Blackboard Learn: Course Administration and Management

In continuation from March’s blog article, this article focuses on course administration and management features and tools within the original platform of Blackboard Learn learning management system (LMS). Teaching in face-to-face, blended, and fully online environments involves delivering content, but it also involves course administration and management as well. The findings presented in this article represent the overall usability of LMSs for course administration and management. As face-to-face instructors move into preparing for summer courses online, there is time to rethink teaching and learning.

Based on a qualitative, narrative inquiry research study on the use of Blackboard Learn in face-to-face courses, five major themes emerged from the analysis of data. Course Administration and Management was one major theme. Participants included instructors at a primarily residential university in the southeastern United States. Participants discussed using features and tools in Blackboard Learn for storing and organizing content, getting to know students, setting up the grade center, and copying content from one course to another (Washington, 2017).

Blackboard Learn features and tools for course administration and management pertained to Course Documents, Content Folders, Photo Roster, Grade Center, Course Calendar and Course Copy. Participants shared the benefits of having a centralized location for courses.  Course Documents referred to a feature in Blackboard Learn for delivering learning content to students in one location for anytime access. Course Documents also served as a repository for course resources and materials. Content Folders functioned as organizational structures for courses. Participants used Content Folders for breaking the instructional materials, activities, assignments and assessments into smaller chunks of content. In addition, the course menu provided further course organizational structure with consistent navigation for students to find course materials, assignments, discussions boards, and assessments, which led to an improved learning experience for the students. The Photo Roster was considered a course administration tool for instructors to identify students in face-to-face courses. The Grade Center classified as both a course administration and feedback tool. Participants discussed using Course Copy to easily copy course content and course settings from one Blackboard Learn course to another. Few participants mentioned using the Course Calendar feature for due dates. The following are some quoted responses from the participants (Washington, 2017): 

P11: “Blackboard Learn holds everything, so I really couldn’t do without it. I pull it up every day. Anywhere I can access the internet, I can get access to the materials.”

P2: “I like having a central repository for everything that’s course related, because the courses I teach most times don’t have a textbook. So, everything is posted under the Course Documents except for what I want students to find themselves.”

P7: “Blackboard allows me to make folders in the Course Documents section, so when you're looking for a particular course document it is very easy to find. That's where you find worksheets, worksheet solutions, quiz solutions, pretest, pretest solutions, and the study material for the final exam.”

P8: “Photo Roster has helped me to identify students right away and personalize my classes because I can match the name with face from week one.  So, I've used that a lot since I found out it existed.”

P2: “It [Blackboard] allows me to organize the grading so that the grading matches the syllabus.”

P4: “It’s just a very nice place to kind of collect everything. Once you have it there you don’t have to keep recreating it you can just copy it forward the next semester.”

P10: “The course calendar automatically fills in if you set the due date.  For any submission due date that’s on there they get the reminders.  So, I go in and make sure everything's on the course calendar.”

The findings of the present research were consistent with an earlier research study. Hodges and Grant (2015) investigated the potential benefits of using course administration and management tools, including the module structure of LMSs for organizing and sequencing content into units and the course calendar for organizing due dates for learning activities and assessments. These researchers found that the use of course administration and management tools helped students with organization, time management, and content knowledge. By using these features and tools, instructors became better able to draw their students’ attention to the topics at hand, which is important from the cognitivist perspective.

In view of the practical advantages offered by the course administration and management features and tools in Blackboard Learn, educators who use this LMS are now much better prepared to move forward into developing and designing their summer online courses. Course structure and organization play important roles in improving student success in locating and interacting with course content, the instructor, and other students in the class. Blackboard Learn serves as a repository for course materials, such as the syllabus, PowerPoint presentations, and video lectures, giving students access to a full range of their course materials in one central location. This ease of centralized access helps students to stay more focused and remain on track with due dates for assignments and assessments.

