Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series-Free Professional Development for You!

The Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series (BITS)

Did you know that Blackboard offers free weekly training opportunities for educators and instructional designers? The Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series (BITS) is a training initiative to help augment internal training efforts. Harnessing their community of Blackboard users, BITS will share the top strategies and pedagogy for both increasing educator efficiency and improving learning outcomes. You can watch past BITS’ webinars on their YouTube Playlist. To register, please go to www.blackboard.com/BITS.

Upcoming webinars include:

• Setting Up Your Course in Blackboard Learn Without a Template presented by Phoebe J. Ballard, University of Toledo on September 19th at 1pm ET
• Organizing Your Course in Blackboard Learn presented by Matt Acevedo of FIU Online on September 26th at 11am ET
• BITS Office Hours: Course Design, September 30th at 11am ET
• The Online Collaborative Experience presented by David Flora, Ericka Hollis, and Xavier Scott of Morehead State University on October 7th at 11am ET Accessibility Matters! - Part Two presented by Beth Stinson and JoAnna Hunt of Blackboard on October 17th at 11am ET

High-Tech Cheating and How to Prevent It

Great article by John K. Waters on the proliferation of high-tech cheating and what educators can do to prevent it. The focus is on the K-12 environment, but many of the recommendations apply to two-year colleges. The article also includes information on proctoring.

Click here to read the article published in the August 2013 online edition of 'the JOURNAL'.

Tools That College Students Wish Their Instructors Used More or Less

In a chart posted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, students surveyed indicated which technology and what collaborative tools they wished their instructors incorporated into their courses. for example, nearly three-quarters wished that their instructors would record lectures more often, so they could be watched later. See the full report.

Reminder: Make Your Course Available to Students

Your course will not show up to students if you have not made the course available. All our courses are web-enhanced, so all courses (full semester or 1^st bi-term) must be made available as of September 19, 2013.
To make your course available:

• Log in to Blackboard
• Log into your course (this applies to all SKYCTC courses)
• Control Panel
• Customization
• Properties
• Go to #3 Set Availability
• Make Course Available—click on Yes
• Submit

SKYCTC Blackboard Workshops in August

These training workshops supplement the learning units in the Faculty Training & Resource Center eCommunity and will be of interest to faculty new to Blackboard or have an interest in teaching an online course.

Pre-Registration is Required: Email Cindy Gaffney | cindy.gaffney@kctcs.edu | Subject Line: Enter Workshop Name | Date | Time

All workshops will be held  at the Main Campus, Building H, Room 111A

• Getting Started with Blackboard
• August 9: 9-Noon or August 12: 1-4 pm  (Register for one of these sessions.)
• SoftChalk: August 12: 9:30-11:30 am
• Creating Assignments**: August 13: 9 – 10 am
• Creating Exams**: August 13: 10:30-11:30 am                          
• Using Adaptive Release**: August 14: 12:30-1:30 pm            
• Adding Rubrics to Your Course**: August 14: 2-3 pm           

**Participants should be familiar with the Getting Started workshop concepts before attending this workshop. 

Blackboard Exemplary Course Award: How to Get Your Course Ready!

Listed below is information about an upcoming Blackboard webinar series that will prepare you to possibly submit your online course for consideration for the Blackboard Exemplary Course award.  This is a great professional development opportunity and I know many of you have terrific online courses that should be considered for this award.

Blackboard Exemplary Course Cohort: Register today!

Using the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program (ECP) Rubric as a guide, this cohort will provide both theoretical concepts and practical tools for instructors to recognize, organize, and build online courses for both blended learners and online learners. Over the course of four weeks, ECP Directors and 2013 Exemplary Course Winners will expand upon each element of the rubric. This program will be most beneficial to educators and designers who are new to online learning. Sign up!

• Summer 2013 Cohort Dates: July 22 - August 12
• Live Sessions: Held each Monday at 11am EDT
• Audience: Educators/Designers
• Registration Page: http://learn.blackboard.com/ecpcohort

Blackboard Unavailability: Summer Session

Reminder: KCTCS eLearning (Blackboard) will be unavailable Monday, July 29, at 12:01 AM EST through Thursday, August 1, at 8:00  AM EST for general maintenance and migration to Blackboard hosting.