Teaching Strategies

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Teaching Strategies Approaches when Using the
Blackboard Enterprise Learning System
NERCOMP User Meeting February 2, 2009 Donna L.
Jones, Ed.D.-Senior Pedagogical Solutions
Engineer
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A Quick Math Problem
3.2
Video Games/Social Networking
6.8
Television is On
3.5
Attending Class/Labs
6.5
Sleeping
2.5
Eating Drinking (nonalcoholic)
5.3
Sports Leisure (incl. socializing)
2.6
Homework Studying
30.6
Is your day 30 hours long?
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A New Student

• A new type of student walks the campus
• He assumes that education and technology have
  already merged
• She sees the Internet both for information
  delivery and for interpersonal communication
• To them, technology is not experimental but
  mainstream

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Challenge 1 Focusing on Students

• How have YOUR students changed over the last
  three to five years. What challenges have these
  changes presented in your practice?

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Todays Student
Social Networkers
Want Real Experiences
Entrenched in Technology
Seek Choice Flexibility
The Millennial Generation
Multi-Taskers
Communicative
Education Consumers
Helicopter Parents!
Creative
Interactive Gamers
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Focusing on Students Using Technology

• The biggest challenge to technology-infused
  teaching is making activities meaningful,
  engaging, and student -centered

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Focusing on Students Using Technology

• Why? Because instructors
• Lack good, discipline-based examples,
• Feel overwhelmed by the technology,
• Do not see the benefit to the amount of time
  perceived to build and manage a course (personal
  cost-effectiveness),
• And are uncomfortable with shifting control to
  students for knowledge creation.

How do we change this?
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Technology Adaptation

• Technology is about adaptation
• Modeling new and varied learning experiences
• Monitoring and constantly improving the
  institution, starting with the class experience

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Challenge 2 Teaching Millennial Students

• Think of a successful instructor/facilitator?
  What tools does this person utilize in the
  teaching and learning process?

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Teaching Strategies and Approaches

• How do instructors teach in student-centered
  ways?
• Using one or more learning theory, including
• Shaping, chaining (behaviorism)
• Organized, self-paced instruction (objectivism)
• Case-study method (cognitivism constructivism)
• Problem-based learning (constructivism)
• Active learning (constructivism)
• Collaborative learning (social constructivism)
• Learning communities virtual learning
  environments (constructivism)

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Teaching Strategies and Approaches

• Seven Principles For Good Practice in
  Undergraduate Education
• Good practice in undergraduate education
• 1. Encourages contact between students and
  faculty
• 2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among
  students
• 3. Encourages active learning

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Teaching Strategies and Approaches (Cont.)

• Good practice in undergraduate education
• 4. Gives prompt feedback
• 5. Emphasizes time on task
• 6. Communicates high expectations
• 7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning

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Incorporating theSeven Principles into the
Blackboard Learning System
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1. Encourage Contact between Students and Faculty

• Announcements Enables instructors to
  communicate directly to students in a one to many
  fashion asynchronously displays
• Notifications Links to Course items or Course
  information that have been changed, submitted,
  created, or that have impending due dates.
• Calendar Assignments and due dates can be added
  by the instructor to communicate activities and
  deadlines to students
• Discussions Allows for instructor to initiate
  important conceptual knowledge building for
  students in a social environment
• Journals Allows for private communication
  accessible by only an instructor and a user.

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1. Encourage Contact between Students and Faculty
(Cont.)

• Email/Messages Allows instructors to
  communicate directly with students asynchronously
  
• Grade Center Students have instant access to
  items and feed back items as graded by the
  instructor and allows faculty to easily give
  prompt feedback to students
• Syllabus Allows instructor to communicate to
  students objectives and expectations for the
  course
• Virtual Classroom Allows instructors to
  communicate with students synchronously,
  informally via the office hours chat or in a
  lecture mode via the Lecture Hall discussion

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2. Develop Reciprocity and Cooperation among
Students

• Self and Peer Assessment is a tool designed to
  enhance the reflective learning skills of
  students allowing them to review the work of
  colleagues through criterion-based reference
  evaluation to promote constructive feedback
• Peer-Reviewed Discussions For peer review and
  social interaction
• Email/Messages Allows students to communicate
  directly with other students asynchronously
• Blogs Allows for an effective means of sharing
  knowledge and materials created and collected
  with the rest of the course

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2. Develop Reciprocity and Cooperation among
Students (Cont.)

