DL Tip of the Week - Engaging and Interacting with Students

This week's DL Tip of the week is about interaction. This is the third week of 16 week courses. As an instructor, posting weekly announcements regularly (at least one time per week), or more often is encouraged. Be sure to emphasize office hours and utilize Bb IM. Additionally, some interaction will occur one-on-one through email, phone, and in-person visits when possible.

Students just need to know they are doing things the right way for their course; waiting 2-3 weeks or more for communication leaves the student behind. Never interacting or providing untimely interaction and feedback is injustice to the online student. In online, there are those "no-show students" (even if they completed the no-show activity) who have already stopped working in their courses. All faculty members need to take time to reach out more to these fallen students. In the end, the interaction does have to be a two-way street. Simple stated, those students who are engaged by the instructor and interact back, gain more from the class than those who don't. Create opportunity for interaction and engagement, require the interaction through discussion boards, blogs, journals, or other ways, consistently send announcements and class emails, and setup time to follow up with those students lagging or are who behind. That extra message may push that "no-show student" to reach out for help. Some students do not know how to reach out for help, even when it is right in front of them, so make it easy for them.

Take time this week to set up a communication strategy for the semester (if you haven't already done so). Develop and plan time for interaction. At HCTC, we have many faculty members that send out 30-40 class emails and announcements each term (some more and some less), which is about an average of 3 postings per week.

Teaching online can be demanding, more so than in-person as you know. The DL Team (Brad, Wendy, Paul, Laura, Kim, and myself) wants to thank you for all your hard work that you put into your online class(es), from development to delivery and working to have yourself and your courses certified. We want a community of sharing ideas and helping each other to the best of our abilities; and for students who are in your online classes to have an experience like no other and it all starts with interaction and engagement.

On Demand Blackboard Communicating and Collaborating How-to's

Articles/Online Resources
Best practices in online teaching strategies
6 keys to engaging students online
Engaging student in learning through online discussion
Engaging students with technology

If for any reason the links appear broken, if you need help, or if you have an idea for a DL Tip of the Week, please email us at HCTC-DL@kctcs.edu.

Remember if you need assistance, please let a member of the DL Team know.

Brad Roberts, DL Specialist (Faculty/Student Support) – Lees
Paul Currie, DL Specialist (Faculty Support) – Hazard, Knott, Leslie, Tech
Wendy Davidson, LoD Program Coordinator (LoD support and Student Support)

Blackboard Downtime

KCTCS eLearning (Blackboard) will be unavailable Friday, January 31, from 1:00 AM EST until 3:00 AM EST to perform system maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

If you are currently taking a course that utilizes Blackboard, be sure to download any materials or assignments you may need to continue course work during this time.

Thank you for your understanding and patience as we continue to improve the KCTCS elearning experience.

eLearning Services
KCTCS

Blackboard Seeks Your Input

The Blackboard team is investigating a significantly simplified instructor experience and we'd like to know more about the experiences that your faculty find frustrating today. 

Complete the survey:

https://bbuxresearch.wufoo.com/forms/simplifying-your-use-of-blackboard-learn/  

Blackboard Downtime

KCTCS eLearning (Blackboard) will be unavailable Thursday, January 23, from 1:00 AM EST until 4:00 AM EST to perform system maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

If you are currently taking a course that utilizes Blackboard, be sure to download any materials or assignments you may need to continue course work during this time.

Thank you for your understanding and patience as we continue to improve the KCTCS elearning experience.

eLearning Services
KCTCS

DL Tip of the Week - Synchronizing SoftChalk Content

This week’s tip is about "Synchronizing SoftChalk Content".

Just a reminder that if you use Softchalk, after you copy your content, you will need to synchronize the SoftChalk file.

To Sync your SoftChalk Content, open the course with SoftChalk content.

Click on Course Tools down under Course Management.

Click on SoftChalk - Synchronize Copied Content.

Click Synchronize. Synchronize will run, depending on the number of files you have will depend on how long it will take to run the Sync, but it should not take but a few minutes.

Click Ok to return.

Then proceed to other course management activities.


If for any reason the links appear broken, if you need help, or if you have an idea for a DL Tip of the Week, please email us at HCTC-DL@kctcs.edu.

Remember if you need assistance, please let a member of the DL Team know.
Brad Roberts, DL Specialist (Faculty/Student Support) – Lees
Paul Currie, DL Specialist (Faculty Support) – Hazard, Knott, Leslie, Tech
Wendy Davidson, LoD Program Coordinator (LoD support and Student Support)

DL Tip of the Week - Setting Test Availability Exceptions on Exams

This week’s tip is about "Setting Test Availability Exceptions on Exams".

When deploying a test in Blackboard, instructors may create exceptions to the already established settings. This may be used to provide an exception to individual or groups of students. Exceptions may be created for: number of attempts, test timer, auto submit, availability dates, and force completion. Exceptions may be set up at any time.

