Getting to know Blackboard interactive tools

There are a number of Blackboard Ultra tools that support your interaction with students and students to student interactions.

Announcements

Announcements are an ideal way to post time-sensitive information critical to course success to all participants (instructors, teaching assistants, students, etc):

Add announcements for these types of course activities:

Due dates for assignments and projects
Changes to your syllabus
Corrections/clarifications of materials
Exam schedules

You can add, edit, and delete announcements from the Announcements tab. When you add an announcement, you can also send it as an email to students in your course. Students receive the announcement even if they don't log into your course.

Roster

Use the Roster link in the Details & Actions menu on your Content page to:

View your class list
Check pronouns
Hear name pronunciations
Check accommodations
Check user profile images

Select a name to view more information. Everyone controls who can access this information in their profile privacy settings.

Messages

You can send messages via Messages in the base navigation or within the course itself.
Messages are sent to an individual or multiple participants in the course.
Messages activity remains inside the system, and you don't have to worry about email addresses that may be incorrect or outdated.

If you prefer not to use Blackboard messages, email your students via their Douglas College email (e.g., name@student.douglascollege.ca).

Discussions

Online discussions provide unique benefits:

Because students can take time to ponder before they post ideas, you may see more thoughtful conversations. You can observe as students demonstrate their grasp of the material and correct misconceptions.
With online discussions, course members can replicate the robust discussions that take place in the traditional classroom.
For smaller course groups, you can also offer group discussions where only members of the group may access the discussion.

Conversations

If you enable class conversations for individual content items, students can discuss the content with you and their classmates. They can ask for help, share sources, or answer questions others have. As the conversation develops, it appears only with the relevant content. Conversations don't appear on the discussions page.

You can enable conversations for these content items:

Documents
Assignments
Group assignments
Tests
Group tests
Offline submissions
Links to teaching tools

Groups

Group work improves critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability, and communication. You can create groups of students within your courses so they can interact with each other and demonstrate their knowledge.

Research has shown students can benefit from group work in several ways:

Students retain information longer than with other teaching methods.
Perspectives from group members offer another opportunity to learn new material.
Students have a positive feeling about the course material.
Students who establish good relationships with their peers have a more positive learning experience.
Successful group work leads to students feeling better about themselves.
Students increase their social and communication skills.
Students increase their critical thinking skills.

Source: "44 Benefits of Collaborative Learning." http://gdrc.org

Journals

The benefits of Journals:

Journals are personal spaces for students to communicate privately with you.
Students can use journals as a self-reflective tool. They can post their opinions, ideas, and concerns about the course, or discuss and analyze course-related materials.
You can also create instructor-directed journal entries that are more formal in nature. You can narrow the focus with a list of topics for discussion.
Students may make unlimited entries.
They can be gradable or ungradable.

Microsoft Teams for Blackboard

you can add an application from Books & Tools that allows you to create a Microsoft Teams meeting and share that with your students. Users can launch Microsoft Teams Meetings directly within the course.

The Teams Meeting can be organized into an appropriate area of the course. You may want to consider a folder specific to meetings or sessions. If your course is organized by weeks or other sequence, you may want to place a meeting session into the correct place within that structure

Organizations

Organizations behave like courses and contain tools that enable group members to communicate efficiently. You can post information, have discussions, and share documents.

Organizations can help broaden the scope of an institution's reach across subjects, time periods, and more. Groups that might use organizations include academic departments, study groups, and extra-curricular activities.

To create a new organization, please email servicedesk@douglascollege.ca

Blackboard Help Resources

https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Ultra/Interact

https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Ultra/Interact/Microsoft_Teams

https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Ultra/Interact/Best_Practices