Blackboard

The images below are examples of some activities that I've created using Blackboard. A crucial element of instructional design in online learning is to give very clear directions and a model, so you will see that in any fill-in-the-blank question (which are auto-graded questions), there are instructions and a model indicating exactly how the answer should be formatted. Note also that I use auto-graded questions for basic concept comprehension checks, and instructor-graded essay questions for analysis.

In order to avoid students circumventing learning by repeating an assignment until they get the answers correct (without actually learning the content), I limit the number of times students are allowed to do an assignment (the number of times depends on the level of detail required on each individual assignment). Furthermore, rather than using true-false or multiple choice questions, I use matching for all multiple choice or true-false question types. Blackboard allows up to 20 items per question, so I make a list of 20 questions or statements, and students have to match each statement with the correct answer. I allow them to see their answers, but do not allow them to see the correct answers, so they can see that they've gotten 10/20, but they have to figure out which ones they got right or wrong. This usually leads to students asking for help, or going back to the textbook to find the answers.

For mobile device users: Unfortunately, Google Sites doesn't allow users to edit Javascript, so I can't make the embedded slide show visible on mobile devices. You can access the slideshow on a mobile device by clicking here.