References:

Hodges, C., & Grant, M. (2015). Theories to support you: Purposeful use of learning management system features. In T. Bastiaens, & G. Marks (Eds.), Proceedings of Global Learn 2015 (pp. 481–486). Berlin, Germany: Association for the

Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved from https://www.editlib.org/p/150895/

Washington, G. Y. (2017). Learning management systems in traditional face-to-face courses: A narrative inquiry study (10639584) (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (10639584)

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Cite this blog: Washington, G. (2020, April 30). Blackboard Learn: Course administration and management [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/

Blackboard Learn Matters in Face-to-Face Courses

Blackboard Learn, like other learning management systems, matters in face-to-face courses. Prior to COVID-19, much of teaching and learning happened in a physical classroom. In light of this pandemic, the coronavirus is credited for increasing online use exponentially (Hechinger & Lorin, 2020). Face-to-face courses in higher education and K-12 schools are left with no choice, but to be taught in virtual environments. Until this pandemic is controllable and people are safe for physical interactions, virtual instruction will be the method for teaching and learning. Discussed in this article are results from a qualitative narrative inquiry research study on the use of Blackboard Learn original in face-to-face courses. Results from the study might help instructors realize the educational potential of Blackboard Learn for teaching and learning to enhance traditional face-to-face courses.

Although a learning management system (LMS) is at the center of online courses, it is not a given in traditional face-to-face environments. Researchers analyzed the uses for an LMS in face-to-face courses in higher education and consistently found instructors used an LMS as a course management and administrative tool, rather than pedagogically, for the transformation of face-to-face courses (Adzharuddin, 2013; Bousbahi & Alrazgan, 2015; Wichadee, 2015, & Washington, 2017). Many instructors lacked knowledge of effective ways for using an LMS, and they found it challenging to implement in face-to-face courses to enhance teaching and improve learning (Wichadee, 2015; Washington, 2017). A narrative inquiry design was used for the qualitative study summarized in this article. Narrative inquiry is a way of understanding and inquiring into experience through life stories told by individuals (Clandinin, 2013). Stories and narratives served as the primary means of understanding individual instructors’ experiences with using Blackboard Learn in traditional face-to-face courses in higher education (Washington, 2017)

As such, the researcher captured a first-person account of each participant’s experiences from the instructors’ points of view. The study was conducted on the main campus at a major research university in the southeastern United States. The university was primarily residential, offering traditional face-to-face, asynchronous, and synchronous instruction. All instructors had access to Blackboard Learn and a course site was generated for every course offered through the University system. Participants included twenty instructors who taught traditional face-to-face courses at the main campus, utilized the university’s central professional development center for teaching and learning, and implemented Blackboard Learn LMS into at least one face-to-face course. Participants were selected using purposive, non-probability and snowball sampling methods and were diverse based on current academic rank and primary teaching discipline.

To collect the data for the study, 16 interview questions were designed to explore, understand, and describe the experiences of instructors using Blackboard Learn LMS in traditional, face-to-face courses in higher education. There were embedded opportunities for observations of the Blackboard Learn LMS environment used to solicit responses aligned to the primary research question: What are the experiences of faculty and adjunct instructors concerning the use of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) in traditional face-to-face courses in higher education?. Data collection was conducted using in-depth, face-to-face semi-structured interviews with participants who met the criteria for the study. Thematic narrative analysis served as the systematic process for data analysis and included three steps: organizing the data, placing the data into themes, and interpreting the data. The following table shows features and tools used most often by participants in their face-to-face courses.

Use of Features and Tools

Blackboard Learn Features/Tools	Not aware of the feature	Never use it in traditional course(s) but aware of the feature	Use only once in traditional course(s)	Use multiple times in traditional course (s)	Use regularly in traditional course(s)
Test	1	4	2	3	10
Assignment	1	1	1	4	13
Discussion Board	0	3	1	6	10
Announcements	0	0	0	0	20
Send Email	0	0	0	2	18
Photo Roster	2	3	3	0	12
Grade Center	0	1	0	0	19

In summary, the study results identified the features and tools used most frequently in Blackboard Learn LMS. All participants used Blackboard Learn in their traditional face-to-face courses to post announcements and send email. Course management tools and features were used to support administrative practices specific to organizing course content unrelated to teaching and learning processes. Only participants with extended knowledge of Blackboard Learn used features and tools specifically for teaching and learning purposes. This study sheds light into the importance on virtual instruction, then and now. The pandemic has given greater understanding as to why educators are rapidly understanding the importance of learning management systems. In next month’s blog, I will discuss the results based on the themes that emerged from the analysis of data collected from the participants and provide some practical applications of LMSs that would be of use for educators during this crisis, such as Blackboard Learn, for teaching and learning in traditional face-to-face courses.

