Microsoft SkyDrive – Osprey’s E-mail

At the University of North Florida, students have access to their own SkyDrive space via Osprey E-mail. Microsoft’s SkyDrive is a cloud storage system very similar to Dropbox.

The SkyDrive account is free and comes bundled with basic versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that display inside the browser window (reminiscent of Google docs–these files can also be immediately opened/imported into the full-featured application). This is a great feature for students who may not have access to Office products.

(click to enlarge)

Students can upload documents, photos, videos, and other various file types to their SkyDrive (there seems to be no limitation as to what files can be uploaded to the SkyDrive, other types of files will not be categorized automatically like pictures and documents).

Video files can be played inside of the SkyDrive browser window with the option of generating an embed code (iframe) for further sharing. Similarly, photos/pictures can be placed into slideshows and an embed code can be generated for single images (iframe) which provides sharing without the need to log-in. If a user wants a whole folder shared, they simply have to add an e-mail address for that person and a link is sent to them.

Some features:

• 7 GB of space (with options to increase storage)
• Compatible with PC and Mac
• Can e-mail large files (over the 15 MB limit) in Outlook via a link using the free Xobni app
• File & Folder sharing via invite
• Desktop application (drag and drop to folder)
• Saves in both Office XML (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx) and Open Document formats (.odt, .odp, .ods)

Links:

SkyDrive app (link at top; will auto-detect your OS)  —- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/skydrive/download#apps

Xobni gagdet — https://www.xobni.com/gadgets/skydrive?refcode=skydrive

Note:

The SkyDrive is not the old H drive.

From the ITS web page:

Students who were accepted to UNF before April 22, 2012 were given 25GB of free storage space on their SkyDrive, however, due to a recent change by Microsoft, they must choose to upgrade their storage to keep the 25GB (this option is only available for active SkyDrive holders who had at least one file in their account on or before April 21, 2012). Students with active accounts that do not upgrade will have their space permanently (unless they purchase more) decreased to 7GB.  To upgrade back to 25GB, see the Upgrade SkyDrive Storage.

Infogr.am Infographics

Infographics are graphic displays of information or knowledge presented in a format that’s easy to read and allow the reader to see trends and patterns using text, graphs, and images. You may have seen infographics used on news websites to show weather patterns or current events.

The use of infographics is becoming more popular. Many companies and institutions are using them to display data results from their research and surveys. There are a number of free tools that allow anyone to create an infographic. Infogr.am is a simple, easy-to-use tool that allows you to choose from infographic templates and edit them to display your content. This can easily be used in the higher education setting for students to display the results of their research projects, article reviews, and any number of assignments.

To create an infographic, visit infogr.am and sign up for a free account.

Will You Use Blackboard’s New ‘Teaching Style’ Tool to Jump-Start Your Course Organization?

In the new version of Blackboard Learn (SP11) there’s a new tool called ‘Teaching Style’ located in the ‘Customization’ section of the ‘Control Panel’ that has some new options for customizing the organizational structure of your Blackboard (Bb) course. The purpose of that tool is to provide the instructor with a quick method for “jump-starting” the course design process, which includes automatic changes to course structure, menu style and layout, and content appearance and organization.

After selecting the ‘Teaching Style’ tool from the ‘Control Panel’ the instructor has seven options to consider. The first and certainly most influential is the ‘Course Structure’ option, which consists of a list of configuration templates designed to focus on specific teaching agendas, such as, activities, communication, or content. Basically, these templates are just different combinations of menu items, content items, folder hierarchy, and module content organization layouts configured to present a specific agenda.

The second and third options ‘Course Entry Point’ and ‘Course Theme’, respectively, are also important to the course design process and will be discussed briefly. The remaining four options are customization features that were available in previous version of Bb and will not be discussed. The primary focus of this article is to evaluate the potential impacts of using the tool, and in particular, the implications of applying a ‘Course Structure’ template to your course.

Clearly, the usefulness of the ‘Course Structure’ template to the course design process will vary considerably depending on the your proficiency in using Bb and understanding of instructional design. To understand what this means, consider the following scenarios:

Scenario 1: You are assigned to teach online, but have never taught online before. After requesting a new course in Blackboard you have three options: 1) Leave as is (default structure) and just add content; 2) Use the ‘Teaching Style’ tool to change the ‘Course Structure’ of the course, then add content; 3) Ask an Instructional Designer (ID) at CIRT for assistance in creating a custom template so you have logical places to add content.

