Center for Teaching and Learning with Technology

Blackboard

What is Blackboard?

Blackboard is a web-based leaning management system that Bloomfield College currently uses to support online courses and classroom-based instructions. It provides faculty and students with centralized access to a course site online. A course site is a Blackboard generated, password-protected Website that represents a Bloomfield College class section. at present, there are more than 150 courses/sections utilize Blackboard.

Why Use Blackboard?

1) Enhances student-to-student and faculty-to-student communication
Researchers have found that adding online discussion boards, chat and email to a course increases student motivation and participation in class discussions and projects.

2) Exposes students to different perspectives
Online discussion boards or chat sessions enable students to view other student's answers and learn through the exposure to many different perspectives.

3) Allows a student to experience a sense of equality
Each student has the same opportunity to "speak up" by posting messages without concern for seating arrangements, volume of student voices, and gender biases.

Shy and anxious students may feel more comfortable expressing ideas when posting online instead of speaking in a lecture room.

Studies prove that online discussions provoke more confrontational and direct communication between students.

4) Enables Instructor to be more accessible
Online communication provides an additional layer of Instructor accessibility.

Students no longer have to worry if they cannot make an Instructor's regular office hours, as they still have the ability to submit inquiries via email at any time.

5) Enables student-centered teaching approaches
Every student has a unique learning style. Some students are visual learners; some learn better when they "learn by doing."

Web-based learning environments permit the Instructor to build one course, yet implement a variety of resources, so students can utilize materials in whichever way works best for them.

Instructors can post various documents for students, including handouts, articles, audio/vidoe clips, pictures, reserved readings, and lecture notes to allow students to access and review content at a self-determined pace.

6) Accommodates different learning styles
An Instructor can present materials in many formats to accommodate different types of learning styles.

For example, if an Instructor puts both lecture notes and slides online, both visual and auditory learners benefit.

Students who prefer to focus on "listening" and "watching" during lecture do not have to worry that they are missing important concepts while scrambling to take copious notes. They can focus on understanding the material and concepts as they are presented.

7) Provides 24 hour/7 day per week accessibility to course materials
Some students work best in the morning, some in the evening. Some students commute to campus and others take night classes. Scheduling time for homework and group projects can be difficult depending on each student's course, job, and personal responsibilities. Online course content easily overcomes the problems of time, distance and coordination of schedules.

8) Removes reliance on physical attendance
When web-based collaborative tools are available, coordination is no longer an issue. Students can work in groups without the constraints of meeting together at a certain date, time, and location.

9) Provides just-in-time methods to assess and evaluate student progress
Learner assessments (tests and surveys) enable the Instructor to constantly evaluate his or her teaching effectiveness. Online assessments can also constantly evaluate student progress with rapid feedback to the student. Also, continuous access to grades allows the student to continuously know how he/she is doing in the course.

10) Adds pedagogical benefits
Frequent assessment provides concept reinforcement and increases student motivation to stay caught up with the work.

Instructors can post practice exams and end-of-chapter reviews without worrying about finding the time and resources to analyze results. Students can easily access the online assessments.

Computerized grading allows immediate student feedback and eliminates the tedious task of grading tests.

Online assessments may also help students who suffer from test anxiety relax and minimize embarrassment for those that do poorly.

11) Reduces the amount of faculty time spent on "administrivia"
Students can save and print items as needed when provided with handouts and readings online.

The direct result is a reduced institutional expense for both the cost and time associated with copying, collating, and distributing these materials.

Instructors can easily e-mail students or use the Announcements feature to communicate with the entire class.

12) Maximizes the classroom experience
Instructors no longer have to spend valuable classroom time dealing with "administrivia." The 15 minutes at the start of each class typically spent distributing handouts, collecting assignments, and making announcements can be utilized for teaching since administrative tasks are managed with online tools.

(Source: http://www.nhctc.edu -- onine learning)

System Requirements to Use Blackbaord