Practical advice and time-saving tips for Teachers and Instructors. Learn how to avoid time-consuming errors and get ideas to present effective online educational classes!

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With people returning to school as a result of economic situations, online instructors may feel overwhelmed by increased class loads. By planning ahead and employing beneficial Blackboard (Bb) settings, online educators can save time while still delivering high-quality instruction.

Communicate clearly the online class expectations

Create an announcement that will appear when students first enter the online classroom, briefly and plainly explaining what they should accomplish. Provide a brief explanation of the class’s layout, as well as a description of yourself or a link to the instructor’s contact information.

Create a document outlining class expectations that explain in detail how students can effectively complete the course. Include subheadings, step-by-step directions, and bulleted lists to make the content more visible to pupils. Students should be encouraged to print this document for future reference. It is beneficial to have a posted syllabus that includes assignments and due dates and that students can view on the first day of class.

Create a Bb quiz to assess students’ understanding of class expectations. Certain versions of Bb allow the instructor to specify that students must get a score of 100 (or any other score or range of scores) before proceeding to the next quiz. This significantly increases the likelihood that students will examine course expectations prior to taking further tests. If a student argues later in the class that he or she was unaware of expectations, the teacher will have evidence that the student was exposed to that material if the student correctly answers a test question concerning that point.

Prepare for technical issues with online classes

Make no assumptions. Numerous pupils may be unfamiliar with computers or with the use of outdated equipment or services. In the classroom, demonstrate step-by-step troubleshooting techniques and provide contact information for who, when, and how to receive technical assistance. Provide pupils with a list of the system requirements for document access. For instance, if the syllabus is in Microsoft Word or Excel, alert students and provide directions on how to access it from a computer that has these applications installed, or offer to copy and paste the content into an email or discussion board for students who do not have MS Word or Excel.

Typical technical difficulties may include the following

  1. Browser – when newer browsers (such as Internet Explorer 10) are released, they may not be supported.
  2. Students may be required to activate pop-up windows within Bb in order to view quizzes and examinations.
  3. Loading graphics – it’s useful to specify how graphics are saved in order to avoid complications.
  4. Software such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft PowerPoint (many institutions may provide ways to zip PowerPoint files, such as using Impatica).
  5. Certain instructors may choose to use announcements to notify students about future assignments. Instructors can email these announcements to students using certain versions of Bb. Unfortunately, the email tool does not allow you to schedule emails to send at a future date and time, although this can significantly minimize the number of completed assignments, and many students rely on these announcements to ensure they finish their assignments before the deadline.

Make wise use of Discussions in Blackboard

Discussions can quickly consume a significant portion of instructional time, especially in big courses. Students will get more knowledge from conversations if the instructor participates actively and replies to each student individually. Individualized responses can become rather time-consuming and repetitious, and many students may miss critical information unless they read all of the instructor’s responses.

Instructors may desire to provide brief individual comments and then a comprehensive answer that addresses all students’ concerns. This information can be saved in a document for future use and updating if similar topics are used in future classes.

Establish a Question & Answer (Q&A) discussion board for students to submit general queries. If students make effective use of the Q&A conversation, the instructor may be able to respond to queries more efficiently with a single post rather than individually responding to each student by email. While students may occasionally respond to Q&A conversations, it is beneficial for the instructor to verify whether or not the student’s response is correct.

Instructors can now monitor student responses and post grades on the same page in newer versions of Bb. This is typically available after clicking on a particular conversation under “Grade Forum.”

Save time by using Test Banks and Pre-Designed Online Classes

Numerous educational material producers offer pre-designed classes complete with examination questions. This significantly decreases the amount of time required to set up a class. Developing a collection of test questions can also be quite beneficial for time management. Before making exams available to students, wise instructors evaluate each exam question, answer, and comments to verify that they accurately reflect the content presented.

At this point, Bb asks instructors to manually configure the characteristics of each test. Hopefully, in the future, instructors will have the option of applying the same settings to several examinations and possibly establishing dates for all tests to display on a single page in the control panel.

Select test questions carefully for the class. Fill-in-the-blank and essay questions can take significantly longer than fill-in-the-blank questions, as the computer can only grade one response as correct. If a student types the response in any other fashion, the instructor may have to manually grade that section of the examination. If a multiple-choice question is chosen, it is beneficial to add a reminder to students that there may be more than one valid response.

If students are needed to review online content prior to obtaining a quiz, some versions of Blackboard allow for an adaptive release, which requires the student to examine a specific section of the class before the exam appears. When this adaptive release is enabled, the instructor saves significant time by eliminating the need to track whether or not students viewed the information. Students will be unable to access the quiz or test until they have completed this step.

If future classes will contain test questions, it is beneficial to review which questions students frequently wrongly answer and either change the question or provide feedback inside the test. Instructors using Blackboard can provide feedback on specific questions. This tool would be even more beneficial if instructors could choose a minimum score required for students to view the feedback. Allowing numerous attempts on quizzes can also save teachers time, as instructors may need to re-set quizzes for students having technological difficulties on examinations that only allow one attempt.

Instructors should beta test the class to ensure that all expected class components display.

How to make the most of your time when teaching a blackboard class

Computers have the potential to save significant amounts of educational time, but only if the appropriate settings are available and employed. Instructors using Blackboard who provide clear directions, objectives, and appropriate learning modules frequently report that their classes run more smoothly. These teachers can spend more time instructing and less time troubleshooting and responding to several students’ identical questions.