So, you’re probably thinking that option-2 is perfectly suited for this type of instructor. After all, the purpose of the tool is to “jump-start” the design process, and for the most part that’s a neat idea. In fact, CIRT has created several course templates specifically for that purpose. However, the problem with Bb’s version of course templates is they come with a whole lot of additional baggage that the instructor has to deal with. This puts the new online instructor in a difficult situation because they have to make strategic decisions about what to keep and what to discard. And typically, if they could already make those decisions, there would little need for the templates in the first place. Also, the new instructor might spend a lot of time adding content into the new ‘Course Structure’ then realize it’s just not working out and want to start over from scratch, but at this point the content is dispersed in the template and will now require an additional effort to move it into some new organizational structure. The best option for a new instructor is to start with option-1, then at some point consider option-3.

Scenario 2: You have taught online before or have taught online for many years.

In most cases, instructors that have taught at least once will have already spent some time developing an organizational structure and would prefer not to toss those efforts for a new venture into a completely new course structure. These types of instructors are more likely to choose option-1, which involves leaving their course as it has been, then arranging to meet with an ID at CIRT for assistance in modifying/upgrading what is already in place.

Still, there is some usefulness in the tool for these types of instructors, but the implementation process is slightly different. Instead of scratching their existing course structure and applying Bb’s ‘Teaching Style’ to an existing course, they might consider creating a DEV course where they explore the different ‘Course Structure’ templates then decide whether to use them or not. In this process, instructors are using the tool to educate themselves on the possibilities rather than implementing them first and dealing with the issue later. Through this process the instructor might find bits and pieces of the template that are useful and would simply copy those pieces into their existing course structure.

 Scenario 3: Instructor is a Master Certified Online Instructor or very experienced online instructor.

These instructors will be very proficient in using Bb, have an advanced understanding of instructional design, and be able to utilize all three options interchangeably. They will typically leave their courses as is, review Bb’s ‘Course Structure’ options, adapt new ideas from them, then consult an ID for new methods of implementation. Ultimately, these instructors will be proficient enough to offer their own versions of ‘Course Structure’ templates for others to use.

Now, a few points about the second and third options ‘Course Entry Point’ and ‘Course Theme’, respectively. Perhaps the logic behind having options to choose a ‘Course Entry Point’ is a bit ambiguous. For clarification, the ‘Entry Point’ is the first page a student sees when they enter your Bb course. As a best practice, that point should simply be the page connected to the first link in your navigation menu located in the left-sidebar of your course. Not some ambiguous page you select from the ‘Course Entry Point’ dropdown menu. For example, if ‘Home’ is the first link in your menu, then that should be the entry point. You wouldn’t want to change the entry point to something like ‘Announcements’ or ‘Learning Modules’ because that complicates the navigation process. If you change the ‘Course Entry Point’ to ‘Announcements’ then you should also configure the first link in the menu to point to the ‘Announcement’ tool. In general, the two best, and clearly most common entry points for courses in Bb are ‘Announcements’ or ‘Home’ and sometimes ‘Learning Modules’ if that satisfies some purpose.

The third option ‘Course Theme’ is just a visual theme that changes the background color, adds background designs, and applies some other artistic components to the course. You might enjoy the effects of this option, but before you decide to drastically change the appearance of your course, you might consider how this will impact the accessibility of course content for visual learners. Also, the visual oriented content you add to your course, such as, images, videos, animations, and avatars, might add additional levels of contrast that negatively impacting the visual appearance and accessibility of the course.

In conclusion, the main factors to consider when deciding whether or not to use the ‘Teaching Style’ tool is the amount of time you have to devote toward course design versus content development, your proficiency in using Bb, and your understanding of instructional design.

For more information about using the ‘Teaching Style’ tool in your course contact cirtlab@unf.edu.

Part 2 of Unchanged Features in the New Blackboard

Welcome to part 2 of the series Unchanged Features in the New Blackboard! In this article we will explore the Grade Center. One of the most exciting new features, inline grading, can be found in the Grade Center, but most of what you already know about working in the Grade Center will directly translate to the new Blackboard. We will take a look at both Grade Centers simultaneously and you will see just how much you already know about the new Blackboard!

Grade Center

On the left side of every Blackboard course below the Course Menu you will find the Control Panel.  Take a quick look at the image to left and you will see the Control Panel has undergone very little change.  Upon selecting the Grade Center you are presented with the same choices; Needs Grading, Full Grade Center, and the two smart views (Assignments and Tests).  Let’s begin by clicking on the Full Grade Center.

The layout of the Grade Center screen is completely unchanged. You will still find the four column buttons at the top left; the work offline button to the top right; and the student/grade table in the center. As you can see below Not only is the layout the same, but everything is labeled the same between the two versions.

