Resources, Tools & Trends « Ecampus Course Development and Training

Blackboard has a built-in equation editor that allows you to add scientific and mathematical notation to a discussion board entry, an assignment submission, or an exam answer. The Equation Editor is available anywhere the visual text editor is available to you in Blackboard.

Students who may be new to building equations using this editor may find that it is not entirely intuitive. We’ve developed a short video tutorial and a template-group sheet as a guide. We hope you find these resources useful.

Tutorial – Using the Equation Editor (6 min.)
Equation Editor – Template Groups (PDF)

This tool is great for Instructor to Student interaction either to show a quick demonstration or for office hours use. Students to Student interaction for group collaboration work. Student to Instructor/Students for a project presentation.

Pros

Voice/Video communication up to 10 people.
Free
Most everyone has a google account
Screenshare
Sketchup
Google Docs Integration
Use with mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, iOS Devices, Android Phones)
Dial in a guest speaker via phone

Cons

Google+
Install Plugin

If students don’t want to use their personal account or share personal information, have them create an alias account under a different name or email address.

Here’s what the Google Hangout interface looks like

Google’s Guide to Hangout.

On Air, this is a new feature that google just added, so not everyone will have it yet. It will allow:

Real-time streaming of your google hangout up to 10 people viewable to anyone on the Internet.
Allows viewers to interact with the hangout via chat interface.
Upon completion the video broadcast will be recorded and stored on youtube for viewing.

So you don’t have On Air on your account, how do you record your Google Hangout session?
5 Free Tools for Recording Google+ Hangouts

Looking to bring a strong interactive visual element to an online class you are developing? Consider adding an interactive timeline like the one recently created for Paul Wanke’s HST 487 class using Articulate Engage.

These kinds of learning objects help to engage students with the course and can even help a topic come alive.

Looking for a different type of learning activity for your course? Did you know that in this version of Blackboard you can create a ‘wiki’ for your class? A wiki is a collaborative space that allows anyone to add or edit content. It is a place in which knowledge can be pooled and improved on by the class. As people contribute to the wiki, a unique resource is created by and for the group. And – by having students build their ‘wiki’ within Blackboard, you have the ability to track each student’s contribution and grade them from within the tool itself.

Here are some ideas for using a wiki in your course:

Create a glossary of technical terms
Create a newsletter for reporting on a breaking event
Create a community of practice virtual space
Create a student-constructed FAQ list
Post research project results for group analysis
Create an online guide, reference lists or outlines
Research items of local interest that can be updated and shared.

View this short video to learn exactly how to set up a wiki in your course.

Click the image above to view Cynthia Chapman’s lecture done in Adobe Presenter. Adobe Presenter is a PowerPoint plugin that allows you to narrate your presentation and upload it to the web in a fashion that is extremely accessible for students and is easy for them to navigate and review.

Notice that:

Each slide has a play button and slider with the total time for that particular slide
Presentation length is displayed on the bottom right
Each slide is listed by name in the sidebar for easy navigation and review
There is a “Notes” tab which displays notes for anyone who can’t hear the audio
There is a “Thumbs” tab for those who would rather navigate by picture
There is a “Search” tab that allows students to search all notes and slide text

Students love these narrated PowerPoints and these presentations are easier to make than you might think.

Whether you’re a regular visitor to this blog or you just stumbled on it for the first time, you may be curious about where to learn more about the world of online education, particularly from an instructor’s perspective. You could start with a Google search for “online education,” but sorting through the 14 million results would be very time consuming!

To substantially speed things up–so you’ll have time to watch the leaves turn–here are four great sites where you can access a wealth of information, tools and resources about teaching online and the growing field of hybrid (“blended”) learning. Check them out!

EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative – “a community of higher education institutions and organizations committed to advancing learning through information technology (IT) innovation”

Merlot – “a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy”

National Center for Academic Transformation – “an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the effective use of information technology to improve student learning outcomes and reduce the cost of higher education”

The Sloan Consortium – “a consortium of individuals, institutions and organizations committed to quality online education”

The use of audio recording tools in online classrooms is a great way to incorporate student voice in an otherwise silent environment. Providing students with various methods to give, receive and store information using multiple learning modalities greatly enhances learning.

Instructors can use simple audio recording tools to both deliver course content and assess learning. The recorded voice messages can serve as mini-lectures, clarifications to muddy topics, quick reminders and more. Your students can respond to your voice messages verbally by posting a comment to your recording.

Some ideas for student-generated content include general introductions, interviews, or even a Q&A session with student experts. Audio recording tools are great resources for the foreign language classroom and can be used to assess your students’ speaking skills in the target language.

Here I’ve included a 30 second example of a ‘boo’ (what Audioboo calls their recorded messages) with more information.

Looking for a way to elicit more original replies in your online class discussions, or perhaps an engaging assignment that will challenge your students to comprehend and then explain the concepts you’re trying to teach? You might want to give FlickrPoet a try. Don’t let the name fool you; this tool can be used in a wide range of classes, from liberal arts to the sciences.

One way to supplement your powerpoint slide/lectures is to add an audio track/narration. It is ideal when creating an online class that if you do take your powerpoints from a face-to-face class to modify and change the content to fit an online environment. There could be content that could be supplemented through online discussion, or perhaps through student research through other websites, etc. You can also add an audio narration track to your slides, we use a program called Adobe Presenter to accomplish this task. Adobe offers a 30 day trial if you wish to explore this on your own computer, we can also lend out USB Headsets as well. Below is a quick tutorial on how the program is used.

First impressions matter! Check out this brief video for some tips to getting your online class off to the right start.

Ecampus Course Development and Training

Providing inspiration for your online class

Category Archives: Resources, Tools & Trends

Blackboard’s WebEQ Equation Editor

Google Hangouts

Timelines

Wikis

Adobe Presenter

Interested in Teaching an Online or Hybrid Course?

Incorporating Student Voice in the Online Classroom

FlickrPoet

Getting Started with Adobe Presenter

Best Practices for Week 1 and Beyond

Contact Info