effort to the most important aspects of the course.

3. Tackling the assessed task engages students in productive learning activity of an appropriate kind.

4. Sufficient feedback is provided, both often enough and in enough detail.

5. Feedback focuses on student’ performance, on their learning and on actions under the student’s control, rather than on the students themselves and on their characteristics.

6. Feedback is timely in that it is received by students while it still matters to them and in time for them to pay attention to fur-ther learning or receive further assistance.

7. Feedback is appropriate to the purpose of the assignment and to its criteria for success.

8. Feedback is appropriate in relation to students’ understanding of what they are supposed to be doing.

9. Feedback is received and attended to. 10. Feedback is acted upon by the student.

Electronic version of this newsletter is available at iol.tamucc.edu 8

A pilot project between the Department of Undergraduate Studies, CASA, and the Division of Information Technolo-gy aims to do just that. A predictive analytics technology, known as Blackboard Predict, aggregates past student data from Banner and current class activity from Blackboard Learn to create risk reports. Faculty and advisors can use the risk reports along with information in Starfish to create intentional conversations and connect students to the Univer-sity resources they need to be successful. The project is more than technology – the departments are reviewing their processes to ensure they are working effectively together to help students. Dr. Gerry Moreno, Assistant Vice President for Academic Success, says “Identifying students early and getting them to the appropriate resources may be a challenge, but we believe the process we are going through will help us to get Uni-versity students connected in a more timely manner.” When faculty use Blackboard Learn in their classes, rich data is available about grades as well as student engagement in the class. Blackboard Predict uses this information in a cus-tom predictive model to create risk reports that identify students at risk earlier in the semester than we do today. The pilot will begin this fall in the First Year Seminar classes and be continually evaluated as the year progresses.

Anglin, L., Anglin, K., Schumann, P. L., & Kaliski, J. A. (2008). Improving the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Grading Through the Use of Computer-Assisted Grading Rubrics. Decision Sciences Journal of Inno vative Education, 6(1), 51-73. In this study the authors test the use of computer-assisted grading rubrics compared to other grading methods with respect to the efficiency and effective-ness of different grading processes for subjective as-signments. The test was performed on a large Intro-duction to Business course. The students in this course were randomly assigned to four treatment groups based on the grading method. Efficiency was meas-ured by the professor's time to grade the assignments; effectiveness was measured by a student satisfaction survey. Results suggest that the computer-assisted grading rubrics were almost 200% faster than traditional hand grading without rubrics, more than 300% faster than hand grading with rubrics, and nearly 350% faster than typing the feedback into a Learning Content Manage-ment System. Results also indicated that the use of a computer-assisted grading rubric did not negatively affect stu-dent attitudes concerning the helpfulness of their feedback, their satisfaction with the speed with which they received their feedback, or their satisfaction with the method by which they received feedback.

Pilot Project Leverages Analytics to Improve Student Success—Eliminate silos, deliver actionable information, and reach students in time to make a life-changing difference.