Mary Senter, Sociology
I am a long-time user of Blackboard, thinking of it as a place to store syllabi, assignments, handouts, and student grades. Since the pandemic, however, I have expanded my use of Blackboard in ways that certainly help me and, hopefully, provide some additional structure and opportunities for students. Thanks to the help from CIS, I have revamped my instructional materials.
Content Organized by Modules. In Blackboard, I have organized content into a series of modules, each with a separate folder. Every Sunday, I send students an announcement that states which module will occupy our attention for the week and highlights readings and assignments, along with due dates. Organizing materials by module keeps students on track.
Exams Moved to Lower-Stakes Quizzes. I have given up on my high-stakes cumulative final exam; instead, CIS helped put together three test banks of 75-80 questions each, from which an individual student is presented with a random 25 questions for each lower-stakes quiz (administered and graded by Blackboard) throughout the semester.
Lectures Shifted to Videos. I have off-loaded some class lectures into Chipcast presentations, and CIS helped add quizzes at the end of each video, which are automatically graded and populated to the Blackboard gradebook.
Feedback via the Gradebook. I use the comments section in the gradebook to provide brief remarks on short assignments. I have used the rubric option associated with the gradebook, with CIS’s help, for more complex papers with many parts and the consequent need to provide more detailed written comments on sections of student work.
I tell my students to use the resources at CMU that they have paid for with their tuition dollars. I’m taking the same type of advice and using the resources CIS offers faculty to help me with the transition to synchronous online classes.