References

Adzharuddin, N. (2013). Learning management system (LMS) among university students: Does it work? International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning, 3(3), 248-252. doi:10.7763/IJEEEE.2013.V3.233

Bousbahi, F., & Alrazgan, M. S. (2015). Investigating IT faculty resistance to learning management system adoption using latent variables in an acceptance technology model. The Scientific World Journal, 2015, 1-11. doi:10.1155/2015/375651

Clandinin, D. J. (2013). Engaging in narrative inquiry. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

Washington, G. Y. (2017). Learning management systems in traditional face-to-face courses: A narrative inquiry study (10639584) (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (10639584)

Hechinger, J., & Lorin, J. (2020, March 19). Coronavirus Forces $600 Billion Higher Education Industry Online. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/colleges-are-going-online-because-of-the-coronavirus

Wichadee, S. (2015). Factors related to faculty members' attitude and adoption of a learning management system. TOJET : The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 14(4), 53-61. Retrieved from http://www.tojet.net/

  

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Cite this blog: Washington, G. (2020, March 31). Blackboard Learn matters in face-to-face courses [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/

Blackboard Learn Learning Management System

January’s blog article provided an overview of learning management systems (LMSs). A learning management system serves as a platform for teaching and learning by offering features and tools for communication, instruction, assessment, and collaboration. Blackboard Learn is one of the most popular and widely implemented LMSs adopted by administrators at colleges and universities (Gomez, 2015; Washington, 2019). Other LMSs, such as Desire2Learn, Canvas, Moodle, and Sakai, are similar to Blackboard Learn with only core LMS functionality. This article focuses on the original platform of Blackboard Learn and provides an overview of its features and tools.

Blackboard Learn is a learning management system developed by Blackboard Incorporated with functionality to support fully online, hybrid/blended, and face-to-face courses. Developed as an educational technology, there are several features and tools within Blackboard Learn for teaching and learning. There are available features and tools for course delivery, course administration, interaction and collaboration, communication, and assessment. As part of course delivery and administration, instructors can provide course materials, such as a syllabus and schedule along with instructional materials, such as lectures. Instructors can organize the course content and provide students with timely released course information. The discussion board is an asynchronous collaboration tool for holding discussions online. Consisting of forums and threads, instructors and students can build an online learning community to collaborate and communicate among each other (Osman, Nasir, & Alzoubi, 2017).

Blogs and wikis are two other collaboration tools within Blackboard Learn. Instructors must first create a blog or wiki for student participation. A blog is an area for students in the course to express ideas in a more informal setting. Blog content, also referred to as entries, is presented in reverse chronological order with newer content appearing first on the page. Entries are text, images, links, multimedia, and attachments. Comments are responses or remarks to the blog entries. Instructors can create a blog for the course, individuals, or groups.  A wiki serves as a repository of knowledge complied by users. Instructors can create a wiki for all students or for specific groups of students. Students share content and collaborate among each other and the instructor by contributing to and modifying one or more web pages (Osman, Nasir, & Alzoubi, 2017).

Email, messages, and announcements are communication tools within Blackboard Learn.  Through the Send Email feature, instructors can communicate with students one-on-one or as a group. Email is sent externally to the email address specified within Blackboard Learn. Email messages are not stored in Blackboard, but instructors can choose to receive a copy. Using course messages, students can communicate with the instructor or other students within the course.  Course messages are like email except students and instructors must log in to the Blackboard course to retrieve and answer any of the course messages.  Instructors can post announcements within the course and choose the option to have the Blackboard system send an announcement to students via email (Washington, 2017).

Although blogs, wikis, and discussions can serve as assessments, assignments and tests are specific assessment tools within Blackboard. Instructors can allow students to submit assignments, such as papers, for grading using a rubric within Blackboard. Also, instructors can create quizzes and tests using different question types, for example, essay, multiple choice, true false, and fill-in the blank. Blackboard has the ability to automatically grade certain question types (Washington, 2017).

Summarily, Blackboard Learn provides a variety of features and tools to facilitate teaching and learning. This article provided a quick overview of the features and tools associated with course delivery, course administration, interaction and collaboration, communication, and assessment. In the next blog article, I will dive deeper into using features and tools in Blackboard Learn based on a recent research study.

References

Gomez, J. F. (2015). Higher education faculty use of a learning management system in face-to-face classes (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database. (UMI 1687759824).

