September Blackboard Learn Open Labs

CTLI's Instructional Technology and Design (ITD) team will be hosting a series of Blackboard Learn Open Labs during the first two weeks of the semester.

Faculty are welcome to drop by the open labs if they have any questions/issues or would like to come in to work on your courses and get assistance from CTLI ITD staff. CTLI ITD team members will be available to assist on both the Danvers and Lynn campuses.

Week of September 3rd

• Tuesday, September 4th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB387 and LS319
• Thursday, September 6th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB387 and LS319
• Friday, September 7th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB387 and LS319    

Week of September 10th

• Monday, September 10th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB387 and LS319
• Tuesday, September 11th from 9:00am-2:00pm in DB387 and LS319
• Wednesday, September 12th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB387 and LS319
• Thursday, September 13th from 9:00am-3:00pm in DB387 and LS319 

   
Also, please do not hesitate to contact the Blackboard Learn Helpdesk at bbhelp@northshore.edu if there are any issues with Blackboard Learn.

20 Minute Mentor - Online Faculty Professional Development - Fall 2018 Schedule

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CTLI) offers faculty a professional development series from Magna Publications, called the 20 Minute Mentor. The goal of the 20 Minute Mentor series is to offer faculty practical professional development opportunities in twenty minute snippets that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time during the given week. Session topics cover the areas of student engagement, teaching and learning, teaching online, assessment and learning goals, and classroom management.

Information on how to access the 20 Minute Mentor sessions is available each week in the Bulletin and the iDevelop e-newsletter.

New video presentations (with supplementary materials) go live at 10:00am each Monday morning and are only accessible through Sunday. 

The following sessions are on the schedule for fall 2018. For session descriptions, objectives, and mentor bios, click on the titles below. 

• August 27 - How Can I Bring Pop to My Classroom with Pop Culture?
• September 3 - How Can I Promote Enrollment and Retention in Challenging Courses that Motivate Instead of Frustrate?
• September 10 - What are Five Tips for Creating Videos that Promote Knowledge and Expand My Reach?
• September 17 - How Will OER Benefit the 21st Century Student?
• September 24 - How Can Livestreaming Bring New Life to My Teaching?
• October 1 - What is Gamification and How Can it Promote a Growth Mindset?
• October 8 - How Can the Three C's of Course Design Enhance Students' Online Performance?
• October 15 - How Can I Use Simple Gamification Strategies to Engage my Students?
• October 22 - How Can I Get Students to Engage with Course Content Before Class?
• October 29 - How Can I Resolve Difficult Situations in the Classroom?
• November 5 - How Should I Manage My Online Course?
• November 12 - How Can I Engage the Emotions of My Students to Maximize Learning?
• November 19 - How Can I Gain Valuable Insight from Course Evaluations?
• November 26 - How Can I Encourage Students to Stay Connected with Course Content After Class?
• December 3 - How Can Talking through Course Evaluations Improve my Teaching?
• December 10 - How Can Promoting Academic Integrity Improve Learning Outcomes for Students?

We would love to hear your feedback on the usefulness of these sessions. Please send your input to ctli@northshore.edu.

Preparing for Fall 2018 Courses in Blackboard Learn

As you start to think about your fall courses, we wanted to share with you the following important information that will help you prepare your course site in Blackboard Learn.

Copying a Course
To copy a previous course site into a new one in Blackboard Learn:

1. Go into the course site that has the content to copy. In the Control Panel, expand the "Packages and Utilities" section and click Course Copy.
2. On the next screen, in the “Select Copy Type” section, make sure Copy Course Materials into Existing Course is selected in the drop down menu.
3. Now, in the “Select Copy Options” section, next to the Destination Course ID field, click Browse. Then, find and select the Course ID for the new course (the one you want to put the content into). Click Submit.
4. Select the Course Materials that you want to copy over to the new course. Usually, Select All is the best choice, although you might not want to copy announcements.
1. If Select All is not used, make sure to include Grade Center Columns and Settings if Assignments and/or Tests are being copied.
2. Also, under Discussion Board, select Include only the forums, with no starter posts if threads are not created by the instructor for students to respond to. If not, all student threads will copy over as anonymous and they will need to be deleted.
5. In the “File Attachments” section, keep the default settings.
6. Click Submit.

Please note: When a previous course site is copied over into a new course site, any new or changed content areas will be added to the bottom of the course menu.

Make Your Course Available
All Blackboard Learn course sites are unavailable to students by default. Here are the directions for making the course site available to your students. To open your course:

1. Go into the course site.
2. On the Control Panel, expand the "Customization" section and click Properties.
3. On the next screen, in the "Set Availability" section, select Yes to make the course available.
4. Click Submit.

Preparing a Blackboard Learn Course Site for a New Semester
Please check out this handy reference at http://goo.gl/pZbUZ8 to help you prepare a  Blackboard Learn course site for a new semester.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Blackboard Learn Helpdesk at bbhelp@northshore.edu if there are any issues with Blackboard Learn.

August and September Blackboard Learn and Instructional Technology Workshops

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation's Instructional Technology and Design team will be holding various Blackboard Learn and Instructional Technology workshops in August and September.

In August and September, the CTLI's Instructional Technology and Design team will be sponsoring a series of workshops on a variety of topics around integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment as well as on using Blackboard Learn.

Workshops include:

• Introduction to Blackboard Learn
• Blackboard Learn Interaction Tool: Discussion Board
• Blackboard Learn: Using Interactive Grading Rubrics
• Blackboard Learn: Assignments and Safe Assign
• Blackboard Learn: Tests and Surveys
• Blackboard Learn: Grade Center and Grading
• Virtual Classrooms with Blackboard Learn Collaborate {NEW}
• Accessibility Awareness with Blackboard Ally and Creating Accessible Documents {NEW}
• “10” Things You Might Not Know about Blackboard Learn: What’s New and Hidden Gems  {NEW}
• New to Smart Classrooms

To view the complete schedule of workshop sessions (with descriptions) and to RSVP, please visit this web site: https://goo.gl/forms/TRcmkQAhtMrhYqaY2.

If interested in attending a workshop, please make sure to RSVP. A workshop will be cancelled if less than three people sign up for it.