Presentation

1. Questions for discussion
   1. Why have discussions?
   2. Why assess?
   3. What types of assessments do you currently use in your face-to-face courses?
   4. At first glance, can these assessments work online or are alternate assessments necessary?
   5. What specific questions about online assessment and Blackboard do you have that you'd like answered?

       

2. Assessment assumptions: Preliminary thoughts prior to exploring assessment tools in Blackboard

    

3. Best practices for assessing using discussion in Blackboard
   1. Setting expectations
      1. Provide students at the beginning of the course with written expectations of what you expect of them and what they can expect of you
      2. Rubrics for evaluating discussion
   2. Managing discussions
      1. Mark read/unread
      2. Sort/filter/search
      3. Flagging posts for later reference
   3. Grading discussion
      1. Creating a forum (hoa)
      2. Enabling grading (hoa)
      3. Setting time/date restrictions (hoa)
   4. Advanced discussion techniques
      1. Collecting posts
      2. Group discussions
      3. Media prompts / adding YouTube clip to a discussion post (hoa)
      4. Adding a hyperlink to a discussion post (hoa)
      5. Peer-review
   5. Ideas for large classes and discussion
      1. No more than 20 students required to contribute to a single forum / break into separate forums
      2. Discussion in group forums, moderator writes summary and reports to general class forum
      3. Serve as "moderator" the first week, then assign & rotate moderator role among students
      4. Restrict the number of posts allowed per student per week...grade on quality, not quantity!
   6. Tips and recommendations
      1. Define your purpose for discussion (collaboration, assessment, community building, etc.)
      2. Make your expectations clear / define "substantive" 
      3. Require descriptive thread titles
      4. Add links to discussion forums where mentioned in content areas
      5. Separate forums for each week or assessment
      6. Encourage students to respond to one another
      7. Set deadlines for when initial posts and follow-up responses are due
      8. Require general questions to be posted to a HELP! forum
      9. Create an off-topic "Cyber Cafe" for general discussion
      10. Organize forums in reverse chronological order to reduce scrolling
      11. Use date & time restrictions to auto-release forums and content

      12. Have maximum and minimum word limits

      13. Discussion ends when the unit ends

           

4. Best practices for assessing using tests & quizzes in Blackboard

   1. Examples

      1. Drill & practice

      2. Review

      3. Demonstrate proficiency before advancing (adaptive release)

   2. Tips and recommendations

      1. Avoid high stakes, objective testing unless proctored environment is available

      2. Use low stakes quizzes before attempting tests

      3. Try the timer before enabling

          

5. Best practices for assessing using surveys in Blackboard
   1. Create a simple survey (hoa)

       

6. Best practices for assessing using assignments in Blackboard
   1. Create a simple assignment (hoa)

   2. Submit an assignment (hoa)

   3. Receive feedback on a submitted assignment

       

7. Plagiarism detection and prevention in Blackboard using SafeAssign
   1. Create a SafeAssignment (hoa)
   2. Submit a SafeAssignment (hoa)

       

8. Managing assessments using the Grade Center in Blackboard
   1. Manually creating a colum (hoa)
   2. Adding a score (hoa)
   3. Adding comments (hoa)

       

9. General recommendations
   1. Start with the end in mind
   2. Be purposeful in selecting and designing assessments - don't assess just for the sake of assessing
   3. Use formative assessment whenever possible
   4. Merge assessment with content; Don't separate assessments from course content items
   5. Provide opportunities for self-reflection and self-assessment

(hoa)="hands-on activity"

Resources

1. Assessment tools in Blackboard
   1. Discussion board
   2. Tests & quizzes
   3. Surveys
   4. Assignments
   5. SafeAssign
      1. Bb SafeAssign Wiki
      2. Introducing SafeAssign Workshop Slides
   6. Self and Peer Assessment 

       

2. Blackboard version 8 quick guides
   1. Organizing your course [PDF]
   2. Presenting content [PDF]
   3. Creating course content [PDF]
   4. Getting started with the grade center [PDF]
   5. Keeping students informed [PDF]
   6. Measuring student performance [PDF]
   7. Reusing and reorganizing courses [PDF]
   8. Universal design [PDF]

       

3. Teaching with Blackboard Resources (NIU)

    

4. Faculty Development Resources (NIU)
   1. Online Programs
   2. Online Program Archives

       

5. Sample asynchronous discussion rubrics
   1. Sample asynchronous discussion grading rubric [PDF]
   2. Sample discussion rubric 2 [Word]
   3. Sample rubric template [Word]

       

6. Digital Assessment (the audio part comes in at page 18) (.pdf)

    

7. Misc. online course samples - redesigning course materials for online delivery

Note - This is a "working outline" and still under construction