Osman, I., Nasir, M., & Alzoubi, R. (2017). Blackboard Usage: An Investigative Study among CCSE Female Faculty Staff and Students at University of Hail. International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11(2), 508–515.

Washington, G. Y. (2017). Learning management systems in traditional face-to-face courses: A narrative inquiry study (10639584) (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (10639584)

Washington, G. Y. (2019). The Learning Management System Matters in Face-to-Face Higher Education Courses. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 48(2), 255–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047239519874037

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Cite this blog: Washington, G. (2020, February 29). Blackboard Learn Learning Management System [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/

Photo from https://www.pexels.com

An Overview of Learning Management Systems

Learning management systems (LMSs) have emerged as critical teaching and learning platforms at nearly all institutions of higher education. Many college and university administrators implemented at least one learning management system, such as Blackboard Learn, as the campus-wide learning management system (Chaw, & Tang, 2018). In fully online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses, LMSs leverage the web to offer features for communication, instruction, assessment, and collaboration along with course administration and content management. This article provides a quick overview of LMSs.

Learning management systems are e-learning software containing an integrated set of teaching and learning tools with capabilities to link with other institutional functions (Tumbleson & Burke, 2014). Learning management systems can be used in fully online, hybrid, and traditional face-to-face courses. In fully online courses, the primary purpose for LMSs is to provide a location for teaching and learning that is accessible at any given time (Chaw, & Tang, 2018). In traditional face-to-face courses, LMSs have the potential to extend and enhance students’ learning experiences beyond the classroom walls.  There are several LMSs available for use in higher education.

Learning management systems have different operating functions depended upon the industry, however all LMSs have common features and tools (Walker, Lindner, Murphrey, & Dooley, 2016).  Commonly found in LMSs are functions for course administration, collaboration, communication, instruction, and assessment.  Calendars, announcements, drop boxes, and gradebooks are examples of features in course administration tools.  Discussions, chats, and email are common collaboration and communication features.  Assignments, tests, self and peer assessments, and learning outcomes alignment are common assessment tools (Hodges & Grant, 2015). Features and tools in LMSs support online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses.

Purposeful uses of LMSs are grounded in constructivism and connectivism learning theories. According to Hodges and Grant (2015), instructors can use discussion, blog, journal, assignment, and rubric features and tools in LMSs to support constructivist activities. Constructivists view interaction as an important part of the learning experience. On the other hand, Siemens (2005) proposed connectivism as a new perspective on how learning takes place in digital learning spaces. Using connectivism in combination with LMSs instructors can enhance and enable learning beyond the walls of traditional classrooms. Both the constructivist and connectivism learning theories are appropriate for the implementation of LMSs into teaching and learning environments.

  

In conclusion, LMSs are an integral part of the higher education infrastructure. The intended use of features and tools in LMSs by instructors determines how LMSs support teaching and learning. In upcoming blog articles, I will explore the usage of the Blackboard Learn LMS in traditional face-to-face environments in higher education. As you move into a new year, consider rethinking the use of LMSs to further enhance and support instruction at optimal levels for teachers, and learning at the highest achievement levels for students.

References

Chaw, L. Y., & Tang, C. M. (2018). What makes learning management systems effective for learning? Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 47(2), 152-169. doi:10.1177/0047239518795828

Tumbleson, B. E., & Burke, J. J. (2014). Embedding librarianship in learning management systems: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Hodges, C. & Grant, M. (2015). Theories to support you: Purposeful use of learning management system features. In Proceedings of Global Learn 2015 (pp. 481-486). Berlin, Germany: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved from https://www.editlib.org/ p/150895/

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for a digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3–10. Retrieved from http://itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm

Walker, D. S., Lindner, J. R., Murphrey, T. P., & Dooley, K. (2016). Learning management system usage: Perspectives from university instructors. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 17(2), 41-50. Retrieved from http://www.infoagepub.com/quarterly-review-of-distance-education.html

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Cite this blog: Washington, G. (2020, January 31). An Overview of Learning Management Systems [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/

Photo by Burst on Unsplash

Don’t Leave Teams in the Cloud

Microsoft Office 365 is a popular cloud-based technology known most for its productivity apps, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In addition to these applications (apps), Microsoft Office 365 offers other applications and services that could potentially transform the teaching and learning environment for educators. Microsoft Teams, a less popular app in the Microsoft Office 365 collection, is a safe and secure platform to create inclusive, student-centered instruction and learning opportunities.