I apologize for how blurry the image above is, click on it to see it in full resolution (not blurry). The important thing to note is all the buttons, links, and columns are all in the same place.  By clicking on the four buttons above the grade table we will see all of the options we had before are still there.  Click on the picture below to get a better look.

I can assure you the rest of the Grade Center functions just as you would expect, but I am going to point out one more important function that has not changed and that is entering a grade. In our current Blackboard environment (SP6) you can click on the cell for the student and assignment column you wish to enter in grade, and that will allow you to manually enter one. If you select the chevron icon you are given the options to View Grade Details, Exempt Grade, and View Attempts. In the new Blackboard environment all of those functions and options have remained consistent as you can see to the right.

This concludes our look at the Grade Center and keep an eye out Friday for my next post.

Part 1 of Unchanged Features in the New Blackboard

When requesting your Summer 2013 courses you will immediately recognize Blackboard has changed.  It may seem frustrating that just when you have mastered the current Blackboard we are presenting you with something new, but I am excited to tell you while some things will look different many features will still work the same.  My goal is to dispense any apprehension you may have by way of showing you how many of the common features have not changed.  We will begin this series by first taking a look at the course menu.

Course Menu

On the left side of every Blackboard course you find the course menu. The course menu is the primary means of navigating the course content for you and your students.

The image to the left we have our current Course Menu and the new restyled Course Menu that will be available after the upgrade.  After comparing the two course menus you can see the layout has not changed nor the available content folders.  The Course Menu still has the menu bar at the top with the same options to add/modify/remove content folders with the only difference being a new appearance.  If you look at the picture on the right you will see the Add Content Item options are still the same, so you can continue structuring your course the same as before.

Looking further down the Course Menu the Course Name is displayed and below that the content folders.  While you are in Edit Mode the options to hide/unhide and re-arrange the content folders are still available.

That concludes our look at the Course Menu and next time we will examine Course Documents and Announcements.

Course Entry Point (Announcements or Home)

An important part of planning a new online course is deciding where students will be initially directed when they enter the online course. In Blackboard this is called the “Course Entry Point (CEP)” and can be any of the pages linked from the ‘Course Menu’  (Fig. 1).  The two most common CEP pages are ‘Announcements’ or some type of ‘Home’ page that contains important information about the course. However, keep in mind that by choosing the ‘Announcements’ page as the CEP you are not excluding the need for a dedicated ‘Home’ page and vice versa. As a “best practice” every online course should have both an ‘Announcement’ page and a ‘Home’ page.

Figure 1. Screenshot from Control Panel > Customization > Style in Blackboard showing the Course Entry Point (CEP) option.

The ‘Announcements’ page is a great choice for the CEP because it puts students on the “front-line” in terms of keeping updated with current information in the course. On the other hand, setting a ‘Home’ page as the CEP is a great choice because it puts students in front of the important course information each time they login. So far this all sounds reasonable, right. So what’s the problem?

The problem comes when you post all the important course information in the first announcement instead of in the  ‘Home’ page, and then selecting the ‘Announcement’ page as the CEP.

Here are a few issues to consider if you decide to do that:

1. The first issue is with the ‘Course Copy’ process you have to implement each semester. In most cases you would not ‘Course Copy’ the ‘Announcements’ because you typically don’t want the other 50 or more announcements you sent out during the semester. But, if you don’t select it then you will lose all the important course information you posted. If you had posted the important course information in a content item designated as a ‘Home’ page then that would have course copied nicely.
2. The second issue is not as technical. It goes like this. After you create the second announcement, the first one containing all the important course information will become the 2^nd announcement, and after you create another announcement it will move to the third position and so on. After a few weeks all the important course information that was in the first announcement when you started the course will now be at the bottom of a long list of announcements and completely out of view of the students. This is of course assuming you post a lot of announcements as any dedicated online instructor would. If you don’t post a lot of announcements, then what was the point in designating the ‘Announcements’ tool as the CEP?

Perhaps a better method would be to just create a content item with all the important course information (course banner and links to the syllabus and course schedule), designate it as the ‘Home’ page, then post the first announcement with a ‘Welcome’ message to students and instructions for viewing the ‘Home’ page.

For more information on using the ‘Course Entry Page’ in Blackboard please contact: cirtlab@unf.edu.

How to use iAnnotate PDF to download, grade, and return student assignments

Dr. Ron Lukens-Bull demonstrates how he uses iAnnotate PDF on his iPad to download student assignments from Blackboard. He then grades the assignments in iAnnotate and emails the graded assignments back to the students.