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Blackboard World '07
This past July in Boston I attended the
first Bb World '07 with all the Blackboard users under one roof. One
thing that struck me was the total confusion in that no one was
quite sure which product was being demonstrated when one walked into
a session. Is this 'Blackboard' Blackboard, or 'WebCT' Blackboard,
or Vista. Many speakers before they began had to state several times
which product they were using--which usually was followed by several
people leaving because they were expecting Blackboard...or CE6/Vista
4.
This scenario is symptomatic of the state of flux--even chaos--that
Blackboard finds itself in. As a result, their business model will
be small, incremental changes over the next few years, in which a
feature may show up in Blackboard but not in CE6, or in CE6 and not
in Blackboard--until a common product line comes on the market. For
example, Blackboard will have a Web 2.0 / Ajax dynamic grade book in
the fall release, but CE6 users will have to wait at least another
year. But then I saw many Blackboard users salivate over the Grading
Forms tool only to discover that it is a feature only in CE6.
As we contemplate our future with Blackboard, I want to at least let
you know that despite our problems there are some new and good
developments with the product. The Grading Form tool is perhaps one
of the best tools to be produced--which none of the other LMS
systems have, yet. Here is where they are playing catch-up. If
you've not yet created or used the grading forms--along with the
Objectives feature--I urge you to try it this semester. If you need
help or more information about this tool, please contact me and I'll
come by and meet with you. I also hope to have another Brown Bag
this semester on Grading Forms.
Another new feature is SafeAssign, Blackboard's plagiarism detection
software. Unlike Turnitin, which archives all student submissions,
SafeAssign allows the student to decide whether or not to have
his/her paper archived. Those who objected to Turnitin because it
lacked this feature, can now use SafeAssign instead. Both products
will identify student work plagiarized from internet sources and
paper-mill documents. However if you're concerned about re-used
papers internal to JCCC, SafeAssign will catch only those papers
students themselves decide to add to the database.
Lastly is Scholar, an online repository of links to academic
resources. With Scholar you can create specific bookmarks to
resources that are course and/or discipline specific. This is
particularly helpful if you assign research papers and wish to
direct students to 'good' web sites that you know provide scholarly
and accurate content--rather than students surfing the net and using
suspect or questionable material in their research. Go to
www.scholar.com
to register ad create your links. Then create a Scholar icon on your
Blackboard course content home page.
Online Course Information
Guide
Please be sure that the information on your page(s) in the
Online Course Information Guide is accurate and up to date.
If you plan to teach a new online course next semester, or if one of
your colleagues is teaching the online section in stead, please send
me the additions or
corrections at
michaelr@jccc.edu.
Online Course Student Feedback Survey For those
who wish student feedback from their online courses, the Online
Course Student Feedback Survey can be found at
http://jcccsurvey.jccc.edu/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=3M0l53L12595K.
There are several ways of delivering the survey. One is to
create a Calendar entry as a link to the above URL. Another mode of
delivery is to create an icon on the Course Content Home page linked
to the URL. This allows the instructor to set release criteria for
access the Survey. Online
Student Orientation 'CD'
The online student orientation material is located at
http://students.jccc.edu/dlorientation. You might want to add
this URL to your Web Links tool. You can also direct students to the
hands-on exercises to help them gain familiarity with Blackboard before
the semester begins. To gain access to the
Z - Dev
Courses - DL Orientation shell, type in
OCB30401 to
99 as the User Name on the
Blackboard
login page, and 123456 as the Password.
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LMS
Review Status
For those of you who were not able to attend the Faculty Forum on
Blackboard Monday (August 13) I'll give you a short status report
here. The matter before us is whether to continue using Blackboard
CE or switch to another LMS. As you are well aware, JCCC faculty and
tech support have reported a number of issues since our migration
from WebCT 4.1 to CE6 18+ months ago. Many of these problems have
been fixed over time through the current release of 6.2--but at
great cost in time and money to faculty, students, and the
institution. Nevertheless, some persistent issues remain. For some
users, those outstanding issues cause real problems in the delivery
of their classes. For others, CE6 is stable and works quite well for
their purposes.
I have come to realize that the migration from 4.1 to 6.0 was not
simply an upgrade of the product, like we experienced from 3.8 to
4.1. In reality 6.0 was an entirely new LMS. And even if 6.0 had
been shipped free of bugs, we should have dedicated more time and
resources
over the course of a semester or two to train staff and
faculty to use the new LMS, and to help faculty rebuild each
course within 6.0. But because we thought--and were sold--the idea
that 6.0 was an upgrade, we rushed the process. I am one of the
people responsible for that decision and I apologize. I do not want
to repeat that mistake should we decide to migrate away from
Blackboard.
Should JCCC faculty/staff decide to adopt another LMS, it will
require considerable time, effort, and resources from all involved.
Csilla Duneczky (ATAC co-chair) outlined the time-line at the forum,
noting the earliest we would have a small pilot group of
faculty using the new LMS would be Fall 2008. The DL faculty could
expect a Spring 2009 availability, and general availability in
Summer/Fall 2009.
The migration, however, will require each class to be rebuilt within
the architecture of the new LMS. The EdTech Center will provide
numerous opportunities over the course of 2008-09 to assist faculty
with recreating courses. To assist in this endeavor, Jonathan Bacon
is recommending that all faculty learn how to use SoftChalk, a
product that takes several file formats and converts the content
into a clean HTML document.
Sometime in September the faculty will hold a confidence /
no-confidence vote on Blackboard. Should the result be
'no-confidence' an RFP would go out. So far there are only three
vendors who meet the criteria developed in the spring by ATAC and DL
Faculty: Blackboard, Angel, and Desire2Learn. But other vendors may
submit proposals. Although Angel seems to be the favorite from the
RFI presentations last spring, because JCCC is a public institution
bound by Purchasing policies and procedures, and budget guidelines
requiring Board approval, we will need to make an informed decision
on the products based on objective rubrics and trial use of the
systems.
It's imperative that DL faculty test drive Angel and Desire2Learn.
You can go to their web sites and sign up for a sandbox course. Look
for emails from Jonathan and/or Csilla in the coming weeks for
updates and information regarding the LMS Review.
iTeach Online
(formerly
WebCeTera)
The Ed Tech Center offers iTeach Online twice a semester.
For more information and
registration instructions go to
http://web.jccc.net/edtech/training/Schedule.htm.
Although iTeach Online is required
of those who have never taught online and wish to do so, those who
have been teaching online for many years will benefit greatly from
the course. iTeach provides instruction in online pedagogy, the
Quality Matters rubric of course design, and copyright issues, as
well as introducing the instructor to Blackboard Campus Edition
6.2--both as designer and as a student. iTeach Online includes tutorial movies, directed online
discussions, optional live chat sessions, a Horizon Wimba Live
Classroom demo, specific learning activities (assignments), and quizzes.
iTeach Online is
an interactive class that gives faculty a chance to experience being
an online student. Participants receive 147 Practical Tips
for Teaching Online Groups, plus an
iTeach Online t-shirt after
successful completion of the course.
All the training materials and Captivate videos are available
online at
TechNotes on the
Blackboard CE
Resources page (Ed Tech Center). You'll also find links to
iTunes U and the CE6.x Blog (Tips) Jonathan regularly sends
through JCCC email.
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