Faculty Workshop Catalog

Alternative Assessments, Thinking Beyond the Test:

Alternative assignments focus on the student’s performance and quality of work completed aligned with the course goals. Instead of tests, assignments can be designed to provide students with opportunities to use multimedia, technology, and other resources for their projects. The supports increasing student engagement, enabling greater attention to detail, encouraging creativity, and embracing challenge. 

Blackboard Basics:

This workshop covers the essentials of managing your class in Blackboard, including adding and organizing content, making courses and materials available, communicating with your students and using the Grade Center.

Blackboard: Creating Discussion Forums:

Blackboard Discussions Forums are used to encourage participation and communication between students in online, face-to-face and HyFlex courses.  Instructor and/or students facilitate the discussion. Discussion can include the entire class or specified groups of students (groups in Blackboard). Discussions can be graded and include a rubric.  

Blackboard: Enhancing Student Assessment with Rubric Tool:

Instructors will learn about the benefits of using rubrics in student assessments for both students and instructors. Instructors will be able to build and implement a rubric using Blackboard’s Rubrics tool and apply it to different types of assessments for more effective student assessment and feedback.

Blackboard: Grade Center Basics:

Use the Blackboard Grade Center to communicate with students, provide grades and feedback to students, and import final grades from Blackboard to Campus Connection. 

Blackboard: Make Grade Center Work For You:

Use the Blackboard Grade Center to automate grading processes, communicate with students, provide grades and feedback to students, and upload final grades from Blackboard to Campus Connection. 

Blackboard: Quick Start Workshop:

This workshop covers the basics of managing your Blackboard class. You will learn how to add content, make the content available, communicate with students and create a Blackboard assignment.  

Blackboard: Tests and Surveys:

Instructors will be able to successfully create exams and surveys containing a variety of question types to be administered and graded in Blackboard. Instructors will apply best practices to deter cheating, provide student feedback and set the test options that best suit both instructor and student needs for each assessment.

Blackboard: Using Blackboard Tests to Improve Assessments and Analyze Student Performance:

Item analysis provides statistics on overall test performance and individual test questions. This data helps you recognize questions that might be poor discriminators of student performance. You can use this information to improve questions for future tests or to adjust credit on current attempts.

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra: Basics:

This workshop is designed to give a solid foundation, enabling you to successfully deliver live, interactive Blackboard Collaborate sessions. We will explore the essentials of Blackboard Collaborate and learn about the key features and core functions of the Collaborate user interface.

Blackboard Manager:

New Blackboard course shells are automatically created for all courses each semester, but NDSU instructors will NOT see these new courses in their Blackboard course lists until they have activated the course using the NDSU-specific Blackboard Manager utility each semester. Workshop participants will learn how to use Blackboard Manager to activate their courses, and optionally, merge multiple course sections into a combined course shell, or copy content from a previous course into the new course shell.

Designing Assignment for Deep Learning:

What is deep learning and why is it important for students? Deep learning involves. Using higher order cognitive skills for long-term understanding. What are the characteristics of and how can assignments be developed to encourage deep learning? Design with the end in mind.

Discussions by Design:

Creating productive discussions can be challenging. Explore strategies and tips that will help prepare for facilitating effective discussions with participation and engagement, online and in the classroom

Humanizing Assignments:

Improve Course Accessibility with Blackboard Ally:

This session includes an overview of Blackboard Ally and what the indicators (looks like gas gauges) mean and will walk through some tips on fixing specific content in your course.  We will go over how to prioritize what to fix. The focus is on making the most important parts of your course as accessible and possible so serve all students, equitably. Though we would like to be 100% accessible, this is a work in progress and improvement is what counts.

Simple Course Design:

“One of the most important tools instructors have to help establish a productive …learning experience is … the learning management system (LMS)”. Learn how to create a simple course navigational structure to improve student access and productivity.

Student Evaluation of Teaching:

Would you like to increase your SCES response rates, increase scores and learn about alternative ways to measure effective teaching?  This workshop will introduce strategies to improve teaching and/or student learning.  End of course evaluations can be helpful by improving teaching methods and revising course design for the next term.  We will share best practices for increasing the response rates and methods to integrate a variety of formative evaluations and assessments throughout the course.  Research indicates by showing students their input is valuable and makes a difference in teaching and learning, they will be more responsive in their evaluations.  

Using Built-In Accessibility Checker Tools: Microsoft and Adobe Pro DC:

The first step in helping to make your Blackboard course accessible for all students is to start with creating accessible documents. This workshop will provide an overview and demonstration of the accessibility tools available in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Pro DC.
 

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Accessibility:

UDL is a pedagogical framework focused on responding to learner diversity by designing flexible pathways to engage, represent, and express knowledge. This workshop offers an overview of the foundational knowledge, tools, skills, and resources necessary to effectively implement the principles of UDL. Whether you teach traditional, blended/hybrid, or online courses, UDL can enhance the efficacy of your instruction.

VoiceThread Assignments:

Voice Thread Basics:

VoiceThread is a tool used to engage students in rich conversations around media. Learn the basics features including how to upload, create, comment, and share with your class. Specific ideas for projects and activities using VoiceThread will also be discussed.

YuJa: Getting Started (Part 1):

YuJa can be used to record lesson content or lectures, including audio, video and screen content. Workshop participants will be able to record video content and add it to Blackboard courses using the YuJa Software Capture application.

YuJa: Your Videos (Part 2):

After recording a video using the YuJa Software Capture application there are many different options. Workshop participants will learn different ways to share, edit, and organize YuJa videos and manage YuJa storage successfully.
 

YuJa: Exam Proctoring:

Participants will learn how to use YuJa Exam Proctoring with their Blackboard courses to increase the security of online exams taken from remote locations and to discourage cheating. When Exam Proctoring is enabled in a Blackboard course student are required to record their video, audio and the computer screen while taking an exam in that course. The YuJa proctored video is automatically sent to the instructor’s YuJa account for later review.  

Zoom: Breakout Rooms:

Zoom breakout rooms can be used in classes, meetings and conferences for groups to work together and engage in discussions, digitally.

Zoom: Engaging Students with Zoom:

Providing an interactive and engaging learning experience for students.

See Also:

• Training and Workshops