Microsoft Teams is a digital hub with a seamless platform that permits educators to create a space for communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.  Utilizing Teams, educators are able to add content, assignments, and posts, while bringing to one location other apps such as OneNote and Stream. Further, students can hold conversations with the Teams app.

With Microsoft Teams, educators can build a collaborative classroom. Teams serves as a hub where educators and students interact online and as a workspace for communications, sharing files and even meeting online. Within Teams, educators set up a class made up of channels. Each channel is dedicated to a topic. Students work on assigned tasks within a channel. Teams allows educators to share the students’ feedback individually or directly with the group. If feedback is shared with the group, students can use the feedback for further discussion online or personally during a face-to-face class session.

In addition to using Teams for communication and collaboration, educators can empower students through personalized assignments and individual feedback. Educators can manage assignments using Teams to create, assign, collect, and provide feedback on assignments. Further, rubrics gained popularity with educators as a means of communicating expectations for an assignment, assessing student work, and grading final papers/projects. Teams embodies a system that all study materials, assignments, and feedback are in one place and easily accessible online from different devices.

Zacharová and Sokolová (2019) used Microsoft Teams in a classroom management course for pre-service teachers. Study materials, including case students, worksheets, and problem-based tasks are all a part of Teams. Students worked at their own pace and chose when and how long they worked on the assignments. Teams supports a system of interactive engagement for teachers and students. Students watched videos and used the chat room to share ideas and comments. The instructors provided feedback to students.

In conclusion, think of Microsoft Teams as a digital hub to bring educators, students, applications, conversations, assignments, and feedback together in one location. More importantly, educators and students have free access to Microsoft Office 365 through their academic institution or directly through Microsoft (Simkin, 2018). Students can work on group projects and hold discussions related to assignments. Educators can monitor how things are going in each group. Also, assignment submissions and feedback take place in a seamless environment. Microsoft Teams can change the way teaching and learning happens.

                                                                                     

References:

Simkin, M. (2018). Embedding technology in the history classroom. Agora, 53(1), 17–20.

Zacharová & Sokolová (2019). Developing professional vision: An on-line course of Adlerian classroom management for pre-service teachers. ELearning & Software for Education, 2, 79–84. doi:10.12753/2066-026X-19-079

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Cite this blog: Washington, G. (2019, December 28). Don’t Leave Teams in the Cloud [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/

Using Flipgrid for Student Engagement and Assessment

Educators seek apps for the intended purpose of enhancing student engagement and varying assessment. The most effective apps improve learning experiences by seamlessly connecting students, content, and the instructor. A careful examination of Flipgrid (www.flipgrid.com) revealed a user-friendly app that permits instructors to engage students in their own learning by giving students a voice. Flipgrid creates an opportunity for students to participate in video discussions and provides instructors with an alternative assessment tool. The purpose of this article is to discuss Flipgrid and provide some uses of the app.

What is Flipgrid?

Flipgrid is an asynchronous video discussion platform designed to foster social learning both inside and outside the classroom (Green & Green, 2018). Developed at the University of Minnesota and launched in 2015, Flipgrid is now a part of the Microsoft. Flipgrid is designed for the educator community and allows for the creation of short videos around topics for sharing with others. Flipgrid is a 100% free cross-platform web-based and mobile app for educators and students.

So, how does it work? Instructors create a grid to present the topics (discussions) for a class or course. Topics serve as the stimulus for students’ video responses and include written text, video or images. Each topic is a discussion prompt. Students respond to the topic (discussion prompt) via an audio and video recording and reply to other students’ videos. Also, there are options for uploading an existing video and for adding stickers and drawings to videos. There are additional features ranging from privacy settings for a grid to automatic transcription of audio (Green & Green, 2018).

Flipgrid in Action

One use of Flipgrid is for authentic assessment of student performances in music classes. Performance assessment is one of the best ways to determine students’ understanding of music concepts. Through video responses, Flipgrid captures what students do in music. Topics for the grid are for either individual or small group performances. Video responses are 5 minutes in length. Optionally, students record, trim, and rerecord video before final submission. Flipgrid makes it possible for students to record video responses at home or in school. Recorded videos are seen by others in the class unless the instructor or student hides them (Dunbar, 2019).

