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Learning Delivery
Learning Delivery + Collaboration
Learning, Collaboration & Analytics
Learning, Collaboration & Retention
See schedule for: Monday, 8 April | Tuesday, 9 April | Wednesday, 10 April
Whilst texting has become the preferred means of communication across the globe its power as a provider of teaching and learning material has hardly been realised. In an age when the Smartphone is almost universal and is now the way the majority of people use the internet, it is time to forget the accepted image of a text being a constrained thing of only 160 characters that only goes one way - outbound. This session will demonstrate how there is a perfect storm surrounding the text. The development of technologies into 'ways of life', the cultural acceptance of using 'inbound' text to connect and 'take part' in a wider world, the culture of 'always on' 'always checking' phones for new information and updates and the role that the smartphone now plays as a portal held in your hand into the whole world of social media. You will have the opportunity to test this vision out and see how a text can place information, video and even Augmented Reality straight into your phone.
Come learn about Blackboard's latest addition to our academic platforms, Blackboard xpLor. Discover how xpLor can extend your existing LMS environment to promote utilization of standardized curricula, sharing of learning objects across your institution, and collaboration with users across LMS platforms.
Join us and learn how Blackboard Collaborate will continue to offer a more collaborative, interactive, and mobile learning experience in 2013 and beyond. This presentation will offer live demonstrations of our latest features, an early look at what you can expect from Collaborate in 2013 and a chance to ask questions and share feedback directly with our senior product development leader. This is your chance to understand how Blackboard Collaborate can help your institution achieve and exceed its strategic learning goals.
This presentation will explain the development of a VLE Threshold Standard and describe how this was implemented at a UK HEI in 2012, by utilising the flexibility of Blackboard Building Blocks to develop a consistent scalable method of displaying content to students on a single page that previously existed in multiple IT systems.
Colleagues from other institutions who attend this session will learn the experience of colleagues from St. Petersburg State University how using Blackboard in teaching to:
At Anglia Ruskin University, our trainee teachers typically struggle with their placement /academic work balance and rush their research project at the end, and have reported disappointment with their grades. A mobile phone pilot 'texting' students study tips indicated that all students own their own mobile phones of varying sophistication. Student feedback indicates they are keen to use mobiles for studying, and they want guidance from their teachers to help them close the work/study gap. (Bradley & Holley, 2010). This presentation will focus on the design, implementation and evaluation of our project, which used SMS messages to support the students' academic work. The project ran at a time of considerable stress when the students were teaching in schools; studying for their qualification and needed to make the most of the limited time they had available for study.
Many of today's students have grown up in a connected world - a world without boundaries, where immediacy and accessibility are key to how they live, work, play and…learn. For others, they are looking to technology to support and enable learning opportunities that can run alongside work and family life. As expectations shift, many institutions are struggling to meet these demands and provide quality education in a connected world. However, done right – this challenge can open up new avenues for institutions to expand their reach, elevate their brand and drive new revenue streams by way of online learning.
This session will explore how Blackboard Education Services is helping clients go beyond the VLE – partnering with institutions to envision, prepare for and realize the future of education – from evaluating and maximizing the use of their entire eLearning ecosystem to aligning people, processes and technology to provide a high quality student learning experience.
Light microscopy labs in the Utrecht Medical School and Biomedical Science undergraduate curricula are being replaced by virtual microscopy labs using tissue sections that are digitized at high resolution. In our endocrinology course 'Hormones and Homeostasis' we have taken this a step further, by replacing the traditional lab manual with Blackboard Assessments to guide students through their microscopy assignments. These Assessments allow a smooth integration with the Digital SlideBox (Leica) software and, because of their interactive nature, afford many opportunities for aiding in the learning process. By adding additional teaching material and reviewing and quizzing prior knowledge from lectures and tutorials, a better integration is made between the theoretical background and the histology of the specimen (linking form to function). In this session, examples will be shown of the Blackboard-guided virtual microscopy labs of several endocrine glands.
