Library Databases

As many of you already know, the library subscribes to a number of databases. These information products offer students access to magazine, journal, and newspaper articles—as well as excerpts from books, pamphlets, etc. You will find a list of them on the library’s website, under Databases A to Z. (http://www.cuyamaca.net/library/moresources/databases.asp)

If there is a specific database on the Databases A to Z page you'd like to embed into your Blackboard container (or place on a course website), let me know. Because we pay for these databases, we have to add EZ Prozy to the URLs so that students can get in (with a username and password). However, I would be happy to give you the appropriate URL(s), if you are interested.

Guest posted by your Librarian,
Kari Wergeland
kari.wergeland@gcccd.edu
619-660-4412

OTLC Brown Bag This Thursday

The Online Teaching and Learning Committee (OTLC) is hosting a (bring your own) Brown Bag lunch meeting this Thursday, April 16th from noon to 1pm. You can find us on the balcony of the Student Center on the east side of the top floor.

If you have questions about teaching online, or want to share strategies and ideas about teaching online, please join us. If you've never taught online and are considering starting to use some of the online tools, this is the place to get the answers to your questions. You can also find out what your peers are doing with their classes.

Note: brown bag is optional, everyone is welcome!

ITC and OTLC Minutes for March Posted

March 13th meeting minutes for the Online Teaching and Learning Committee and the Instructional Technology Council have been posted to the Teaching Online website. Look for the "MEETING MINUTES" link in the upper right corner of the page.

Conflicted About Conflicker?

With all the media hype about Conflicker, you'd think there was an easy way to make sure it wasn't on your computer. Today I finally found a very simple test for Conflicker at:
http://www.joestewart.org/cfeyechart.html

If that page indicates that you are infected, contact your virus protection vendor for your home computers, or contact IS at 644-7547 if it is a campus computer.

WebCT Bites the Dust (in June)

The final day for access to WebCT will be June 16, 2009. This is two weeks past the grade deadline for the Spring semester. If you need help moving from WebCT to Blackboard, please contact Rhonda at x 4013.

For those of us that remember the song "Another One Bites the Dust," here's a link to a YouTube video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

Test Options

On January 12th I wrote a blog post about the Force Completion setting in Blackboard. I would like to expand on that topic today.

There are two settings in Bb test options that work in conjunction with each other on a test. These are Force Completion and Set Timer.

If you put a check mark next to Force Completion, students must complete the test without interruption. That means that if their internet connection is lost or for any other reason they cannot complete the test all at once, they will not be able to return to the test to complete it. For this reason, I recommend that you leave this option unchecked.

However, Bb unfortunately adds the following statement to the test when the student takes the test: "Force Completion This Test can be saved and resumed later. "

This gives students the idea that they can stop taking the test whenever they feel like it and come back later and finish it. Which they can, but if you put a check mark next to "Set Timer" to put a time limit on a test (which I also recommend), what they don't know is that the timer keeps running, whether they are actively taking the test or not!

So while it is good to leave Force Completion blank, you need to add a statement to the Instructions to inform students that the timer will keep running no matter what happens once they begin the test. It will run even if their computer is turned off. You will want to make your grading policy for going over the time limit clear in this area.

You can add these instructions by going to the Test Manager, clicking on the Modify button for that test, then click the Modify button to edit the test information. (See the image below)


If the student goes past the allotted time you will see an exclamation point in the Grade Center (rather than a score) which will allow you to investigate further. The amount of time they used to take the test will be shown in the Grade Details.

IE8 and Blackboard Do Not Mix

Microsoft just released version 8 of their Internet Explorer browser (IE 8). Some of your students may have installed this on their computers. If they have, please suggest that they use Firefox instead. Please notify your online students that they may have problems using IE 8 with Blackboard to deter them from upgrading if possible.

The Compatibility View toolbar button in IE 8 does not solve all the problems your students may experience with Blackboard. One of the problems they may report is that they can't submit a timed test because the timer button is too big and is covering the Submit button. They may also have trouble submitting assignments.

How to Keep Your Emails From Going to Spam

Online instructors use email as one of their primary means of communication with students. However, some email clients may see your emails as spam so your students may miss getting them because they don't remember to look in their spam folder.

Deanna Thompson created a tutorial for students that shows them how to put you on their safe senders list so your emails won't go to the spam folder. You can give your students this link - http://www.cuyamaca.edu/helpdesk/tutorial_email.asp - to view the tutorial if they are having problems receiving your emails. You might want to put the link in your syllabus or your initial email to students each semester.

ITC and OTLC Minutes

Each month we will be posting minutes for the ITC (Instructional Technology Council) and the OTLC (Online Teaching and Learning Committee). You can find them on the home page of Tom Doyle's Teaching Online website.

Please check them out to stay informed!

Study Reports Podcast Trumps Lecture

Diff (Gregory Differding) has recommended two articles that address issues important to our online faculty.

The first article is "Podcast Trumps Lecture in One College Study." According to researchers, "Students who listened to a lecture via iTunes U outperformed those who attended in person."

"The ability to pause and rewind podcast lectures gave the upper hand to college students in a recent study that compared the performance of students who attended a lecture in person and those who viewed it from iTunes University."

The second article Diff recommended is "UC Distance Learning Up 15%." The UC in question here is the University of Cincinnati, but the information in the article applies to all of us.

