Supplementing your Course With Blackboard -- Day 4

Most of the heavy lifting is done.  At this point, you should focus on how the site appears to the student.  Often dubbed as a 'learner-centric' approach [view Google Book on Learner Centered Teaching], you want students to be able to readily locate materials, assessments and announcements.  Yes, you did ADD them to the site, but are they easily found?

The Edit button, when turned off, will show how
Blackboard will look to your students.
When turned on, you may make changes again.

Blackboard 9 has an edit mode (see tutorial) which allows the instructor to view the course as it appears to the student.  The button (which toggles on and off), is located in the top right corner of your page.

According to Blackboard:

The Edit Mode toggle allows a user to change the way they are viewing the content on screen. Switching the Edit Mode to ON allows users with certain Roles in the system to add, delete, and edit content and tools in the Course. Switching the Edit Mode to OFF displays the Course as students would see it. The Edit Mode toggle will only appear to those users who have permission to use it.

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Lastly, spend a few minutes reviewing Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. This new version introduces a digital element to the 1950s model.

Blooms Digital Taxonomy v2.12

Lastly, look for alignment between course objectives, couse content and course assessment.  If you can’t readily identify how they correlate, neither will the students. The folks at Quality Matters do a great job of embedding alignment into their rubric. Most of their material is copywritten, can't share much:(

Here' a blurb on alignment:

Alignment is an important component of the Quality Matters rubric.  Learning Objectives, Assessments, Resources and Materials, Learner Engagement, and Course Technology work together to ensure that students achieve the desired learning objectives.  When aligned, each of these course aspects is directly tied to and supports the learning objectives which is important for student success.

Related Blog Posts:

Information Literacy and the Learning Resources Division

Teacher vs Learner Centered Learning