Products & Services

One of the hardest adjustments for students transitioning from a traditional classroom to an online environment is feeling connected to their teacher. Many times in online courses students are a username while instructors become virtual computers responding back to questions and grading projects. But, this doesn’t have to happen with a few key tricks to creating an environment where online teachers become real.

Here are three simple tips:

Tip 1: Develop a sense of connection between yourself and the students early on in the course through an introduction discussion. Have students post about themselves in discussion boards or blogs to the rest of the class encouraging them to respond to each other. (Don’t forget to include some background questions that relate to the course in this discussion.) As the instructor, the biggest way to start that connection is personalizing your replay to each student, instead of just a cookie cutter response.  To get the thread started, post about yourself with some personal information (your interests, favorite book, etc). Offering personal information will help students connect with you and make it so you aren’t a robotic, online teacher.

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep our clients informed about important updates related to the security of the Blackboard Learn™ platform, I’d like to update all of you in our client community with a quick snapshot of some meaningful security enhancements recently released and coming in early Q1.

I encourage clients not already on Service Pack 8 or higher to make plans to upgrade so you can take advantage of strengthened security safeguards and patches. Our Managed Hosting team implements Security Best Practices as part of the standard procedures. If you are a Self Hosted client and have any questions about Security Best Practices for your Blackboard Learn system, please feel free to contact Client Support for assistance.

As another year comes to a close here at Blackboard, we want to share some of our readers’ favorite blog posts from 2012.  You clicked, you shared, you commented.  Here’s what got the most attention:

• Coming NOW to a school near you: The Active Learner: A blog post showcasing our new animated video that illustrates the voice of an Active Learner and the future of education.

• A Teaching Strategy with Success Stories: The Flipped Classroom :  A teacher turned Blackboard employee tells her story of moving into a “Flipped Classroom” model.

Take a chance; don’t worry about what could go wrong.

So often, we worry about what could go wrong when trying new methods at reaching our students. Problem is, our students have changed. No longer can we stand in front of the classroom and lecture for 50 minutes. No longer can we simply upload a slide deck and expect our students to simply ingest the information. They want to be engaged and part of the learning process.

The Scenario

Your college or university needs a mobile application to better connect with students, faculty, and alumni, on the go, and often in their preferred medium.

The Opportunity

According to Pew Internet research, 85% of American adults own a cell phone and now use the devices to do much more than make phone calls. Furthermore, a new eMarketer report found that nearly 90% of students in the class of 2016 will own a smartphone by the time they graduate.

As a result of this increase in mobile usage, along with increased demand for university-student interaction, more and more schools are turning to mobile apps to better engage their community.