Stephen Walker
Subscribe to Stephen Walker's postsBlackboard Teaching and Learning Conference – new developments
photo credit: adesigna via photopin cc New developments for Blackboard I mentioned in an earlier post that Blackboard are becoming more responsive to their local markets. The ugly phrase they used to describe this is ‘countrification’. As a result of this several new features and changes to design were unveiled at the Blackboard Teaching […]
The Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference – two views of ‘learner-centred’
photo credit: ransomtech via photopin cc The idea of putting learners at the centre of learning was a theme that ran through many of the presentations, including the main Blackboard corporate presentations at the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference in Dublin at the beginning of May. However, I noticed two different views of ‘student-centred’ learning. […]
The Problem with Plagiarism Detection Software
photo credit: Jisc via photopin cc Here’s a discussion between two students ‘from a prestigious university’, reported by McKenna and Hughes (2013): Don: what is the extent to which we’re allowed to plagiarise, 17% or something? Mark: No, it’s just like 20%, but I mean that’s all […]
The 14th Annual Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference
This year’s annual Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference took place on the 9th and 10th of January at the University of Durham. I don’t know what the attendance numbers were, it looked as if they were down on last year, but there was still a very good turnout from across the UK. In this report I’ve […]
Case Study – Enhancing Sociology Blackboard sites
Context The administrators in the Department of Sociology felt that that their Blackboard courses looked unattractive, and tired, and that students would require something more inviting if they were to engage with their online environment. The Department of Sociology has 43 courses on Blackboard (28 undergraduate and 15 postgraduate). The Blackboard sites are mainly used to […]
Four New Features in Blackboard. Part 1: The Discussion Board
The discussion board has had a major overhaul, with a more up-to-date look, and improved features. Discussion Board Updates The main advantage from the point of view of your teaching is the ‘Post First’ feature, which requires students to contribute before reading the discussion. Threads are now easier to read, and you can see all […]
Four New Features in Blackboard. Part 2: The Calendar
The calendar now has a fresh modern look. It will no longer appear as a ‘module’ on the Home page, but is accessible by the Global Navigation Menu in the top right of the screen. Or, you can create a link on the side bar. Or from the Tools section on the Home page. […]
Four New Features in Blackboard. Part 3: The Retention Centre
The Retention Centre acts as a hub to allow you to check how your students are engaging with Blackboard, and to spot those that might be at risk of falling behind or struggling with the work. The Retention Centre can be found either under the Evaluation section of the Control Panel, or from the Global […]
Four New Features in Blackboard. Part 4: Reusable Objects
The reusable objects function allows you to create course elements in the Content Collection, and to reuse them across multiple course sites. You can then make them available to share with colleagues across the institution, or across your department. About Reusable Objects Create and Use Reusable objects Some examples of course elements that you might […]
Twitter for Teaching and Research
I recently began a Master’s degree in Digital Education with University of Edinburgh. The first module is Investigating Digital Environments for Learning, and one of the environments we looked as was Twitter. In a tutorial the course tutor, Prof Hamish McCleod, said that when he first encountered Twitter he just “didn’t get it”. I also […]
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