At KU Leuven, we developed a custom mobile-accessible and -friendly interface for our VLE, based upon creative use of standard Blackboard features: tabs groups, tabs, modules, themes and brands. During this session, we'll discuss the approach we took, the issues we had to overcome, the pitfalls we came across and the obstacles we had to think our way around.
Quality management is a very important part of every eLearning system. In this presentation we will describe eleven standards that were developed at Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM) for the purpose of evaluating the quality of eLearning courses. The standards were divided into three groups: static, dynamic, and administrational. We'll analyze all components of eLearning system in individual courses, but the special attention is given to dynamic standards as online quizzes and discussions. We will analyze the results of the evaluation for courses developed in the period of the past five years. Institutional awareness of the importance of ICT implementation ZSEM who currently has about 1,400 students and approximately 150 advanced courses on Blackboard, has made ZSEM a leader in eLearning in Croatia and in the region.
This session presents findings from a pilot project run by the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) and Corporate Information and Computing Services (CiCS) to evaluate the use of Blackboard's Collaborate software.
Three use cases were devised, in conjunction with Blackboard Collaborate's Consulting Services, one from CiCS (Use Case 1 - MOLE CPD) and two from ScHARR (Use Case 2 - Dissertation support, and Use Case 3 - IRISS information skills CPD sessions). The three use cases, conducted between May and July 2012, were supported by training provided by Blackboard, a Project Manager, based in CiCS, and Learning Technologists, based in ScHARR). Use Case 1 will be presented by Graham McElearney (CiCS), use Case 2 by Chris Blackmore (ScHARR) and use Case 3 by Andy Tattersall (ScHARR).
Wiley has been a valued source of information and understanding for over 200 years in the areas of scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly research; professional and personal development; and education. Through WileyPLUS, a research-based online environment for effective teaching and learning, Wiley offers content and digital learning resources across multiple disciplines. By integrating all course materials into Blackboard Learn, faculty can pick and choose the content they need to create a more effective and efficient course, while students can enjoy a learning experience that builds confidence and success.
Join us for a look inside this exciting integration. See how WileyPLUS and Blackboard Learn are simplifying and improving the user experience for your faculty and students, and how WileyPLUS can improve student grades.
The adoption of digital textbooks, tools to self-author content and online eLearning systems are huge growth areas in higher education today. Today's learners are more technologically savvy, and consequently have higher expectations of the institutions they attend—drawing from the digital experiences they have as consumers with companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google.
Learn more about what Blackboard is doing to offer engaging digital experiences through new e-Textbook offerings, publisher eLearning systems and our cloud-based content repository for sharing and discovering educational content.
Liverpool John Moores University's strapline for our students is Dream, Plan, Achieve. During this interactive workshop, we intend to share our experiences of how we successfully deployed Blackboard Mobile Learn across the institution through 'dream', 'plan' and 'achieve' stages of implementation. We will cover our:
Throughout the presentation, we will invite participants to share their views or experiences from their particular perspectives, as existing users or those contemplating Blackboard Mobile Learn implementation. These will be captured and shared back to the room using the Socrative app. We hope that everyone who attends will find the workshop worthwhile and that it will promote further discussion after the session.
In this session, you'll learn about the latest communication trends in the UK, the EU and around the world. Is SMS still king amongst university students? Or are new technologies – social media, over-the-top (OTT) messaging apps, and so on – ready to supplant texting? Learn what the latest data from regulators, analysts and other organisations are saying. We'll also share Blackboard Connect's plans on how we're integrating emerging communications technology into our platforms, so that you can stay ahead of the trend.
A case study showing how over a period of two years a virtual exchange has been created between two European universities. Seven hundred students learning each other's languages connect for both formal and informal learning opportunities and develop their language and intercultural understanding.
