Blackboard

One of the biggest adjustments I have experienced has been the transition to using Blackboard. I didn't even write about in the Personal Action Implementation Plan, because I didn't realize how much it would affect me.

To ease my transition into teaching Windows XP under so many new circumstances, I based my class on the Blackboard site set up and provided to me by my department chair. I reused all of the assignments that were already set up on Blackboard, which was a big help, since I did not know how to create assignment links from scratch in Blackboard. (I did have to do a significant amount of customization, especially to the menu which I found too confusing, and the gradebook where I added columns for graded in-class activities and an additional exam.)

Although the links were set up for me, I continually come upon new challenges generated by Blackboard: How to open an assignment submitted on Blackboard for grading purposes? How to clear an assignment a student submitted in error? How to move a column in the gradebook? How to create an online test? How do students check their grades?

These questions continually arise and take up a significant amount of my time. Grading is also slower and more cumbersome than I remember. Blackboard is pretty slow at displaying attached documents, and often requires confirmation of some sort (due to varying software versions used by students). So there is extra waiting and clicking, which seem to really slow down the process.

On the other hand, I am able to type up all my grading comments in advance and it much quicker to copy and paste a series of comments into the comments box, than to handwrite comments on each student's paper. I also like that the unit quizzes are graded automatically within Blackboard.

And what about the student point of view? Many students have seemed to struggle with finding the information they need on Blackboard. Even though I streamlined and reorganized much of the original template, I realize that I probably could still do more to make the information more accessible for students. I have taken notes on the specific changes I will make for next time, but one main change will be to reduce the number of buttons on the menu. For the short term, I created a classroom exersize called "Blackboard Scavenger Hunt," in which students worked in pairs to locate essential information on Blackboard. The scavenger hunt also focused heavily on reading instructions on Blackboard. My sense was that this helped students find key bits of information and reinforced the importance of reading instructions before attempting assignments.

Another problem students have reported is difficulty submitting assignments via Blackboard. I think there are several reasons for this, some of which I can address immediately and some which need to be looked at for the next time I offer this class:

• Part of this problem may be due to the fact that students have 4 different places to find instructions regarding their assignments--the syllabus (which has the due date), the unit assignments folder (which has general instructions for the whole unit), the submission links (which contain specific instructions on what to submit for the individual assignments), and the textbook (which is where the actual exercises are explained). For next time, I will provide all of these instructions in print format, in a single location. It will either be part of the syllabus, or a separate handout which I will give out on the first day. Having this information in paper format will hopefully help students follow along, and eliminating this text-heavy information from Blackboard should help further streamline the site and make it more user friendly. The only thing left on the Blackboard assignments link would be the submission links themselves; all instructions would be on paper (and a copy of the paper doc under Course Documents, I suppose).
• Another part of the problem with submitting assignments is the skill level of beginning computer students. Some students are more advanced, and have adapted more easily, but since this is a beginning class, it should be appropriate for true beginners. The process of creating a print screen, copying it to Word, saving the document, and uploading it to Blackboard is actually not something that students should technically be able to do until the fourth week of class, since many of the skills needed are covered in Units A-C of Windows XP. So it really is unfair, to a certain extent, to ask students to perform these skills before they have been covered in class. On the other hand, students have managed to adapt. For next time, I need to think about delaying the submission of assignments on Blackboard, and creating some intermediate steps before students are required to do this. Specifically, students should first practice and become comfortable with creating print screens and copying them into a document. The next step would be to simply print the document out without saving. Meanwhile, they can complete quizzes on Blackboard to become more comfotable with the online system (quizzes do not require any file managment skills). Unit B covers saving documents, so that would be a good time to expect students to be able to save print screen documents to their H: drive. Finally, once they have mastered saving documents into a folder, then they could reasonably be expected to do all of these things AND upload to Blackboard. This way, the first print screen assignments to be submitted online should be the Unit B assignments. I will definitely redesign my syllabus for next time to delay the submission of print screen assignments through Blackboard.
• Finally, the print screen instructions I inherited from the department require students to save files in Word. Again, Word requires some skills and familiarity that we can't reasonably expect beginning Windows XP students to have. It is also a program they may or may not have on their home computers, possibly creating an additional barrier for them. I need to research what other programs would be adequate for submitting assignments via Blackboard. Possibly a program covered in this class or a simple graphic file that would not be difficult to create. I think this would be a big improvement for students (and for me if I can avoid extra wait time and confirmation messages due to Word).

Overall, I think I will continue to use Blackboard, but I realize that there are a lot of things that could be improved in this area, both for my ease of use and to maximize the students' learning experience.