Teaching with Blackboard
Syllabus

Table of Contents

Course Description
Learning Outcomes
Recommended Skills
Course Structure
Course Requirements
Estimated Time Commitment
How It Works
Professional Development Credit
Certificate of Completion
Attribution

Course Description

This course introduces Blackboard tools in the context of practical strategies for design, development, and management of an online course. You will have an opportunity to review the basics of online course development and practice the use of Blackboard tools through hands-on exercises.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course you will be able to use Blackboard to apply Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education in the following ways:

• Encourage contact between students and faculty by creating a faculty profile to share your contact information
• Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students by creating a community of discourse on the discussion board
• Encourage active learning by constructing individualized learning paths through the use of
  adaptive release criteria
• Give prompt feedback through the use of immediately scored exams
• Emphasize time on task by adding events to the course calendar
• Communicate high expectations by outlining course learning outcomes in an online
  syllabus
• Respect diverse talents and ways of learning by presenting content in a variety of formats

Recommended Skills

Basic computer skills needed to succeed in this course include:

• Basic computer operation, such as using a mouse and keyboard
• Understand file naming conventions and file management principles
• Create and save documents
• Launch applications on your computer
• Manage files on your computer
• Copy and paste into another program
• Browse the internet
• Have two browser windows open at the same time
• Send and receive email

Course Structure

Teaching with Blackboard is an open entry/open exit course.  This means that you can sign up at any time and complete the course at your convenience. 

The course content is divided into several small sections so that you will be able to progress through the course at your own pace.  Each section has a "Mark Reviewed" button that you will use to get credit for having reviewed the material as well as to keep track of where you are in the course.

Most questions should be posted to the Discussion Board, but you may contact the facilitators directly.

There are four quizzes for this course that are "open-book" and can be taken multiple times.  This will allow you to review the material and get feedback on your understanding of the material. 

Course Requirements

• Attendance - Reading the assigned materials in this Blackboard course, participating in the Discussion Board, and completing tasks in your own Blackboard container will be the equivalent of attending class. You will be expected to do your work on a regular basis.
• Complete all hands-on exercises.  The practice exercises in this course offer the opportunity to master the use of the various tools. Participants must complete all assigned tasks in their own practice Blackboard containers in order to earn Professional Development credit or earn a Certificate of Completion.

Estimated Time Commitment

To complete the entire course, you can expect to spend somewhere between 8 and 20 hours to review course material, participate in class discussion, and complete hands-on exercises. This time commitment will vary based on your computer skills and familiarity with online instruction and creating content for the web.

Not everyone will want or need to complete the entire course.  Some faculty may have already been teaching with Blackboard and want to review specific areas of interest in the course.  This course is structured to allow faculty to get the information they need, when they need it.  The content will always be available for reference and review.

How It Works

• All assignments are posted in the "Course Content" area.
• Each participant will create a practice course container on the Blackboard server. You can use this container to practice using Blackboard tools and to build your course skeleton.
• Each participant will create a "dummy" student user account in their practice container. You can use this account to log in to your practice container to get the "true" student experience in your course.
• If you find any "dead" links or other inaccurate information in the course, please email Rhonda at rhonda.bauerlein@gcccd.edu so that the problem can be corrected as soon as possible.
• At the end of the workshop, you will be asked to complete a course evaluation survey.

Professional Development Credit

To earn Professional Development Credit for this course, click on the "Prof Dev Credit" item on the course menu and follow the instructions there.

Certificate of Completion

Once you complete the entire course, email the facilitator for your college and ask to have your container evaluated.  Tell him/her that you are seeking a Certificate of Completion.  You will be provided with specific feedback on your progress and suggestions for improvement.  If there is sufficient evidence that the hands-on exercises have been completed, all quizzes have been satisfactorily completed, and all the course content has been reviewed as evidenced by being marked as reviewed, then a Certificate of Completion will be awarded.

Note: you don't have to wait until the entire course is complete to have your container reviewed.  If you want feedback earlier in the course, contact your facilitator.

Attribution

This course was originally created by the California Virtual Campus, through funding received from the Chancellor's Office, California Community Colleges. We wish to thank Paul Meyers and the entire CVC team for their efforts promoting distance learning and the effective use of technology for education. We wish to thank Gregory Beyrer at Cosumnes River College for his development efforts as well as Marsha Leeman-Conley, whose materials for the Online Teaching Institute at American River College have been adapted for this course. This course has been revised for latest version of Blackboard (currently version 9.1).

Copyright: All content in this course is licensed by the @ONE Project under a Creative Commons License.