You know digital content has arrived. But how do you turn it into a reality for your institution? Attend this session and discover how you can integrate e-textbooks on your campus. Vital Source Technologies will lead a lively discussion with a panel of key stakeholders—including students, faculty, and publishers as they share their experience and viewpoints on campus e-textbook programs. Learn from best practices that can help you to harness the power of digital content on your campus.
In 2011 the University of Salford decided it wanted to elevate its use of Blackboard and Turnitin to another level. The University resolved to standardise all Blackboard modules and the eassessment process. Project Elevate was established to capitalise on a Blackboard upgrade driving widespread technological adoption, the standardisation of modules and eassessment, whilst also improving digital content. This provided a powerful opportunity to enhance the student experience and impact on internal and national satisfaction surveys. 84% of academic staff were trained in just five weeks using a range of best practices.
The project used a range of techniques to evaluate its success: a benchmarking survey; an online declaration and a Student Audit. The audit involved students "marking" Blackboard modules against the University standards.
"Nomophobia", the fear of being without your mobile, affects 66% of us, according to the Daily Mail. How are mobile devices changing the world we live in, and what can you do to meet student demand with useful and meaningful resources. Join Emily Wilson who leads Blackboard Mobile Marketing, as she discusses trends in mobility.
At Cardiff University one of our current goals is to leverage on the investment that we have made in our core learning technologies, principally Blackboard. Much work has been undertaken to try and understand the use of our system by both students and staff, this work has previously involved undertaking complete audits of all courses to see which tools have been used. The problem with this work has been although we can see what content is there we are unable to establish who is accessing the content and with what frequency across the organisation. EesyAnalytics would seem to resolve this problem and permits us to view exactly what our users are accessing by Institution Role. We in Cardiff University intend to utilise this information now provided by EesyAnalytics and other tools to improve our Student Experience through the ability to identify areas of poor (and good) engagement within our institution which will then facilitate targeted promotion, development and support to teaching staff in the use of the VLE thereby improving the quality of our Blackboard provision. It will also help us in our drive to produce new institution strategies and to successfully implement them.
Further and higher education learners within the School of Education and Community enter education (both full and part-time) from a wide variety of backgrounds, often have diverse professional and personal experiences, and regularly arrive with an array of additional commitments outside of the educational process. With this comes an increasingly complex communication requirement often represented with geographical limitations and time constraints; and in order to meet these needs, educational institutions are turning to technology to combat these encroaching issues. The Blackboard Collaborate Instant Messenger project at University College Birmingham was initialised following the identification of a need to adapt to these changing avenues to communication within Higher Education and this session will aim to highlight the initial findings of the Blackboard Collaborate IM Project.
Over the years Blackboard has developed into a dynamic environment with lots of possibilities for interaction, assessments, grade administration and much more. Our instructors often only use those Blackboard features that were available when they first started using Blackboard. Meanwhile the policies of the universities put high demands on instructors. Instructors do usually not realize that Blackboard can offer them solutions for the educational challenges they face in keeping up with the university 's policy. This is why we organized workshops in which we showed instructors how to find solutions within Blackboard. For this workshop we used the Care Pack, a package developed by Cultivate. The Care Pack is no longer available, while the method is still valuable. That is why a few institutions in the Netherlands jointly took the effort to update the Care Pack materials and make them available. We also added some features for molding your Blackboard to meet your institution's demands.
This assessment design introduces online reflective practice and the collaborative production of a wiki in a process designed to stimulate discussion and deliberation and introduces the methodologies to the online environment in a structured manner that facilitates both individual and social constructivism.
During the series of seven weekly journal 'reflections' on individual workshops, students become aware of their own thinking on the role of the pharmacist in 'Addiction Pharmacy' and 'take a position' with respect to related societal challenges. The group wiki exercise, completed online between weeks four and seven, requires small groups to reach group consensus on a 600 word document. Rubrics guide both learning and assessment.
The session will report on activity on Blackboard, the outcome of the assessment process and a review of a feedback survey completed by both students and workshop leaders, voluntarily and anonymously, following completion of the series of workshops.
