Blackboard Blogs

Exemplary Courses, Exemplary Instructors. How Did We Do It?

By Marie-Pierre Huguet, Ph.D., Senior Course Developer, Office of Undergraduate Education, Center for Educational Innovation, Research, and Outreach, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

As a course developer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, I have the privilege of working with very talented faculty – three of whom have won the Blackboard Exemplary Course award: Professor Danchak with GUI Building in 2003, Professor Wright with International Business in 2005, and Professors Haley and Steiner with Nuclear Phenomena of Engineering Analysis in 2007.

Three courses. Three departments. Three delivery modes. Three instructors. As different as they possibly can be. How did we do it?

Did we discover the perfect formula? Unearth the magical blend of tools and techniques? Concoct the absolute cocktail for success? Did we design a flawless template? Identify every educational nook and cranny? Embed effective practices? Did we master the rubric? Encapsulate the criteria?

No, not really, but it would be nice to think so. Still...how did we do it?

Rubric as a “Road Map” for Collaborative Development Team

By Dede Nelson, Instructional Designer, North Carolina State University

A key part of Blackboard’s Exemplary Course Project (ECP) is the detailed rubric that must be completed for each nominated course. However, course developers in North Carolina State University’s Training and Development Online (TD Online) graduate program find that the rubric serves as more than just a tool for facilitating the evaluation of web-based or web-supplemented course sites. In my role as instructional designer on the development team, I find that the detailed criteria included in the ECP rubric highlights the need for multiple areas of expertise in online course development and delivery; it also provides a common focus for the contributions of individual development partners. The rubric can help to achieve “buy-in” from all team members for important best practices in online course design.

"Organization & Operation of Training & Development Programs," named as a 2008 Blackboard Greenhouse Exemplary Course, is part of a totally online master’s level degree program, known as TD Online. Course development, and to some extent course delivery and support, within the TD Online program is a team approach involving the shared expertise of faculty, an instructional designer, and a distance education librarian in addition to guidance from a hands-on program director and strong support of a upper level graduate assistant.

Join the Blackboard BbWorld '09 Program Committee

Hello, it's Kerry Jo here from Blackboard Events.  Planning for BbWorld '09 (in my hometown, Washington, DC) has begun, and we're all busy as bees here at Blackboard – brainstorming, putting together project plans and forming committees to ensure we have the right people working to offer the best user conference we can.

But we need you to make it happen!

I invite you to participate in making BbWorld '09 and the Blackboard Developers Conference events to remember.  We're looking for a large and varied group of volunteers for the BbWorld Program Committee, who will help us:

1. Develop themes and areas of focus for BbWorld '09
2. Actively recruit speakers for the Call for Proposals (Have you seen a great speaker at a regional user event?  Ask them to submit a proposal!)
3. Review and rate submitted proposals in your area of expertise to help decide what should be included in the program, and then collaborate with others on the committee with similar expertise to help choose the best program content
4. Be a sounding board and active participant for ideas ranging from post-conference networking to live conference blogging

Last year 50 clients participated!  Fifty active, engaged peers of yours materially impacted what attendees saw and heard at the conference.  So if you have a voice and you want to be heard . . . well, this is your chance.  Help us make BbWorld what YOU want it to be!

With so many clients involved in the process, I don't anticipate participation to take more than a few hours of your time over the next few months.  You and your program committee colleagues will be featured in the program and at the event as leaders in the user community.  And I hope it will be an opportunity for you to meet your professional development goals by taking a leadership role in this event.
Does this sound interesting to you?  Feel like participating?  Please e-mail me at BbWorld@blackboard.com.

And don't forget the Call for Presentations is open for both BbWorld and the Developers Conference!  I encourage everyone (regardless of your interest in the Program Committee) to submit a proposal!  Get your session in before February 27, 2009.

See you in DC!  (And, no, you can't stay at my apartment.)