Blackboard Exemplary Course Program

Greetings,

It's not too late to learn about course design best practices through the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program!

Each year Blackboard invites instructors and instructional designers to nominate their courses to the Exemplary Course Program for evaluation by teams of peer reviewers. These reviewers provide detailed feedback on the best practices employed in the course and note areas in which the course could be improved. This year we have more than 200 trained, volunteer reviewers standing by to provide feedback on your course!

Courses that are identified as Exemplary, and their creators, are highlighted by Blackboard. And best practices from the course design are shared with the broader education community through presentations at BbWorld, Blackboard's annual user's conference, at industry events, on the Blackboard website and more. Exemplary Course designers and instructors are invited to attend BbWorld and other conferences to share their experiences and best practices with the education community.

I encourage you to consider nominating your course, or that of one of your colleagues, for review. Deadline for submission is January 18, 2011. Information about the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program and how to nominate your course is available at www.blackboard.com/ecp.

If you have any questions, please send them to ecp@blackboard.com.

Sincerely,

Jan Poston Day
Senior Director, Client Engagement

Twitter in the Classrooom

Check it out ... “A new study, scheduled to be released next week by the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, suggests that using Twitter in class might in fact lead to greater engagement and higher grades ...” 

Read the full story...
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/08/sloan3

Are you using Twitter in your online, hybrid or face-to face classes?  Let us know!

-LT

How to Spot a Turkey in Cyberspace: Information Literacy PPT

How to Spot a Turkey in Cyberspace

This Information Literacy PowerPoint was presented at the 2005 NMC conference.

As global citizens become increasing reliant upon web-based information - AND web resource quality varies tremendously. Information literacy helps separate quality information treasure from the massive collection of cyber trash inhabiting the Internet. Information Literacy …enables us to analyze and evaluate the information we find on the Internet, giving us confidence in using the selections to make a decision or create a product.
 How to Spot a Turkey in Cyberspace suggests the 5 + 1 Evaluation Criteria:

• Accuracy
• Authority
• Objectivity
• Currency
• Coverage
• 5+1. Design /Navigation /ADA

~~CS Robinson

2011 Blackboard Exemplary Course Program

The 2011 Blackboard Exemplary Course Program is now open!

Since its launch in 2000, the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program aims to help faculty use e-Learning technology more effectively by identifying and disseminating best practices for designing engaging online courses.  Using a rubric, instructors and course designers are able to evaluate how well their own course conforms to best practices for Course Design, Interaction & Collaboration, Assessment and Learner Support.

Please consider participating in the 2011 Exemplary Course Program by submitting a course of your own or volunteering to be a reviewer or both!  The deadline for nominating your course for review is January 18, 2011. Feel free to forward this message on to faculty or instructional designers you think would benefit from participating in this program.
There are many benefits to participating in the Exemplary Course Program:

• Learn course design best practices to improve the engagement, collaboration, assessment and learner support within your own courses
• Develop a fresh perspective by seeing how other instructors and designers from your discipline or area of interest are developing their courses
• Apply lessons learned from the Exemplary Course Rubric to your own courses or those you are helping to develop
• Receive detailed feedback on your own course development on the best practices you are employing or areas in which it can be improved
• Gain professional development experience and recognition for your accomplishments and participation in the program

This is a valuable learning experience for even the most seasoned instructor or designer.
To learn more about the 2011 Exemplary Course Program visit www.blackboard.com/ecp where you will find information on how to:

• Volunteer to be a reviewer
• Download the Exemplary Course Rubric and Submit a Course for consideration
• Explore best practices and past winning courses
• Learn about how to participate in the 2011 Exemplary Course Program

We hope that you will be participating in this year's Exemplary Course Program. If you have any questions please send an email to ecp@blackboard.com.

-LT

Using Distance Education to Increase College Access and Efficiency

The LAO has a new report out on distance learning in higher education and degree programs:

"Distance Education Provides Additional Tool for Advancing Master Plan’s Goals. Fifty years ago, California adopted the Master Plan for Higher Education, a framework document designed to promote universal access for students and cost–effective coordination among the state’s colleges and universities. At the time, postsecondary education generally required students to travel to a campus for in–person classes with an instructor. Today, many students have another option: using technology (primarily the internet) to access instruction wherever they are. The California Community Colleges (CCC) are the largest provider of distance education among the state’s public higher education segments, with the California State University (CSU) also offering a considerable amount of instruction using this delivery method. (Currently, the University of California [UC] system’s use of the medium is limited, though UC is planning a pilot project that could eventually result in a much more extensive distance–education program.)" ...