In light of the increase in UK student fees - it was time to put the VLE under the microscope. Before any judgment was made we conducted an institution-wide Blackboard Audit.
The conclusion was to stick with what we had - our something old. However, to address the institutional response we were going to have to improve the service dramatically.
By the start of the academic session 2012/13 we had Moved to Managed Hosting; Developed in conjunction with Blackboard, a Mobile App. that housed Blackboard Mobile Learn; Written our first VLE policy; and Designed a threshold standard. All of this was our something new and to make it happen relied heavily on an interdisciplinary team; our something borrowed was their time and good will.
This presentation will summarise the student-experience-driven approach the University of Leicester adopted for a large-scale VLE development and will share the lessons learnt and user feedback we have received to date, to answer the question - Are we blue?
Saxion only started using Blackboard in 2009. After a couple of pilots in 2009, the widespread deployment of Blackboard started in the college year of 2010-2011. Nowadays Blackboard is widely used within Saxion for supplying information (for example: announcements and items) and supplying files. However, Saxion wide the ambition is greater than just using Blackboard as a source of information. The challenge now is to promote further didactic use. In this presentation we will show you the effort we put into taking away certain barriers for lecturers and students when using Blackboard. Saxion uses certain aspects of learning analytics, the ideas of the Blackboard Care Pack and a number of other didactic principles or communication based around good practices to stimulate and inspire lectures to delve deeper into the use of Blackboard.
Are you feeding your Blackboard system the right information? BB's SIS integration tool is a very powerful mechanism for importing data from external sources, but how do you ensure data you are sending is the best possible information? We explore the concepts of designing the correct diet for your system drawing on our recent experiences of implementing BB9 and share thoughts on how careful planning can help produce an interface that provides clean, consistent data.
We will look at techniques for identifying data sources and stakeholders, and provide ideas on the best ways of categorising and mapping these into sets of information that can be used to populate BB to ensure it's receiving its 'five a day'. We look at how to turn disparate sets of records and objects into the entity types BB demands, and how to best rationalise your data so that only relevant and useful items are included.
The workshop will allow you to explore these issues with practical hands-on exercises. This session will be greatly enhanced if you bring your own laptop/tablet to join in this interactive workshop.
Finally, we will look at the technicalities of setting up SIS jobs within BB, and consider how the nature of your data and institutional demands can determine the 'how' and 'when' of running your interface.
The focus of this workshop is twofold: to convey the lessons learned from past Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) built on CourseSites and to contribute best practices to the those interested in developing their own MOOC . CourseSites by Blackboard is a fully hosted online learning platform offered free to individual educators and institutions to support their MOOC initiatives. The CourseSites team developed several MOOCs with the objective to explore how a learning management system environment could be utilized and scaled to meet the needs of an open course framework while exploring pedagogical frameworks to foster a quality learning experience for students. The design, development, and implementation phases of CourseSite's past MOOCs will be discussed in terms of how the design changed in response to the formative and summative feedback received by the MOOC participants. In addition you will learn basic facts and recommendations about using CourseSites as your MOOC platform.
Learning from incidents during professional activities is often hampered simply because people forget (details of) incidents over time and/or proper incident registration. We developed the Mobile Reflection App (MRA). MRA allows to very easily create notes, photos, audio or video in any situation. As soon there is WIFI connection, the files are synced to a cloud of choice. We use the Blackboard Content System (My Content) as the cloud, because the user may set differentiated access rights for peers and supervisors in order to evaluate incidents at the appropriate time. In a first experiment with physicians it appeared that 65% of the participants find it useful to use the MRA, 69% indicated that the use of the app on the work floor was accepted by colleagues, and 81% appreciated its user-friendliness. We will demo the app during the presentation/workshop.
In this session, you will learn about the key features and capabilities of the Blackboard Collaborate platform including Webconferencing, Enterprise Instant Messaging and Voice authoring. The session is specifically tailored for you as a learning technologist, academic or trainers who want to share best practices and increase usage of these technologies within your institution more efficiently. You will also get a sneak peek at the 2013 product roadmap.