Another use of Flipgrid is for students to become better acquainted with fellow classmates. In an online class, students create and share introductory videos and collaborate with each other to grow the online learning community. After posting a video response to the self-introductory topic, students view and respond to at least two other students with thoughtful and thorough responses. As a graded assignment, the video introduction replaces the typical text-based self-introduction discussions (Casarez, Agan, Self, Anderson, Atwood, & Heron, 2019).

Conclusion

Flipgrid is ideal for online classrooms or face-to-face classes that integrate technology. Flipgrid, a video discussion platform, provides greater opportunity for expression with the addition of audio and video capabilities. Flipgrid connects students, content, and the instructor visually and audibly. Student engagement, experiences and outcomes are enhanced in any classroom environment, particularly in online settings.  Flipgrid has the capacity or bringing greater opportunities for collaboration. Try it out and post a comment to let me know what you think about Flipgrid.

References

Casarez, L., Agan, T., Self, R., Anderson, D., Atwood, A., & Heron, A. (2019). Flipgrid to enhance communication in distance education. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 85(4), 35–37.

Dunbar, L. (2019). When responses cannot be written down: Video submission possibilities in the music classroom. General Music Today, 32(3), 29–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048371319832880

Green, T., & Green, J. (2018). Flipgrid: Adding voice and video to online discussions. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 62(1), 128–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-017-0241-x

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Cite this blog: Washington, G. (2019, November 28). Using Flipgrid for Student Engagement and Assessment [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/

Image source: http://blog.flipgrid.com/downloads

The Online Classroom: Student-Content Interactions

In the online classroom, students not only interact with the instructor and each other, but students interact with content. Interaction with course content impacts student engagement and learning. With available technologies, it is easy to throw content together and just put it online. However, will students be able to purposefully engage with the content and arrive at their destination (knowledge acquisition) without getting lost along the way? Let’s explore the possibilities of student engagement in online learning environments.

Student-content interaction is defined as the engagement by students with the course content. It is the ability of students to access, manipulate, synthesize, and communicate content information. Engagement with the course content can happen through learning activities (reading, watching videos, exploring resources) and working on course assignments (Kyei-Blankson & Donnelly, 2016). Discussion boards have long been the go-to for online courses. (You need to discuss the discussion more in greater detail.  Where are the references that support this discussion board? What do the experts say?) Many times, instructors have students read chapters in a textbook or read an article, and then require them to discuss the content in a discussion board post. Does this sound familiar? Post your initial response to the questions no later than 5 pm on Tuesday and reply to posts by two different students no later than 5 pm on Saturday. Being creative with discussion board assignments is one way to provide student interaction with content.

Modifications to the structure of online discussions can yield better student interaction with content (Yilmaz & Karaoglan, 2019). One method for structuring online discussions is assigning different roles and responsibilities to group members. Roles can include students as starter, moderator, arguer, source searcher, and summarizer. The main responsibilities of each role are (Yilmaz & Karaoglan, 2019):

• Starter: Starts and keeps the discussion sustainable for the group.
• Moderator: Follows the flow of the discussion and keeps the group on task.
• Arguer: Works with the source searcher and starter and takes a critical approach to responses from participants.
• Summarizer: Notes the major points and issues from the discussion and summarizes the important information related to the topics.

Students not only interact with the content, but students also interact with each other.

In conclusion, interactions occur through instructor-student communication, student-student collaboration, and student-content engagement. Each form of interactions has important implications for learning in online courses. Through further research, educators may benefit from better understanding of how student interaction with course content impacts student engagement and learning in the online classroom.

References:

Kyei-Blankson, L., Ntuli, E., & Donnelly, H. (2016). Establishing the importance of interaction and presence to student learning in online environments. World Journal of Educational Research, 3(1), 48-65. doi:10.22158/wjer.v3n1p48

Yilmaz, R., & Karaoglan Yilmaz, F. G. (2019). Assigned roles as a structuring tool in online discussion groups: Comparison of transactional distance and knowledge sharing behaviors. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 57(5), 1303-1325. doi:10.1177/0735633118786855

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Cite this blog: Washington, G. (2019, October 28). The Online Classroom: Student-Content Interactions [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/

Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels