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Tag: Blackboard Learn
Let’s Get Digital, Digital (Humanities)! Part One
by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies The Alabama Digital Humanities Center (ADHC) opened in 2010. At the beginning of my second year at UA, I just now discovered the ADHC and its amazing home in Gorgas Library Room 109A . I arranged for a consultation with Emma Wilson yesterday. We enjoyed a vibrant discussion about how my teaching might deploy a digital humanities project. I really appreciated the upshot of our time together: pedagogy and learning objectives should inform whatever digital […]
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Power-Using and Hacking Blackboard
by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies Do you use Blackboard in your course? I do. Here’s why: I think it’s easier for me, as well as the students, to have a simple, one-stop place to find and do everything related to a course outside of class. Now beginning my second year of teaching at UA, I find my commitment to grasping the basic features of Blackboard has made my teaching much more manageable. Furthermore, as faculty technology liaison for the College of Arts and Sciences, […]
Resources for Creating Accessible Blackboard Shells
by Jessica Porter, Office of Educational Technology (eTech) There has been a lot of talk about accessibility lately, and you may be wondering how this applies to your face-to-face classes. The truth is accessibility touches all aspects of your course, from multimedia to course documents, and it’s a good idea to ensure this content is accessible. So what do I mean by accessibility? Accessibility is about making all course content available to and usable by all students, including those […]
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Something’s in the Way: Struggling Students in Large Courses
by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies Since it is almost Thanksgiving, many students will be leaving UA for home, where they will inevitably be asked, “So, how are things going?” Here is a short story about a student who dropped by my office this term: Last week, a distraught student stopped by my office to ask about withdrawing from my class because their grade seemed irreparable. When asked who suggested withdrawal, the student answered, “I looked at how I was […]
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Is “Learning Management System” a Misnomer?
by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies Is there a difference between “course delivery” and “teaching,” or are these equivocal terms? What does it mean to deliver verses to teach? Think about this for a moment in pedagogical terms. Do the following make pedagogical sense? Delivering a learning objective. Delivering a formative assessment. Delivering the ability to compare differing perspectives. Delivering critical thinking. I am not at all convinced that pedagogy is deliverable. Here are examples of what is deliverable in a learning […]
My Students are Not Missing the (Power) Point
by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies I met Ollie Dreon at The Teaching Professor Technology Conference last week, thanks to a travel grant from CCS. His recent blog post, “Hating on PowerPoint: My Take,” confirms that I am doing the right thing this term. My 153-student REL 100 course makes no use of that now-ubiquitous program. I used to be a power-pointy power user. But in 2010 I first started thinking about how students miss the point, when General Stanley McChrystal banned PowerPoint briefings because the platform […]
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These Aren’t the Grades You’re Looking For
by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies Today is the final day for the entry of mid-term grades for lower-level courses. As a new faculty member at UA, I had already noted the provost’s blog entry on entering these grades. I teach a 100-level course, so I have until midnight tonight to do so. According to the FAQ posted by the University Registrar, this is a hard deadline. Don’t miss it! I have already gone about the business of entering the marks, and I want to […]
Quick Tips for Online Teaching
Allison Hetzel, a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, shares how she manages her online courses and offers tips for connecting with distance learners. How do you reduce anonymity and build community in your online courses? I work to connect with my class as often as possible. I make sure that I am part of the class conversation in discussion and blog posts. I often send group messages to the class with any reminders and updates related to the class. How do […]
Mistakes Were Made. What Next?
by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies I felt a little bit like John Lindsay this morning. I put a quiz on Blackboard, and, as he said in one of his 1969 campaign ads, “some mistakes were made.” When the student emails started trickling in, I started to have a Lindsay moment. In reality, this is my first term teaching at UA, and I needed to re-familiarize myself with the process of creating quizzes and tests inside Blackboard Learn. I used […]