We will demonstrate the deep integration of Blackboard Collaborate with the Blackboard Learn Learning Management System for increasing student engagement including the benefits of the integration at a user and institute level. For our hands-on part, you will have a chance to experience Blackboard Collaborate mobile for yourself. Be sure to bring your mobile device.
We're delighted to have our Blackboard Collaborate client presenting during the session, sharing their experience of using this technology within their institute.
Higher education institutions are under increasing pressure to ensure that students stay on-track with their educational career goals. These institutions are faced with the challenges of identifying students at-risk of falling behind, effectively utilizing their investments in educational technology, delivering better education to their students.
We are all part of a highly visible and forward-looking trend of applying learning analytics to solve these challenges facing higher education today. Specifically, we are trying to get faster access to higher-quality information to support our decision-making process.
Blackboard Analytics for Learn acts as the key behind these efforts, to help universities like ours to create a two-part strategy towards student performance management:
This session will explore how Blackboard Analytics for Learn can help. We will explore the relationship between Blackboard Learn use on student performance; the tools we can provide students & educators to discover (and improve upon) their own levels of engagement; and how to grow student engagement in an online learning environment using timely, actionable information.
At Blackboard Managed Hosting, we are committed to helping institutions across the globe optimize the cost associated with delivering an exceptional online education experience. With the depth and breadth of our products, people and services, we serve you to realize a better return on your investment by: maximizing the efficiency of your IT infrastructure, using technology to lower the cost of doing business, and delivering better results through technology delivery innovation. We are also a one-stop support team for all Blackboard products you own/may own in the future.
Join Blackboard Managed Hosting for this informative session and learn how to get a better return on your eLearning assets through a managed services model.
Blue is native ENTERPRISE FEEDBACK MANAGEMENT (EFM) software that provides a complete set of automated tools for authoring, testing, and distributing feedback forms, as well as collating and analyzing responses, and reporting the results in an organized way.
Blue software supports 3.7 million users in locations around the world, including the University of Pennsylvania, Boston College, RMIT University, the University of Toronto, the University of Louisville, Ursinus College, and Rio Salado College.
In this session, eXplorance demonstrates Blue software for advanced automation of surveys and course evaluations. Key demonstration highlights include:
With technology giants like Cisco suggesting that video content is likely to make up around 86% of global consumer web traffic by 2016, it's clear that video is set to become a dominant communications medium in the next few years. In higher education we've seen the rise of MOOCs, lecture capture technologies and flipped classroom methodologies offer alternative models for teaching and learning. The Panopto Europe team will be exploring these trends and offering insights into how universities can tap into innovative technologies to make video the next big thing at their institution.
Technology and digital resources continue to enhance the educational experience for students and instructors every day. The need to make the digital teaching and learning experience simpler is apparent, including access, results management, and high-quality options in content. Join us for a user-focused discussion on how you can drive increased retention and engagement, and implement simple and effective assessment with use of the McGraw-Hill Education Blackboard Building Block.
For Instructors, Instructional Designers, Instructional Support Staff
The new My Blackboard interface for Blackboard Learn ™ changes the way that students interact with their courses, content, instructor, and classmates. Moreover, it opens up possibilities for engagement beyond courses. In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to explore the features of the My Blackboard tool for those with both Community Engagement and those without, and discuss best practices for taking full advantage of this tool. The workshop will include an overview of how My Blackboard can be used with tools such as Groups, Blogs, Journals, Discussions, and Wikis to create a dynamic social network.
Are you ready to move your online courses to the next level? Using the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program rubric as a guide, this workshop prepares participants to develop quality online courses and evaluate current online courses. At the end of the workshop participants will possess the knowledge to evaluate their own courses and a model framework for use with future course development. Please bring your laptop/iPad to this session, if possible.
