A Hip, New Blackboard

Today brought the long-awaited release of the much hyped Blackboard 9. According to Inside Higher Ed, early reviewers are impressed with its snazzier, cleaner look and easily-modified login pages. This version also allows those who loathe change to choose different looks instead, such as older versions of Blackboard and the clunky WebCT templates (these are starting to seem almost retro now). Also - cool changes in the interface itself, allowing course designers to click and drag elements around on the page. What I like most, though, is the integration with social tools, such as FaceBook - students can get reminders of test and assignment due dates at their favorite social sites without entering Blackboard. Blackboard 9 would probably be the most exciting new technology I've seen all week if my husband hadn't come home with a Wii Fit the other day.

Fun Idea for Posting Instructor Photo in Online Course

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the importance of instructors putting their photos in their online course. Now it's probably better to have it up there in the beginning of the course, but here's a neat idea that I've done before if you want to wait a couple of weeks into the course. Post four pictures - one of yourself and three of other people who look quite different from you. Let students guess, based on what they've gleaned from your interactions, which one is the real you. In my experience, only about 15 percent picked the real me, and it was a bit of a fun time for all. Fun is always good.

Why Didn't I Think of This?: Student Teachers in Virtual High School

There's needs to be a new word like maybe jealyspired to describe how one feels when they read about something so good and so cool that they actually feel totally inspired but also jealous about not being The One to think of it. That's how I feel about what University of Central Florida and Florida Virtual High School are doing. UCF's student teachers will spend seven weeks of their student teaching in the online classroom. The implications are really big on this one, and to be honest, this isn't the first time I've been jealyspired by UCF or FVHS.

The Watchful Proctor (Now Isn't That Redundant?)

The other day I was asked how to keep students taking online tests in a proctored test site from opening other browsers and looking for the answers. Wait.....isn't that the point of the proctor? So maybe we need lock-down software in situations where there is no proctor, but if the proctor is a real, live person then he or she should clearly be able to tell whether or not a student is opening multiple browsers when taking an online test. This assumes, of course, that the proctor is really watching. That he or she is on premises and is paying attention to his or her proctorees. Of course we don't have guarantees of this watchfulness - but neither do we in the face-to-face classroom. The point (again) is that it's really no easier to cheat in front of a Dell computer in 2009 than it was on row 7 of the lecture hall in 1979.

Five Quick Ways to Get Better Online Teaching Evaluations

One fear that instructors have is that their teaching evaluations, and thus their prospects for promotion and tenure, will head south when they start teaching online. Not the good south in the beaches-of-Miami way, but the ugly one. This fear is well-founded as we often hear depressing stories of once-loved classroom teaching stars bathed in criticism and contempt after their first online teaching foray. No need to despair - here's five small changes instructors can make to lead to happier evaluations.

1. Always, always answer student emails within 24 hours. Just one slip, one late day, and your evaluation from that student will fall precisely 20 percent (this exact statistical calculation is based on my personal experience and occasional failure to follow this rule).
2. Speaking of rules, be a little more flexible about student deadlines and rules. Making exceptions, being understanding, and nice has its rewards. And smile when you make exceptions, even if nobody can see you.
3. Let them know you as a person, not just an information-dispenser/course guide. Tell them about your weekend, your seven cats, your allergy to corkscrew-shaped pasta, the musical Eiffel Tower bookends you bought for 50 percent off at Target yesterday, your obsession with Newhart reruns, whatever. Tell them something about you every week, and include pictures and audio sometimes. And be funny sometimes.
4. Do an informal formative evaluation midway through the term, and actually make some changes based on the results. Tell them the overall results of the evaluation and the changes you are making.
5. Increase the amount of personal feedback you are giving - go beyond the blanket stuff to the whole class. Yes, this one is actually not so quick.

Smile for the Camera if You're Teaching Online

Okay, so I keep reviewing all these online courses for quality awards, and one of the easiest way to get two (of eighty-something required) points is for instructors to simply put their picture in their course. Now I've looked at about five in a row with no picture - not even pictures of the cat or dog or fish or iguana. Folks, we don't take online courses because we don't want to see what teachers look like. If I didn't want to see what my instructor looked like, I'd just go back to Ohio State and take one of those 8 am physics classes with 800 people in them and sit way, way in the back where I couldn't see - nor even really hear as my final grade reflected. So what's up with the lack of pictures? Do you really want your icon to be a gray sillhouette or a red X? Or do you only have a Polaroid and can't find any film? I admit, I don't like (loathe) having my picture made. Especially flash pictures because one or more eyes always winds up shut plus I always feel like I look old and fat (until I get the picture out a few years later and wish I still looked that way). You wouldn't believe how many shots it took just to get the one little profile. But anyway, online teachers and administrators, get your pictures up - in your class, on your blog, etc. In a couple of days, I'll share a really neat way to introduce your picture in an online class that's already started. You will like this idea.