Massive Open Online Class (MOOC) on “Online Learning Today...and Tomorrow.”

The Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at the University of Illinois Springfield is hosting a Massive Open Online Class (MOOC) that already has over 2,500 participants registered. This course started June 27th, but there's still time to register and take advantage of the chance to learn, connect, and collaborate with thousands of others around the world that are interested in Online Learning.

There are no grades, certificates, or requirements for this course. You can concentrate on the areas that interest you or take in the entire experience. There will be a weekly webcast on Thursday mornings at 11am Pacific time. This webcast will be recorded, so you can watch it at your convenience. The course runs until August 19th.

Here are the weekly webcast topics:

6/27/2011	Online Learning Today
7/4/2011	Online Learning Research
7/11/2011	Online Learning Technologies
7/18/2011	Online Learning Apps and Mobile Learning
7/25/2011	Public, Private & Open - Learning
8/1/2011	Personal Learning - Informal Learning
8/8/2011	Collaboratives & Collectives in the Clouds
8/15/2011	Online Learning 2011-2021

You can register for this MOOC on the right sidebar about 1/3 of the way down the page at https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/home.

100 Essential Tips for Microsoft Office 2010

PCMAG.com has put together "100 tips for using Microsoft Office 2010." A lot of time that can be saved by using these tips, most of which I'd never known about before. You can view them at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387115,00.asp.

Online Teaching Conference 2011

There is still time to register for the online sessions of the Online Teaching Conference. The conference is being held this Thursday and Friday at Orange Coast College, but many of the sessions will be viewable over the web. Online attendance is FREE, so register now at http://otc11.org/ and watch from the comfort of your home.

Grading Students Anonymously

Another new feature in Blackboard 9.1 is the ability to grade anonymously. This tool helps eliminate bias when grading assignments and test questions that are not automatically graded. Watch the Anonymous Grading video at http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_grade_center_anonymous_grading.htm to find out how.

Bb 9.1 Workshop Links

We had a great workshop today. I was thrilled to see so many faculty attending either online or in person. You are a dedicated bunch of teachers!

I promised to post a couple of links that I mentioned in the workshop today to this blog so they would be handy for everyone.

First is the "Understanding the Change from Blackboard Learn 9.0 to 9.1 document. This is a "lite" version of the document that Blackboard gave us. I edited 63 pages down to the 21 pages that effect faculty. The rest is a bunch of geeky stuff that you won't miss.
http://www.cuyamaca.edu/rhonda.bauerlein/bb/Understanding_the_Change_in_Blackboard_9-1_Faculty.pdf

The next link is to the instructions on how to archive your courses. Archiving will give you a backup of your course in case anything goes wrong. You should archive your courses several times a semester. As I mentioned in the workshop, don't skip the last few steps where you save the file to your hard drive. If you don't take those last steps and your course is messed up, the archive won't do you any good since it is part of the course and will be ruined too.
http://www.gcccd.edu/online/tutorials/bb/archive-your-course.pdf

Since I'm on the subject of tutorials, take a look at the other tutorials Chris Rodgers (my counterpart at Grossmont) and I have created for you at http://www.gcccd.edu/online/faculty/. Some of them are appropriate for you to link to for your students to show them how to change their email address or submit an assignment.

If you missed the workshop today, you can view the archive at http://tinyurl.com/bb91workshop. The bad news is that I forgot to start recording until 40 minutes into the workshop. Sorry about that! At least you'll get to see the last 80 minutes of the workshop.

Blackboard 9.1 Workshop on Wednesday

On Saturday we upgraded Blackboard to version 9.1. To help you transition to this new version I'm offering a workshop covering the new features in 9.1 this Wednesday, June 8th from 10 am - Noon.

For your convenience, you can attend either in person or online.   Those that want to attend in person will meet in room C-223 (upstairs in the Library).  You don't need to RSVP, I think we'll have plenty of computers available for everyone who wants to attend.

The workshop will be simultaneously offered online through CCC Confer.  To attend online follow these instructions:

Ø  Dial your telephone conference line: (888) 886-3951

Ø  Enter your passcode: 416491

Ø  Go to www.cccconfer.org.

Ø  Click the Student Log In button under the Teach & Confer logo.

Ø  Locate the “What's New in Blackboard 9.1” meeting and click Go.

Ø  Fill out the form and enter the password: 416491

STUDENT TELEPHONE CONFERENCE FEATURES:
*0 - Contact the operator for assistance with the audio.
*6 - Mute/unmute your individual line with a private announcement.

QUESTIONS?
CCC Confer Client Services is available Monday through Friday between 8:00 am - 4:00 pm at 760-744-1150 ext 1537 or 1554 or email clientservices@cccconfer.org.

To make the most out of this workshop, please log into Blackboard and take a good look around version 9.1. Write down any questions you have and bring them with you to the workshop. 

New Online Course for Blackboard 9.1 Available

The "Teaching with Blackboard" online course has been updated to reflect the changes for version 9.1. This course is a self-paced course that you can take at any time, or just use it as a reference to look up how to do specific things. If you're fairly new to using Blackboard, this is the best way to learn how to use it.

You can sign up for this course at http://www.gcccd.edu/online/tutorials/bb/twbb.asp.