As students and educators accelerate adoption of e-textbooks, it continues to have an impact across institutions worldwide. E-textbook delivery is growing in complexity and promise, and in many schools, digital content now pervades traditional and online classrooms - it is changing the way students and faculty engage. In this session, Rick Johnson of e-textbook platform provider Vital Source will discuss all the benefits of VitalSource® Bookshelf® within the Blackboard Learn™ platform , and how current implementations are accelerating change for stakeholders across campuses. Use-case examples will be presented, and benefits to the institution, faculty and students will be discussed.
In this workshop Blackboard Learn users can activate and try out the Kaltura Video Blackboard Building Block™ to experience Kaltura's full range of advanced video and rich-media capabilities for both desktop and mobile devices, without leaving their existing Blackboard® environment.
The Kaltura Video Building Block opens up a new set of engaging teaching possibilities from integration of lecture capture and video materials to enabling video assignments and sharing of student and faculty contributed video content. It adds a layer of rich media functionality that works across the Blackboard Learn™ platform, so faculty and students can use media easily. MediaSpace enables community, collaboration and social activities by leveraging the power of online video. Until now single administrators or small teams within the organisation would publish to a large audience; MediaSpace revolutionises this process to enable true collaboration with many contributors, moderators and viewers in a multitude of channels, projects and communities.
You will learn how to simplify workflows for teaching and learning, Campus Community, Library and non-course specific content. You will see the value of video incorporated into homework assignments and cataloging.
During this 90 minute workshop, you will also learn how other educational institutions use this platform with live European Use Cases. Note: Attendees will benefit from bringing their own laptops to this session whilst following a walk-through demonstration.
The purpose of this presentation is to outline and discuss the use of marking with Blackboard rubrics and present some real life case studies where rubrics have been used to augment and enhance the marking process.
In this presentation the following areas will be discussed:
We will present a series of case studies from the subject fields of Media Production and Marketing. Each case study concentrates on the use of rubrics to teach, and to assess different types of media: videos; essays; reflective and group blogs; and presentations. Each study approaches the marking process differently. Some academics have used rubrics in conjunction with the built-in Blackboard tools, such as blogs and assignments, whereas some have used the rubric tool in conjunction with other Blackboard integrated systems, such as Kaltura and Turnitin.
The results of the National Student Survey (NSS) and internal surveys are indicating increasing student confusion in the way that some Blackboard sites have been structured - leading to problems finding content. Following a period of consultation, The University of Northampton introduced a common structure in 2012 and will use this session to reflect on the process of agreeing the template and then subsequent site audits which checked for the existence of minimum content. Discussions are now underway to look at higher levels of quality within Blackboard sites. Students are now reflecting on the value of the structures and staff are making requests for changes to the structure for the 2013/14 cohort.
In 2012 Liverpool John Moores University LJMU provided programme level Community Sites in Blackboard for all of its undergraduate courses. This was enabled by the development of an in-house data exchange system (DES) that propagates user and course data to a number University IT systems including Blackboard. Using DES, LJMU are able to maintain user data on an hourly basis. Each site was populated with all currently registered students, and all new students who have been accepted were allowed 4 weeks prior to their start date. The sites were populated with relevant information and programme leaders were encouraged to add to this content, and generally make the sites their own. The aim of the project was to meet the twin objectives of supporting induction and extending that support across the cohort. This is just one example of how the DES system is helping to provide dynamic information across the institution. The presentation will describe the project details and explore its impact.
The presentation is an overview of how the University of Manchester delivers a self-service administration system linked to the institution's Student Record System. The institution has c3700 academic staff delivering 5000 course units annually to over 36,000 UG and PGT students.
The administration system enables academic staff to self-manage the activation and roll forward of their courses through our University portal; controlling availability to students, course content, and use of templates.
The presentation will:
In May 2012, Aberystwyth University (AU) installed an evaluation copy of Community Engagement on our test Blackboard System. We wanted to make our installation of Blackboard more flexible and content-rich. Community Engagement enabled us to deliver more media-enhanced material while customising user experience so that students and staff see only the items that are directly relevant to them. A crucial part of the implementation involved consulting with students and staff in the early planning process.
