At the request and under the guidance of NIU faculty, ITS has been working throughout the summer and fall 2009 to develop a building block for Blackboard that will allow NIU faculty to send course grades from the Blackboard Grade Center directly to course grade rosters in MyNIU.

Faculty who use the Blackboard Grade Center to calculate final grades will soon be able to choose to export final grades from Blackboard instead of manually entering grades in MyNIU, saving time and the reducing the opportunity for data entry errors. This tool will especially be helpful to faculty who teach classes with large enrollments. After submitting grades from Blackboard using this new tool, faculty will have to login to MyNIU to view the final grades, and post them officially.

The grade submission tool was designed and pilot-tested successfully with the help of faculty focus groups and the tool will be available for use in December 2009.

Features of the new Blackboard Grade Submission Tool include:

• One-time submission of final grades from Blackboard to MyNIU
• Submission from any of the following types of Blackboard courses:
  • Individual Courses
  • Master Courses
  • Combined Courses
• Compatible with all course rosters in MyNIU regardless of grading schema

Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center in conjunction with ITS will offer several workshops in December to demonstrate the new Blackboard Grade Submission Tool and will provide faculty with step-by-step instructions on submitting their final grades from Blackboard to MyNIU.

For more details or to register, visit http://www.niu.edu/blackboard/workshops

More details about the New Blackboard Grade Submission Tool are available at http://www.niu.edu/blackboard/gradecenter/gradesubmission.shtml

With anticipation each fall, faculty look forward to a new year on campus: new courses to teach, new teaching strategies to try, and a whole new group of students. In addition to the returning students faculty have not met before, many of the new faces faculty see each new semester are college freshmen, otherwise known as first-year students. Although first-year students differ in age, experiences, traditions and backgrounds, the majority of them are between 18 and 22 years old.

According to 2009 Beloit College Mindset (Nief & McBride, 2009), students today are different than those of just a decade ago and include some of the following demographics.  More students:

• are older than 25
• are working while taking classes
• are veterans
• need remedial classes
• are part-time students
• are from single-parent or step-parent homes
• have a minority or immigrant background
• have English as a second language
• have a learning or physical disability
• have taken college courses while in high school

Here are a few tips and techniques that can help faculty understand, engage with and effectively teach first-year students.

Connect with First-Year Students

Make connections with students despite age, values and experiential differences. When discussing new or controversial course content, bring in examples to which students can relate. For example, use a reverse-debate format in which students take opposing side to what they believe.  Here are a few tips for interacting with first-year students in the classroom from Carnegie Mellon University (1997):

1. Ask lots of questions in class that stretch students’ thinking. For example, begin with simple recall questions such as, “List the” and “Who did” and increase the complexity of the question to those that challenge students higher order thinking such as “Which _____ is the best? Why do you think so?” and “Give and justify your opinion on _______.”
2. Mingle with students as they work in groups to encourage dialogue and interaction.
3. Toss a Koosh ball to students. The student who catches the ball is expected to answer the question. Students can then toss the ball to another student, and so on. This interactive nature of questions and answers can lead to more engaged learning. The activity can also relieve stress, especially at the beginning of the semester.
4. Have students write responses to questions on flip chart paper or white board using colorful markers.
5. Use games and simulations to help students “visualize complex systems” such as simulating an environment otherwise not possible in the classroom. For example, provide color-enhanced images of the inside of a cell or show a video of chemical reaction. Each of these strategies can help students better understand the environment (Oblinger, 2004).
6. Learn students’ names. Students are more likely to interact when called upon by name.
7. Relate required reading to lectures and course discussions. Ensure course assessments (quizzes, exams, and assignments) include material from required readings.
8. Arrange students to work in groups to encourage out-of-class interactions.
9. As part of the non-instructional course objectives, teach first-year students how to prepare for assignments and exams. Provide previous exams and sample of graded papers so students get a feel for how course work is graded.

Be Personable

Share some personal experiences, such as how interest in the subject started or stories from college days. Faculty can let students know that faculty can be trusted and that students can share feelings and questions. This is especially helpful for first-year students seeking to establish a place in the university community. Sprinkle in a bit of humor now and then to reduce the formal nature of class.

Make Course Content Relevant

Relate what may be new course content to many first year students, to their knowledge and interests. Show students the importance of the content, how content relates to required readings, and how content can actually be used.

