I was honored to be invited to give a keynote presentation for the Symposium for Online Program Coordinators at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) on February 21, 2014 on the topic of mobile support tools and tips for supporting online students. My 90-minute talk titled Mobile Online Support Strategies for Serving Today’s Connected Online Students was an interactive, hands-on session where online program coordinators at UIS used their iPads to access resources, try different mobile communication tools, and brainstorm ideas. Together participants experienced a wide variety of mobile apps and services that they can choose from in crafting their own mobile communication strategy to better reach the online learners they serve. I prepared a mobile friendly online handout at jrho.de/uismobile14 to accompany the talk where session slides and resources can be found.
Mobile Online Support Strategies for Serving Today’s Connected Online Students
Designing and Developing a MOOC: Lessons from Experience
Few current educational technology innovations have received the attention of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However, most of the discourse is philosophical and hypothetical. So how does designing and delivering a MOOC actually work? This fall, NIU offered its first MOOC titled “Perspectives on Disability.” In this session at the 2013 SLATE Conference, my colleagues Stephanie Richter, Tracy Miller, and I shared the unique collaborative process we followed to design and develop the MOOC, including recommendations for other institutions beginning their MOOC journey. We will also discussed how we worked with Blackboard CourseSites to deliver the course. Slides are available here.
Thinking of designing a MOOC? Find more tips for designing a massive open online course here.
Blackboard Enterprise Surveys and Course Evaluations: Features and Considerations for Institutional Adoption
With the release of Blackboard Learn 9.1 Service Pack 10, the “Enterprise Surveys and Course Evaluations” tool adds a robust and flexible set of new capabilities tightly integrated within Blackboard for conducting surveys and course evaluations on a wide scale. This session at BbWorld13 shared Northern Illinois University’s recent experiences exploring the new features and developing a roadmap for institution-wide implementation. Slides are available here.
Blackboard 2013 Catalyst Award Poster: Cross-Platform Strategy for Staff Development
My colleagues and I from Northern Illinois University Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center are honored to have been selected to receive two Blackboard Catalyst Awards this year, one for staff development and the other for teaching and learning. Both awards are in recognition of NIU’s first online teaching effectiveness institute that our center offered in 2013, the first of what we hope will be many such online professional development opportunities offered for NIU faculty and teaching staff in the future.
The poster below was shared during the welcome reception poster session at BbWorld 2013. Click here to enlarge.
The online course developed for this initiative, initially only available for NIU faculty and teaching staff, is now available on CourseSites here for anyone to self-enroll and view. The course is also shared as an open educational resource and may be downloaded as a Blackboard Package or Common Cartridge 1.1 Package.
Additional related resources shared regarding mobile teaching using Blackboard include:
- 2013 Teaching Effectiveness Institute Tour on iPad [YouTube]
- Best Practices for Mobile-Friendly Blackboard Courses [PDF]
- 2013 Teaching Effectiveness Institute Tour on iPhone [YouTube]
- Designing a Mobile-Friendly Blackboard Course [YouTube]
- Offering Mobile-Friendly Online Lectures Using Blackboard Collaborate [YouTube]
Upgrading is Not an Uphill Battle: How NIU Easily Transitioned to Blackboard Collaborate
In July 2011, Blackboard announced the release of Blackboard Collaborate™ 11 web conferencing, the first product that combined the best of both Elluminate Live! and Wimba Classroom. Drawing from the best elements of these two long-competing products, it boasted a new, modern interface that represented a tremendous leap forward. However, it also meant that schools using Wimba Classroom faced an upgrade process that was more significant than any upgrade before. Wimba Classroom customers not only had to learn the new user interface, they also had to learn a new administrative system as well. In this presentation at 2012 SLATE Conference, learn how the technology team at Northern Illinois University balanced other technology upgrade initiatives and staffing requirements in order to ensure a smooth-yet-quick upgrade to Blackboard Collaborate, and ultimately, enjoyed a much easier upgrade experience than they anticipated.
