Tag: Blackboard

Toolin’ Around: Google Docs Voice Typing

Welcome to another CTLE “Toolin’ Around”!

What are these posts?

They are brief, easy-to-implement tips involving the tools we use everyday with students to make our teaching lives, well, easier (and possibly even more effective).

Toolin’ Around Tip: Use the Google Docs Voice Typing tool to produce engaging Blackboard announcements for students.

Benefits?

  • By first producing a class announcement using the voice typing tool, an instructor can then use the transcript as a means to produce a composed, focused, and concise message for students. The resulting MP4 audio file can then be inserted into a Blackboard announcement (with the Google Docs transcript linked and attached as an accessible Word document).
  • Students may enjoy receiving a course update in a new way with an audio-only announcement this way. Audio-only can also amplify the human side of an instructor–tone, emphasis, well-chosen words, and personality–in a different way than text only announcements. And who does not appreciate a break from video overload right now?

Learn How Now!

Enjoyed this? Tried it out? Have another idea we can share among teachers at Central Piedmont? Let us know in the Comments section below.

Toolin’ Around: Blackboard Attendance Quizzes

Welcome back to Toolin’ Around! We have something that may help keep your attendance reports up to date.

Toolin’ Around Tip: Creating a simple quiz in Blackboard will allow students to be marked as present in your attendance reporting. [Only for curriculum courses marked as Online or Hybrid] 

[This simple attendance “Quiz” does not substitute for student submissions of scholarly activities and is setup only for attendance reporting]

Benefits? This helps streamline your workload as you don’t have to manually mark students present. You can also utilize an assignment or any other assessment as long as it has a grading column. The idea is that you are using the quiz assessment as your attendance/roll call for each week, which will connect to your attendance report automatically (again as long as you have an Online or Hybrid curriculum course).

NOTE: You still are required to certify your attendance reports in your Attendance Entry each week.

Creating an Attendance Quiz that updates your Attendance Reporting: For Curriculum Online or Hybrid courses only

Want to know more?

Check out what Blackboard has in store for you.

Central Piedmont’s Blackboard Documentation

Enjoyed this? Tried it out? Have another idea we can share among teachers at Central Piedmont? Let us know in the Comments section below

Toolin’ Around: Discussion Originality

Welcome to another CTLE “Toolin’ Around”!

What are these posts?

They are brief, easy-to-implement tips involving the tools we use everyday with students to make our teaching lives, well, easier (and possibly even more effective).

Toolin’ Around Tip: Select from within “Forum Settings” to prohibit students from viewing other threads until they post their own.

Benefits? This simple setting can create big results: more original critical thinking in threads from each student prior to asking them to engage with and reply to one another’s threads! In turn, we as instructors may enjoy reviewing them for evaluation more too.

Learn How Now!

Enjoyed this? Tried it out? Have another idea we can share among teachers at Central Piedmont? Let us know in the Comments section below.

Toolin’ Around: Visual Rosters

Welcome to another CTLE “Toolin’ Around”!

What are these posts?

They are brief, easy-to-implement tips involving the tools we use everyday with students to make our teaching lives, well, easier (and possibly even more effective).

Toolin’ Around Tip: Create a visual roster for your class to set a more inviting and personalized learning environment.

Benefits? Faculty can use these to put a face with the name as they field electronic communications and digital grading. Students can enjoy this roster as they interact in online and hybrid learning exercises together. Remote learning can feel more rich, vibrant, and engaging when we better “see” one another.

Learn How Now!

Enjoyed this? Tried it out? Have another idea we can share among teachers at Central Piedmont? Let us know in the Comments section below.