Please take a few minutes to read these articles.

Test Taking Tips

Deanna Thompson created a web page that's full of test taking tips that you can offer your students. Just pass on this URL to your students: http://www.cuyamaca.edu/helpdesk/exam_tips.asp.

This exam tips page is just one of the many pages of useful information prepared specifically for online students that you can provide access to from your courses. Just link them to http://www.cuyamaca.edu/helpdesk/.

USGS Is Shaking It Up With Google

Enough about Blackboard already! Let's talk earthquakes today.

Google has teamed up with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and they just came out with a new feature that shows the most recent earthquakes at the top of their search results when you do a Google search for earthquakes. Search on earthquakes california and you'll get the most recent earthquakes in California.

Here are a few more things you can do with the information.

"If you'd like to know the local time where an earthquake occurred, search for 'time' followed by the location (for example, 'time Japan'). Let's say the epicenter was 50km from the coast and you want to know how far that is in miles. Type '50km in miles' into the search box. You can find out about these special features and many more on the Search Features page. "

Hide Courses in Blackboard

Now that Snapshot is generating course containers for you every semester, you may find that there are courses showing on your Blackboard Welcome Page that you don't need this semester. Blackboard provides a way to hide or show only the courses you want. I've created a video that shows you how to do this at http://www.cuyamaca.edu/tlc/bb/docs/hide_courses/hide_courses.html.

Course Merge Tool Available

The Course Merge Tool is available again. Please be aware that once you have merged courses, requesting an ‘unmerge’ will delete student work and grades. If you plan on merging courses, please schedule an appointment to meet with Rhonda, or carefully review these instructions.

Remove Extra Columns in the Grade Center

You may have noticed that you have two or more Total columns and two or more Weighted Total columns in your Blackboard Grade Center. These extra columns should be removed so students aren't confused by what they see in My Grades.

One of the Total columns has a green check mark. You cannot remove that column.

To remove columns, click the double arrows next to the column name, then click Remove Column.

Just don't get carried away and delete too many columns!

Enroll Someone in Your Bb Course

Since we went to Snapshot, you can no longer directly enroll someone in your course using Blackboard. This is because Snapshot gets all confused (silly robot) when it sees enrollments it didn't create.

You may still need to have TA's and Guest Lecturers enrolled into your classes, so IS has created a form you can fill out to request enrollments that you can reach directly at http://www.gcccd.edu/online/faculty_support/courseware/container-req-step-2-add-2009.htm.

Use your campus email User name and password to log in.

Hide Students that have Dropped

In the Blackboard Grade Center you can hide students who have dropped your course by following these steps:

1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Click on Grade Center
3. Hover over the Manage toolbar button and click on Show/Hide Users
4. Put a check mark next to the name of each person you would like to hide
5. Click on the Hide Users button on the toolbar
6. Click Submit
   

Learn Something New

@ONE is offering online courses that begin on February 23rd. They offer some very useful courses to prepare you for teaching online, as well as how to use various computer software packages. They emphasize pedagogy along with technology. For a complete list of these courses and their descriptions visit the @ONE website.

Here are some of the 4 week courses they're offering:

Online Teaching

• Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning - 2/23 to 3/20
• Introduction to Teaching with Blackboard - 3/2 to 3/27
• Building Learning Communities Online - 3/9 to 4/3

Multimedia

• Photoshop Basics and Easy Page Layout - 3/9 to 4/3
• Dreamweaver I: Design and Build a Basic Web site - 3/9 to 4/3
• Dreamweaver II: Web Templates, CSS, and Multimedia - 4/20 to 5/15
• Audio and Podcasting for Teaching - 3/9 to 4/3
• Video and Vodcasting for Teaching - 4/20 to 5/15

They also have one hour "Learn at Lunch Desktop Seminars" on a wide variety of topics. Some examples are:

• Getting the Most from Word 2007, Part 1: Creating & Sharing Documents - 3/3
• Save $$ with Free and Open Textbooks - 2/25
• Engaging Millennial Students with Fun Tech: Learning with Comics - 2/26

IE 8 Not Supported in Blackboard

Some of your students may have installed Internet Explorer (IE) 8 on their computers. Please notify your online students that they may have problems using IE 8 with Blackboard. They can click the Compatibility View toolbar button in IE 8 or better yet, they can use Firefox instead.

One of the problems they may report is that they can't submit a timed test because the timer button is too big and is covering the Submit button. They may also have trouble submitting assignments.

Forms anyone?

I just found out about this cool tool that is part of Google Docs called "Forms." It does exactly what you think it does, it creates a form for people to fill in. So what good would this do most of you?

This form could be used to gather data for SLO's, or to get students to send you their correct contact/email information.

The form can be emailed or embedded into a webpage or Blackboard. You can be notified when someone completes a form, or once a day in digest form, or not at all. The results are stored in a Google Docs spreadsheet that can be downloaded into Excel if you're more comfortable with that. I'm not a big fan of the other Google Docs tools and now that I'm using MS Office Live for online document sharing I don't need them. However, the forms tool gives functionality that I haven't seen anywhere else.

The University of Colorado did a webinar on using Google Forms that can be viewed at:

https://connect.cuonline.edu/p24489351/