Give and Receive Feedback

Provide ways to give and receive feedback throughout the semester and use rubrics to help students understand expectations and methods of assessment. Grade assignments and exams quickly so students can use feedback to prepare for new content and future assessments. Give meaningful and timely feedback and solicit feedback to add credibility to teaching approaches. Some examples are:

1. Give frequent quizzes – Blackboard is an easy-to-use venue for low-stakes assessments.
2. Use email to set up appointments, clarify course expectations and communicate with students. Establish email protocols such as how quickly questions will be responded to, if questions  will be responded to over the weekend, how faculty would like to be addressed and if using complete sentences and proper punctuation (instead of “texting” language) is expected.
3. Give short assignments that increase in complexity to measure comprehension of course content.
4. Use “One-minute-papers” to get a snapshot of student comprehension of ongoing content. These papers allow students to quickly reflect on content just covered in class and will help identify areas that might need further review.
5. Ask questions such as, “What was the clearest point in today’s class?” and “What the muddiest point was in today’s class?” Ask students to write their responses on note cards and submit before leaving the room. Incorporate student responses in the next lecture or address them directly in class.

Believe in Students

Begin each semester with the assumption that all first-year students come to class eager to learn. Although the faculty member is an expert in the discipline, students should be allowed to express their points of view. Listen to what first-year students have to say, allow discussions that diverge from the planned lecture and invite students to help devise course policies and rules related to projects and assignments. Students who have a voice in their own learning will find a more rewarding learning experience.

Summary

It is essential that faculty help first-year students successfully adjust to new living and learning environments. By understanding what it means to be a first-year college student and recognizing the demands first-year students face while transitioning to the university community, faculty can provide engaging, challenging and supportive learning environments.

Selected Resources and References

Carnegie Mellon University (1997). Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence. Best practices for teaching first-year undergraduates: Strategies for experience faculty.  Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/resources/ PublicationsArchives/InternalReports/BestPractices-1stYears.pdf

Nief, R., & McBride, T. (2009). The Beloit College mindset list.  Retrieved from http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/

Oblinger, D. (2004). Boomers & gen-xers millennials: Understanding the new students.  Retrieved from http://www.starlinktraining.org/packets2004/packet129.pdf

Are you a Facebook user?  If so, you can now receive notices of new Faculty Development programs and resources as well as connect with Faculty Development staff on Facebook. 

In September 2009 Facebook has grown to 300 million users across the world, in essence becoming the largest social network on the web. It was at 250 million only in July of 2009. Such rapid and continued growth has had immense implications for its users. There’s an ever increasing number of people and organizations Facebook users can follow and a plethora of applications they can have installed on their accounts to stay in touch with current friends, finds new ones, follow the news and keep up with professional development.

Choosing to follow Faculty Development on Facebook will allow you to participate in discussions, receive program and workshop notifications, view shared resources, photos and videos from many events hosted by the department, and to connect with colleagues not just from NIU, but, potentially, from many other educational institutions.

To follow Faculty Development on Facebook, simply login to Facebook and search for “NIU Faculty Development” click here or click the Facebook icon on the Faculty Development web site (http://www.niu.edu/facdev). Once you arrive at the NIU Faculty Development page on Facebook, just click the “Become a Fan” button. After doing so, you’ll receive notices in Facebook of new programs, resources, or services offered by the Center.

You can also find NIU Faculty Development on Twitter at http://twitter.com/facdev and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/niuquicktips

Over the last few years student use of various social networking sites and mobile technologies has grown exponentially. Realizing that students spend countless hours on Facebook, many organizations and educational institutions have started to seek ways of creating their own presence on social networks in an attempt to make relevant educational information more readily available to students in the environment they are already familiar with.

NIU has recently enabled access to the Blackboard Synch platform that attempts to help students “bridge their social and academic lives, as well as leverage those social interactions that are already occurring for social learning” (http://wiki.blackboardsync.com/). Blackboard Sync consists of two applications that enable students to receive pertinent Blackboard course updates through the use of a social network or a mobile device.

Blackboard Learn for the Facebook Platform application allows students to receive Blackboard course notifications and updates in Facebook. Students can see if there has been any new information posted in their Blackboard courses in the Announcements, Course Content areas, Discussion Board, Scholar, and even Grades.