In September 2012, we launched a new Blackboard site making use of the features available in Community. This presentation will discuss how AU developed a business case to purchase Community, how we planned, designed and implemented the use of Community, and our plans for the future. The presentation will also explore the ways in which features such as guest access, self-enroll and differentiation of user types can help to improve and enhance the student experience.
How to translate your graduation paper Workflow into the Blackboard Learn environment, using the Learning Module.
This session presents a study of new and returning students' expectations of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) conducted at Sheffield Hallam University in order to inform and validate the new minimum expectations for TEL. An online survey was launched to gauge new and returning students' expectations of the virtual learning environment (VLE). The survey intended to explore what online activities students expect to be an important part of their learning experience. Various aspects were considered, including communication, resource use and assessment and feedback. Over 550 students participated in the survey, which found that students see Blackboard as an essential component of their learning experience and highlighted features, and functions that students see as priority. The results of the survey were used to inform the development of our 'Minimum Expectations for Technology Enhanced Learning', a set of guidelines for staff to encourage a consistent approach to supporting modules.
In 2009 the University of Bristol commenced an ambitious three-year TEL project whose primary purpose was to foster more widespread and innovative use of technology to support learning and teaching. Three specific project outcomes were identified: to provide an improved online toolset to support learning and teaching, to improve student access to learning resources and to achieve cost efficiencies.
Underpinning both the aim and outcomes was a desire to improve both the student and staff experience of technology-enhanced learning. The presentation will:
The presentation will conclude by summarising how the project has informed the current major TEL initiative at the University of Bristol.
In 2011 University of Derby made a strategic decision to put its Online Distance Learning in a new business unit focused solely on the development and delivery of such programmes. With a ten-year history of online delivery the operational challenges of this transition were significant. Recognising the different needs of online & on-campus students proposals were made to make Bb more fit for purpose for students & tutors that will never come on campus. We will discuss the approach taken & the lessons learned by the new unit & central IT Services, & how by working together we focused on providing a whole campus solution. We will look at; our approach to enhancing the Bb environment for online students; the development & customization of bespoke functionality; the impact this had on the current provision to on-campus students; supporting remote online tutors & our strategic approach to engagement with stakeholders. Finally we will discuss unresolved issues & likely next steps.
This session will showcase how at the University of Sheffield we have developed a tool, which allows academic staff to easily create engaging, accessible and student-friendly content pages.
The presentation will describe how and why we developed the tool (called 'MOPE - My Online Page Editor), how it has been adopted and how it adds greater functionality to online materials.
A blended learning approach is an expectation of students entering Higher Education in the UK. Blended learning also offers significant pedagogic advantages for teachers and students and has been proven to enhance students' engagement and academic performance. In this session, a blended learning approach will be described using an undergraduate module from the bioscience discipline; a range of Blackboard (e.g. Discussion Boards; RSS feeds; Quizzes) and external tools (social media channels, generic video feedback; Podcasts; Lecture capture) were used to enrich the face-to-face aspects of the module. The results of a survey conducted with one hundred and five learners enrolled on the module will be described; in which students' use, perceptions and views of the blended learning approach were captured. These data will help to inform a discussion about the most appropriate approaches for a blended learning module using Blackboard.
Building on research presented at a previous Blackboard Conference combined with ongoing teaching and implementation, this interactive session will introduce you to the concept of Sticky Content for your VLE.
Employing proven strategies from business, the idea of 'Sticky Content' explores ways to make your course VLE a place that students will want to come back to.
This practical session will explain how Sticky Content has been used at The University of Northampton to enhance student engagement with Blackboard VLEs. You will learn how to create professional course-level site banners, magazine style content and visually appealing reading lists that link directly to on-line libraries and booksellers.
Furthermore, we will share the lessons we have learned when disseminating this training to the student-facing teaching staff.