Read the full report: http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2010/edu/distance_ed/distance_ed_102510.pdf

Below is a video presentation related to the report:


-LT

Overview: The Assessing Online Facilitation Instrument

The Assessing Online Facilitation (AOF) instrument and accompanying Facilitation Activity Record were developed by the California State University Tigers Grant Committee as a primary resource for the following:

• Checklist for self-evaluation in combination with student evaluations to gauge both areas of course strengths and areas of needing improvement.
• Framework for invited peer evaluation.
• Outline for a department’s expectations with simple modifications.
• Guide for faculty training.

The Assessing Online Facilitation (AOF) Instrument is essentially a self /peer assessment component of a process representing a cooperative effort to continuously improve online instruction.  It is comprised of organized tips and techniques from the literature into an easy-to-use checklist called the Assessing Online Facilitation Instrument, or the “AOF”.

The AOF can:

1. Serve as a checklist for self-evaluation in combination with student feedback to gauge both areas of course strengths and areas needing improvement.
2. Function as a framework for invited peer evaluation.
3. Outline a division/department’s expectations with simple modifications.
4. Guide for faculty training.

The Facilitation Activity Record is an optional companion document for the Assessing Online Facilitation (AOF) Instrument. A blank template is available on the AOF website at http://www.humboldt.edu/aof/far.htm.

 ~ CS Robinson

Course Redesign Developments to Increase Math Student Success

~ From Carol A. Twigg, National Center for Academic Transformation President and CEO

Changing the Equation Selects 38 Institutions

The National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) has selected 38 two-year institutions* to participate in Changing the Equation, a new program focused on redesigning remedial/developmental math supported by a $2.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Institutions participating in the program will improve student learning outcomes while reducing costs for both students and institutions using NCAT's proven redesign methodology. Collectively, these 38 redesigns will impact more than 100,000 students annually.

Each participant in Changing the Equation will redesign its entire developmental math sequence-all sections of all developmental courses offered-using NCAT's Emporium Model and commercially available instructional software (ALEKS, Carnegie Learning, Hawkes Learning Systems and MyMathLab.) Each redesign will modularize the curriculum, allowing students to progress through the developmental course sequence at a faster pace if possible or at a slower pace if necessary, spending the amount of time needed to master the course content.

Scaling a Proven Innovation

Changing the Equation builds on NCAT's ten years of experience in conducting large-scale course redesign programs that improve learning while reducing costs. Math redesigns at NCAT partner institutions have

  

• increased the percentage of students successfully completing a developmental math course by 51% on average (ranging from 10% to 135%), while reducing the cost of instruction by 30% on average (ranging from 12% to 52%), and 
• increased the percentage of students successfully completing a college-level math course by 25% on average (ranging from 7% to 63%), while reducing the cost of instruction by 37% on average (ranging from 15% to 77%) 

*Institutions selected to participate in Changing the Equation include:

·        Anne Arundel Community College

·        Bowling Green Technical College

·        Cecil College

·        Cochise College

·        College of Central Florida

·        Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas

·        Cumberland County College

·        Dakota College at Bottineau

·        Delgado Community College

·        Genesee Community College

·        Guilford Technical Community College

·        Hazard Community and Technical College

·        Heartland Community College

·        Henderson Community College

·        Iowa Western Community College

·        Laramie County Community College

·        Leeward Community College

·        Lurleen B. Wallace Community College

·        Manchester Community College

·        Mercer County Community College

·        Mesabi Range Community and Technical College

·        Miami Dade College

·        Mid-State Technical College

·        Mountwest Community & Technical College

·        Nashville State Community College

·        Northern Virginia Community College

·        Northwest-Shoals Community College

·        Northwest State Community College

·        Oakton Community College

·        Pearl River Community College

·        Robeson Community College

·        Somerset Community College

·        Stark State College of Technology

·        Volunteer State Community College

·        Washington State Community College

·        West Kentucky Community and Technical College

·        West Virginia University at Parkersburg

·        Wilbur Wright College

~CS Robinson