Additionally, Blackboard Learn for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch application allows students to retrieve similar kind of Blackboard course information in their iPhone or iPod Touch mobile devices.

The Blackboard Sync platform is primarily targeted at students. As Blackboard puts it, “It delivers course updates and information conveniently through the student’s Facebook account or to their iPhone so that they can stay on top of their studies without having to login to their Blackboard account.”

Faculty members do not have to install the applications. If students have Blackboard Learn installed on their Facebook accounts or on the iPhone or iPod Touch mobile devices and a faculty member posts an update to the Blackboard course he or she is teaching, the students, who are enrolled into the course and who have chosen to install the applications, will be able to see the updates from either their Facebook account or on the mobile devices.

The installation of the Blackboard Learn applications should be initiated by users from the NIU Blackboard Login page. The users will be prompted to login to their Blackboard and Facebook accounts to install the application. This is done to ensure that information is exchanged securely and that users are properly authenticated.

To install Blackboard Learn applications, follow these simple steps:

1. Log in to Blackboard at NIU (http://webcourses.niu.edu).
2. Click on the Blackboard Sync link in the Tools module.
3. Select to install either Blackboard Learn for Facebook or Blackboard Learn for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

Learn More

To learn more about the Blackboard Sync platform and it applications, please visit the wiki page developed by Blackboard at http://wiki.blackboardsync.com/display/SYNC/Home.

Sometimes, students need more than just their professors’ feedback. Students benefit from learning to assess their own work and from evaluating the work of their peers.

There are many benefits to self and peer assessment. The most obvious benefit to self assessment is that it encourages autonomy and independence in students (Boud, 1995). It forces students to think critically about their work rather than relying upon external feedback, which builds the students’ skills in self-monitoring and self-correction (Exemplars, 2004). Both of these are essential skills to have in the workplace (Boud, 1995).

Peer assessment allows students to receive feedback from their peers. However, the greatest benefit comes from the process of assessing their peers. In many cases, students would never see any work but their own. Evaluating others’ work allows students to compare their own work to the work of their peers. The assessment process also requires students to analyze the criteria for excellence more closely, which may also cause them to internalize the criteria (Exemplars, 2004).

There are some challenges to using Self and Peer Assessment in the classroom. Perhaps most importantly, students’ self-assessment skills may not be developed prior to arriving at the university (Boud, 1995). Students may need to be taught the skills necessary for effective critical reflection before requiring them to self-assess. Since self-assessment skills may be subject-specific, it may not be possible to assume that skills taught in other courses are applicable to the current course.

Peer assessment is often viewed as punitive rather than constructive (Boud, 1995). Students may even fear receiving low scores from their peers. Similarly, peer assessment may focus on scores rather than providing constructive feedback. Faculty should take care to design peer assessments to encourage or require feedback and explanations as opposed to only numerical scores.

It can also be challenging to implement self and peer assessment. If the subject of the assessed work is a paper or other written work, it often becomes the faculty member’s responsibility to coordinate the collection of the assignment and the distribution for peer review. The faculty member must determine and track which assesses each assignment and ensure that the evaluations are collected. The Self and Peer Assessment Tool, one of the newest features in the Blackboard Course Management System, may make this process simpler.

The Self and Peer Assessment Tool allows faculty to establish criteria for assessing the assignments and allows faculty to provide examples of model work. While creating the self and peer assessment, faculty can determine submission and evaluation periods, which Blackboard strictly enforces. Faculty can also determine how many peer assessments each student must complete, as well as whether or not a self assessment is required. Students submit their assignments using the tool, and then Blackboard randomly assigns assessment pairs and distributes the files. The faculty member may decide to make the pairs known or anonymous. Once the evaluations are complete, the faculty member may view or download the results, and can send the results to the Grade Center.  To learn more about the Self and Peer Assessment Tool, go to http://www.niu.edu/blackboard/assessments/spa

In short, both self and peer assessment are valuable tools that can increase learning by requiring students to critically evaluate their work and the work of their peers. The Blackboard Self and Peer Assessment Tool can simplify the process.

References

Boud, D. (1995). Enhancing learning through self assessment. New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer.

Exemplars. (2004). The benefits of peer- and self-assessment. Retrieved from http://www.exemplars.com/resources/formative/assessment.html.