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Blended & Online Learning Design Fellows

Blended & Online Learning Design Fellows

Blackboard

Blackboard refers to a set of tools that enhance the students’ academic experience, including learning management systems and other technology-related tools that mediate learning. A memorandum from the Provost, dated April 7, 2003, a task force was formed to begin the process of shaping Vanderbilt’s electronic academy environment. The demise of Prometheus was the catalyst for this memorandum, and the reason the search for a new learning management system (LMS) quickly ensued, with the adoption of Blackboard as the first component of the former OAK, which had been managed on campus. In December 2014, the course management system moved over to Blackboard-managed hosting, and, thus, assumed the branding of Blackboard.

Classroom Management

Blackboard has associated tools for course organization, including the course roster, a gradebook, contact information for students, and tools for making announcements and sending internal emails. It also has associated tools for promoting student engagement and assessing student understanding.

Collaboration/Discussion

Blackboard has multiple interactive tools, such as blogs, discussion boards, and wikis, that allow students to develop writing or other skills with the advantage of an instant audience. These tools allow online mentoring as well as cooperative learning activities. In addition, there is an associated tool for self and peer assessment that allows students to submit work that is then assessed by two colleagues based on information provided by the instructor. Get to know Blackboard and the Blackboard website. Download a four-page help sheet.

In addition, Blackboard has tools specifically designed for collaboration, such as Chat for virtual office hours and the Lecture Hall, both of which can facilitate synchronous  interaction between class members.  Chat allows the Course Members to interact with each other using a text‐based messaging tool. Chat is part of the Virtual Classroom. It can also be accessed separately. In the Virtual Classroom, users can ask questions, draw on the whiteboard, and participate in breakout sessions from the Virtual Classroom. The Session Administrator establishes which tools in the Virtual Class room users can access.

Assessment

Blackboard has several tools that allow for easy student assessment. These include Tests, Surveys, and Pools. Test results are recorded in the Grade Center, and multiple choice items are automatically graded. Surveys are not graded but provide an opportunity for formative feedback. Pools are repositories of questions that can be drawn on to create surveys and tests. In addition, Blackboard includes SafeAssign, a tool that allows written work to be assessed for plagiarism.

Pros

Blackboard provides a ready-made structure that facilitates organization of course materials as well as integrated tools for student assessment (quizzing and survey functions), student activities (such as a discussion board, blog tool, and peer evaluation tool), and plagiarism detection (SafeAssign). Tools that help you deal with most of the components of course management are readily available with a few clicks. In addition, it’s supported by Vanderbilt, is secure, allows authentication through the VUNet ID password, is backed up by the university, and is updated automatically.

Cons

Navigating through a course in Blackboard can be confusing for users more used to webpage layout. For this reason, it can feel clunky to use, both for the instructor and the student.

Because Blackboard s a widely used learning management system, helpful tutorials for almost any function or process can be found by simply searching Google. Below are links to pdfs that will help you get started.

» For training opportunities, visit the Training section.
» For self help, visit the Help Sheets & Videos or the FAQs sections.
» To send a quick note to your support provider, use the Help Mail Form.

These videos provide tours of award-winning courses managed using Blackboard:

Bb Catayst Award – BIO 112 Course Tour

Theories of Counseling Course Tour