• Groups Create groups to allow an intimate
  social learning setting and alternative learning
  opportunities
• Scholar Social book marking to share resources
  with peers
• Virtual Classroom Allows students to
  communicate with each other synchronously via the
  group chat feature

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3. Encourage Active Learning

• Adaptive Release Can require students to
  complete one activity before proceeding to the
  next to encourage student participation in their
  own learning
• Assignments Permits students to submit many
  types of media files allowing them to apply their
  learning in multiple methods
• Discussions Allows for students to initiate
  important conceptual knowledge building with
  assistance from other students in a social
  environment
• Scholar Fosters the ability to search for
  outside information to increase student learning
  and interest

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3. Encourage Active Learning (Cont.)

• Learning Units Create sequenced instruction or
  allow students to go through the sequence at
  their own will (checking off items as they
  progress)
• Virtual Classroom Allows students to use
  synchronous tools to present knowledge learned to
  instructor or class

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4. Give Prompt Feedback

• Assessments Immediately releases score, correct
  answer, and feedback to students
• Assignments Permits Instructor to create
  coursework and manage the grades and feedback for
  each Student separately sending comments about
  their individual Assignment and attaching files,
  if necessary
• Early Warning System Student performance
  monitoring
• Graded and Peer-Reviewed Discussions Allows for
  instructor to give prompt feedback on student
  contributions and fellow students to give peer
  feedback via peer review

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4. Give Prompt Feedback (Cont.)

• Grade Center Students have instant access to
  items as they are graded by the instructor
• Grade Center Averages Allows students to see
  how their work compares to that of other students
• Performance Dashboard Provides a window into
  all types of user activity in a course with
  pertinent information about that users progress
  and activity in the course, giving the instructor
  necessary information to engage with a student
• Statistics Tracking Allows instructors to
  determine how many times a particular content
  item has been viewed and when giving the
  instructor necessary information to engage with a
  student

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5. Emphasize Time on Task

• Assignments Instructors can assign due dates
  and the approximate time required to complete
  assignments, allowing students to adapt their
  schedules to accomplish assignments
• Announcements Enables instructors to
  communicate assignment time requirements directly
  to students
• Calendar Assignments and due dates can be added
  by the instructor to communicate activities and
  deadlines to students

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5. Emphasize Time on Task (Cont.)

• Discussions Discussions can be graded and have
  assigned start dates and stops
• Syllabus Allows instructor to communicate to
  students objectives and expectations for the
  course and time commitments students can expect
• Tasks Instructors can define task priority and
  track task status while students can update their
  progress on tasks

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6. Communicate High Expectations

• Adaptive Release Allows instructors to release
  higher level content to students demonstrating
  mastery
• Announcements Enables instructor to communicate
  expectations directly to students
• Assessments Immediately releases score, correct
  answer, and feedback to students
• Graded and Peer-Reviewed Discussions - Threads
  can be graded and tracked and peers can
  communicate expectations along with instructor

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6. Communicate High Expectations (Cont.)

• Reports and Performance Dashboard Allows
  instructor to determine level of student
  achievement and engagement
• SafeAssign Plagiarism education and prevention
  tool
• Syllabus Allows instructor to communicate to
  students objectives and expectations for the
  course

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7. Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning

• Adaptive Release Allows instructor to release
  learning to students just in time or by level
  of comprehension
• Assessments Allows instructor to utilize 18
  question types and multiple forms of media
  customizes to diverse learning styles
• Assignments Permits multiple forms of
  multimedia to be incorporated into learning
  activities utilizing various types of content
  (audio, flash, SCORM objects, MPEG, etc.)

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7. Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning
(Cont.)

• Groups Allows instructor to organize groups by
  personality, learning styles, comprehension of
  materials, etc.
• Virtual Classroom Allows instructors to use
  text chats, whiteboards, and browser sharing as
  well as creating breakout sessions for grouping
  learners

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Challenge 3 Response

• Think about one of the Seven Principles discussed
• today and identify how utilizing these concepts
  could enhance the educational experiences in
  your Blackboard course.

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References

• Chickering, A. W., Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven
  principles for good practice in undergraduate
  education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

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Questions?