Introducing Bb Learn Profiles

Note: All students and faculty will be invited to set up their profile the first time they log in after the May 30 upgrade – or just click “do it later” and proceed to log in.

• Add a picture of yourself and and an “about me” blurb
• Set your privacy: visible to everyone at CSU, Chico, private, or hidden
• Profiles enhance Discussions, Journals, Blogs and recent activity views
• The new “People” tool lets you see who is in your classes.

Watch the new Profiles in action…

Each week, TLP will spotlight new Blackboard Learn functionality coming this summer.

• Streamlined navigation using My Blackboard
• New Calendar
• Improved Discussions
• Video Everywhere
• Inline Assignment Grading
• Test Item Analysis

2013 EOI Awards
Please congratulate the following faculty members for their Exemplary Online Instruction. They will be formally recognized at the Annual CELT Conference luncheon in October, and will present their courses during a Poster Session.

• Ben Seipel, Ph.D.  from Education, EDTE 580
• Thomas Parker, Ph.D. from Religious Studies, RELS 332
• Sarah Anderson, Ph.D. from the Center for Bilingual/Multicultural Studies, FLNG 254
• And, Honorable Mention to Julie Schneider, Ph.D. from Nutrition and Food Sciences, NFSC 340

2013 QOLT Award
And join me in a special congratulations to Ben Seipel for being recognized by the CSU for Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QOLT). He is the first to apply to this new program from CSU Chico, and in the first group being recognized from Cal State for universities using Blackboard Learn in their exemplary teaching of hybrid or online courses.

Learn more about QOLT.
Learn more about Chico’s Rubric for Online Instruction or the Exemplary Online Instruction program.
For more information, contact Laura Sederberg, campus coordinator for QOLT and EOI, Lsederberg at csuchico.edu or 530-898-4326.

*** Important note to faculty: If you are grading Bb Learn assignment submissions after May 30, you will see the new Inline Assignment Grading tool! ***

Introducing “inline” assignment grading

If you’ve been downloading Word, PDF and text documents and re-uploading corrected papers back to students, get ready for a much faster way to grade!

• View, annotate and grade file attachments directly within Blackboard Learn; no more downloading!
• Supported file attachment formats for “inline” viewing include MS Office, text and PDF
• Add color-coded annotations for students to read
• You can always download the original or annotated paper for your records.

Watch inline assignment grading in action:

Introducing test item analysis

Blackboard Learn now provides detailed statistics on student test performance, and statistical breakdown of  individual test questions.

• Highlights test questions that may be  too easy or difficult, or may have been scored incorrectly.
• Lets you know which questions may be poor discriminators between students who know the subject matter and those who do not
• Provides detailed statistical data for individual questions, including:
  • Average score
  • Standard deviation
  • Standard error
  • Number of students who skipped the question
  • Answer breakdown by class quartile

Watch test item analysis in action:

Each week, TLP will spotlight new Blackboard Learn functionality coming this summer.

• Streamlined navigation using My Blackboard
• New Calendar
• Improved Discussions
• Video Everywhere
• User profiles with photos
• Monitor student performance using the Retention Center

Video Everywhere!

• Students and faculty can easily record and add video clips to assignments, posts, and tests.
• In addition, faculty can record and add video clips to grading feedback.
• Integrates with any YouTube account, including your CSU, Chico Wildcat Google YouTube account.
• Reuse video across your courses.

Improved Discussions

Many of you have asked for more features and better display of the discussion boards – and Blackboard listened.

• Read, reply to, and grade discussion posts directly from your My Blackboard page.
• Profile photos enhance sense of community within online discussions.
• Record video directly into discussion posts.
• Forum descriptions are visible to students when they create new threads.
• Faculty can require students to post before they can read what other students have posted.

Each week, TLP will spotlight new Bb Learn functionality coming this summer. Read more about each:

• Streamlined navigation using My Blackboard
• Improved Calendar
• Grade and comment assignment submissions without downloading papers
• Analyze test results and questions
• User profiles with photos
• Monitor student performance using the Retention Center

Introducing the new calendar

The new calendar provides all the features of a modern web calendar, including:

• View the calendar by course, month, week, day.
• Course due dates are automatically added to the calendar and color coded by course.
• Drag and drop calendar entries;  due dates automatically updated when moved.
• Subscribe to a course calendar in your Outlook, Google or iCal-compatible mobile calendar.

See the new calendar in action:

Find out what’s new in My Blackboard

My Blackboard provides a personalized, timely view of information across all your courses. In just a couple of clicks, you can access:

• Recent Posts (Discussion, Blog, Journal, Wiki)
• Updates (notifies you of what’s available, due, overdue, needs grading, etc.)
• Calendar (events and due dates in all your courses, plus personal calendar)
• Retention Center (faculty only, shows “at-risk” students)
• Recently posted Grades (students only)

Check out My Blackboard in action:

Other new features are on the way!

Each week, TLP will spotlight new Bb Learn functionality coming this summer. Read more about each:

• Streamlined navigation using My Blackboard
• Improved Calendar
• Grade and comment assignment submissions without downloading papers
• Analyze test results and questions
• User profiles with photos
• Monitor student performance using the Retention Center