<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16608" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello all, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Teri Carter has recommended that I share, via
listserv, something I've been doing recently with Blackboard. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So here it is: Rather than juggle three different
Blackboard sites for three different sections of the same class, I've simply
started asking Computing Services to combine my three sections into one single
Blackboard site. That way, I only have to post things once. In most areas, it
simplifies things tremendously. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are some disadvantages:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1. You cannot use Blackboard's list of students as
a class "roster" any more because, as far as it is concerned, you have one class
with 69 students. The only way you'll know which students belong to which
sections is to consult the old-fashioned rosters. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2. The folks in the computing office appear unused
to this kind of request. As a result, for each of the two quarters I've done
this, I've had to ask politely several times (and once by phone) before I got
the sites combined. If you're going to do this too, please be patient with the
staff. I strongly supsect that it's an unfamiliar nuissance for them. (If
you're going to contact someone, I recommend emailing Ming Yang, who fixed the
last one for me: <A
href="mailto:ming.yang@ucr.edu">ming.yang@ucr.edu</A> . Tell Ming that
you want yours set up like Graham Scott's, so there's a reference
point. Ming's more likely to remember my odd request than anyone else there
is.) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3. If you have an active online discussion element
to your course, you should probably make it clear to your students that
multiple sections are present, so that students from one section don't become
baffled by things that students from other sections say in passing. This hasn't
happened to me, because my students are acutely aware of the fact that the sites
have been combined, but I can envision instances in which a student from a
morning section types "I'll see you all at 8 a.m. tomorrow!" and as a result,
the 12:40 p.m. students start showing up at the wrong time. (Note: Last quarter,
my students got into the habit of putting their section numbers into the subject
lines of their postings, which helped clarify things greatly.) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>4. Some Blackboard features may take longer to
load. If you don't use the course statistics, electronic gradebook, or
discussion boards heavily, this won't be a big deal. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The obvious advantage to combining the sites is
that you no longer have to bounce back and forth between multiple sites. But
there are other advantages: For instance, a combined site opens <SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">the door for some interesting
section-to-section interactions, for those interested in such things. Students
can peer review work from another section (and are often more frank, knowing
that they won't have to sit next to the recipient of the feedback). Sometimes it
helps if students receive two peer reviews, one face-to-face with a classmate
and one electronic review from a stranger. Also, if you ever use peer
grading (as opposed to peer review), it seems to work better across classes.
Additionally, postings from other sections can be pulled up on overheads
and discussed, and again, the discussions are usually more lively if all of the
participants know that the author isn't there to be wounded. Last quarter, I
even had some students write collaborative papers together across sections. (If
you plan on doing anything wildly collaborative, talk to me, both so I can pick
your brain, and so that you can pick mine. Because collaborative writing is my
primary area of research, I've done a lot of collaborative
experimentation, with results both beautiful and ugly. Trust me:
You don't want the ugly results.)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">-
Gray </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>