Building a course which is both mobile-friendly and suitable for the desktop can be a challenge. Many existing Blackboard courses containing rich, complex digital content are unlikely to translate well to the mobile platform or use case. There are a number of steps you can take to ensure your content is widely accessible.
Aim to follow best-practices when developing content for your course which will be consumed on a mobile device. If you're not familiar with mobile learning, it can be hard to know what these best practices should be. The majority of these though apply to both desktop and mobile, so by engineering your content for one platform, you are automatically including the other. This workshop will examine these best-practices and will raise awareness of the tools supported by Mobile Learn which can be harnessed in order to adapt existing content for mobile compatibility.
We will:
For Blackboard GUI Administrators
The new Enterprise Survey tool provides administrators with the ability to create, manage, and deploy dynamic surveys to selected users, courses, and organizations at their institution, as well as others outside their institution via email. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to create a survey using the various question types, how to deploy the survey, and how to gather the results. The workshop will include opportunities to share best practices in designing effective survey questions, strategies for getting maximum participation, and ways to use the results to improve your online programs.


text:
Ballmer Claims Linux Is Top Threat To MS 500
Posted by CmdrTaco
from the well-of-course-it-is dept.
from the well-of-course-it-is dept.
Greyfox writes: "According to Techweb, Steve Ballmer now claims that Linux is one of the top threats to Microsoft going in to 2001. This up from his previous accounts of Linux as being nothing more than a toy etc. Expect to really see the FUD start flying now. As IBM found with OS/2, once MS percieves you as a threat, they attack like a rabid pit bull. I expect we'll see a lot more negative Linux press on zdnet, reporters paid to laud Windows and slam UNIX, fake grass roots movements, and all the other favorite MS tricks." Well, I'm not that quite that paranoid, but I'll be keping my eyes open

subset: commoncrawl


text: No recent wiki edits to this page. CreationCombatra was created by Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe in 1979 and first appeared in Shogun Warriors # 2.Powers & AbilitiesCombatra possessed immense physical strength and the" fingers" of its mechanical hand were rocket launchers. It was equipped with laser cannons and missiles.The robot could fly at high speeds and completed the flight from Japan to California in a matter of hours. Its body parts could also function as autonomous vehicles. It could track the location of its pilot through a transmission device.


text:
Milwaukee Bucks unveil new Robert Indiana-inspired floor
The Milwaukee Bucks are putting their hometown at the center of home court, with a giant M flanking each side of the midcourt line on a newly unveiled, art-inspired floor.
The Bucks unveiled the design for their new floor Tuesday evening at the Milwaukee Art Museum. It is inspired by Pop artist Robert Indiana's much-beloved 1977 MECCA floor. »Read Full Article(78)
A classic performance by youth for Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
If you're worried about the future of classical music, you should really hear this weekend's Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert, which features both a conductor and soloist of the under-30 set.
Guest conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali led the orchestra through beautifully crafted interpretations of music by Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius on Friday evening. He and the orchestra were joined by cellist Andreas Brantelid in a deeply musical rendering of Dmitri Shostakovich's Concerto No. 1 for Cello and Orchestra. »Read Full Article
Chamber Theatre faces tragedy in 'October, Before I Was Born'
Late on a Tuesday afternoon in October 1960, a deadly explosion at the Tennessee Eastman Co. plant left employees' loved ones in the dark, desperately waiting for news in a prewired era of shared phone lines and radio stations that signed off at dusk.
In Lori Matthews' "October, Before I Was Born" — which opened at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Friday, under C. Michael Wright's direction — we spend 90 anxiously unfolding, real-time minutes waiting alongside three of them. »Read Full Article
Larry the Cable Guy's favorite NASCAR driver? Dick Trickle, of course
Daytona Beach, Fla. — Turns out Larry the Cable Guy was a fan of Wisconsin stock-car legend Dick Trickle.
And not just for the easy joke. »Read Full Blog Post(4)