Setting test availability exceptions may be handy if you have been recently notified about students with an accommodation plan requiring double or triple the time you have set. You no longer have to create an extra test and deal with the extra column in your grade center.

How-to Video

If for any reason the links appear broken, if you need help, or if you have an idea for a DL Tip of the Week, please email us at HCTC-DL@kctcs.edu.

Remember if you need assistance, please let a member of the DL Team know.

• Brad Roberts, DL Specialist (Faculty/Student Support) – Lees
• Paul Currie, DL Specialist (Faculty Support) – Hazard, Knott, Leslie, Tech
• Wendy Davidson, LoD Program Coordinator (LoD support and Student Support) 

2020 Vision: Outlook for online learning in 2014 and way beyond

Looks like we still have a ways to go with online learning but that some day the idea will no longer be a separate entity. There will be a wide range of ways in which students can obtain open educational resources and lecture based courses will start to fade away much more. True lifelong learning will become a collaborative learning and sharing of knowledge and experience. This is an interesting article by Tony Bates about the predictions on the future of online learning.  Read more...

Four Elements to Jumpstart your e-Learning Designs in 2014

Upcoming webinar presented by Ethan Edwards

Do you want to jumpstart your e-learning design approach in 2014? Are you seeking ways to breathe life and engagement into your learning projects?

In this webinar I'm going to cover the concept of instructional interactivity, and demonstrate how it can energize an e-learning experience for learners. I'll also demo award-winning, real-world examples that give meaning to and illustrate the four essential components of instructional interactivity.

Wednesday, January 29th, 1:00-2:00 pm Central

In this 60-minute webinar learn:

• what instructional interactivity is and how it can jumpstart your e-learning efforts in 2014
• the four essential elements of instructional interactivity
• to design engaging contexts, motivating challenges, appropriate activities, and instructional feedback into interactive design
• the critical elements of any authoring tool used to create instructional interactivity

Presented by:
Ethan Edwards
chief instructional strategist

Allen Interactions

Register NOW!

DL Tip of the Week - New Semester Reminders

As we begin another semester, we will be here to post a DL Tip of the Week. We hope you find these helpful. If you have any ideas that you would like to submit for a DL Tip of the week, please submit your idea to HCTC-DL@kctcs.edu.

For your DL Tip of the Week for this week, here are some reminders.

1. Make your class available (if you have not already done so). Students begin checking their classes early on the start date, so please make available by 8:00 a.m.

2. If you are using Third Party Content, please be sure to share all information with your students including help desk numbers. We get many students at the beginning of the semester and it is hard to help them since the content or access to content is not accessible. Many times they do not have course IDs, their access codes, or issues with their access codes, or other related issues. We normally will send these students back to the instructor or to the vendor help desk.

3. Set expectations in the class and make clear how you want (and how often) you want students to access the course. What are the due dates? How long will it take you to grade their work and give them feedback. Generally you want to give feedback within 24-48 hours and you will want to communicate with your students or respond to emails within 24-48 hours.

4. Send your students a welcome message, welcoming them to the class. Letting them know what they need to do first (hopefully you have the NO-SHOW assignment as one thing they need to do first). Where they need to go in the course. Continue with weekly or bi-weekly announcements to help keep your students on track.

5. If you haven't you should provide your students with a course schedule or calendar of what they will be expected to do in the semester and when it is due.

6. Have your No-SHOW assignment ready. They should complete the no-show assignment, typically within  the first 7 days of class. Be ready to report on this and remember you will monitor attendance throughout the term. You must only use academic work related dates, NOT Blackboard access dates.

7. Be sure you are using the KCTCS email account and that you are instructing students to use their KCTCS email address. The KCTCS email address is the official communication tool for KCTCS and both the instructor and the student need to use the KCTCS email when communication about official and academic related items.

8. If you are using test proctoring, be sure you have been added to the KCTCS Distance Learning Test Repository Team Site on thePoint and that you follow the instructions. If you need assistance let a member of the DL Team know.

9. Provide opportunities for interaction. Utilize discussion boards and Blackboard IM and other methods of interaction. Students need to make a connection within the first 2-3 weeks of the course. Setup your Blackboard Profile and have your Students setup their Bb profile and add a picture. This adds some personalization to the course.

If for any reason the links appear broken, if you need help, or if you have an idea for a DL Tip of the Week, please email us at HCTC-DL@kctcs.edu.

Remember if you need assistance, please let a member of the DL Team know.

• Brad Roberts, DL Specialist (Faculty/Student Support) – Lees
• Paul Currie, DL Specialist (Faculty Support) – Hazard, Knott, Leslie, Tech
• Wendy Davidson, LoD Program Coordinator (LoD support and Student Support)