Guidelines for using SDU s e-learning platform - Checklist for setting up your course site on the e-learning platform Contents The course menu... 2 Announcements... 4 Course Information... 4 Course Materials... 4 Assignments... 5 Tools... 5 Good advice for online communication and interaction... 5 Support and advice... 6 Appendix A The welcome message advice and examples... 6 Appendix B. Course Information and online learning activities... 8 Appendix C. Examples of Getting started documents... 9 Appendix D. Examples showing how to organise the Course Materials section... 11 Appendix E. Uploading and presenting teaching and learning materials... 13 Appendix F. Code of good online conduct... 15 Approved by Uddannelsesrådet on 14 January 2015. 1
The course menu The menu on a course site should be as short and concise as possible to make it easy to navigate around the course site and find information, material and online activities. Furthermore, it is important that the same course menu be used across faculties so that students and lecturers who are connected to more than one faculty can easily recognize it and find their way around. Therefore, the faculties have agreed to use the basic menu below for all course sites created on SDU s e-learning platform: Announcements Course Information Course Materials Assignments Tools All course sites will be created using this basic menu. Furthermore, faculty specific menu items may be added. See the illustrations below. HUM underviser HUM - studerende NAT SAMF 2
SUND 1 SUND 2 TEK On the following pages, each menu item will be elaborated on, highlighting principles for placing and organising information, materials and activities. The principles apply to course sites that are used for distributing information, material and assignments as well as for course sites for blended or distance learning, i.e. course sites where some or all learning activities take place online. 3
Menu item Announcements Principles for placing and organising information, materials and activities The menu item Announcements is used for messages for students concerning preparation, deadlines, new materials available etc. When setting up an Announcement do not add an expiration date. This will give students and lecturers the full overview of all messages posted during the course. Begin by posting a welcome announcement for students at the start of the course. See advice and examples in appendix A. Course Information Note that text (SMS) messages can be used for urgent messages (e.g. change of rooms, cancellation with short notice etc.). This menu item should contain information on the course and should as far as possible be available before the course starts. Examples of relevant contents are: Course description Lesson or semester plan Study guides Syllabus or list of references Brief presentation of the lecturer, instructors, study secretaries (contact details, photo, link for profile) FAQ If you intend to carry out one or more e-learning activities as part of your course, it is important that you, in addition to the items listed above, also make your students aware of your overall course design, the specific learning path that you have planned for your students, expectations, netiquette and navigation on the course site. See appendix B for an elaboration of these items. Course Materials We recommend that you prepare a Getting started document for your students as needed. Use short and concise phrases so that students can quickly and easily read the document. You can also add a video introduction a guided tour of the course site. See examples in appendix C. Organise teaching and learning materials (weekly notes, documents, videos, learning objects etc.) in folders or items using the same, consistent logic throughout the course. Depending on your subject, the logic might be a folder per week, module, theme or the like. Teaching and learning materials that belong together should be placed together. See appendix D for examples on how to organise materials. See appendix E for recommendations regarding the upload and presentation of teaching and learning materials. 4
Assignments Tools You can use colour codes to signal whether the materials are for group work (red), home work (blue) or lectures (black) etc. The Assignments menu item is used for uploading assignments that students are to complete and submit during the course. If you are using specific tools for the assignments (blog, wiki etc.), you can link to these. Some faculties have specific menu items for exams. See the illustrations on pp. 2 and 3. Only the tools that are to be used on the course in question should be visible to students below the menu item Tools. When courses are created, the following tools will be visible to secure easy access to the most common tools: Blogs Contacts Discussion Board E-mail Groups Journals My Grades SDU Assignment Participants Help Wikis Use the Hide/Show button to make additional tools visible if needed. Good advice for online communication and interaction All formal communication (information on the exam, teaching etc.) should take place through the tools available on the course site for this purpose, i.e. Announcements, E-mails, Discussion board, SMS (text messages) etc. Let the notification system do the job The notification system in Blackboard will let students know when new information, materials and activities are available in their different courses. A red box will appear in the top, right hand corner of Blackboard the Global Navigation menu - when something new has been added. From the Global Navigation menu students can click and access the new element. Therefore, it is not necessary to send an e-mail when you add or upload something new. Instead match expectations with students at the start of the course regarding when and how often you will update the course site, and when and how often you expect students to log in to keep up to date. Important information can get lost if you send too many e-mails. Only use e-mails for individual communication. Use discussion board to create an overview To collect and provide an overview of the communication between administrative staff/lecturers and students, you can e.g. use a discussion board as a forum for questions and answers regarding the course. 5
Recommended standards for discussion boards are: Put one person in charge of the forum (typically the lecturer or the programme/module secretary) Set guidelines for using the forum (e.g.: all questions of relevance to the course are to be posted to and answered in the forum, students must read through existing threads before posting a new question etc.) Make expectations visible (e.g.: Communicate in a proper and respectful manner. State when a reply can be expected. State who will/may answer what type of questions etc.) Support and advice Contact the e-learning coordinator at your faculty if you have questions concerning access to or the setting up of your course site on SDU s e-learning platform. Contact the Centre for Teaching and Learning for advice on design of e-learning activities. Appendix A The welcome message advice and examples 1. Welcome students 2. Explain how students get started using the course site 3. Describe the purpose of the course site (how will you be using the course site and how is it connected with any face-2-face lessons or lectures?) 4. Establish a connection with students 5. Explain when relevant course information will be available if it is not ready yet: a. Syllabus: what texts/resources will be used? b. Semester plan c. Any preparation students need to do during the first couple of weeks? 6. Tell students what type of material they can expect to receive via the course site (lecture notes, presentations etc.) 7. Explain when and how often, you will update the course site (e.g. notes will be available the day before the lecture, articles/other materials will be available a week before etc.) and when and how often you expect students to log in to keep up to date and/or participate in online activities. 8. Direct students to Course Information for further information 6
Examples: 7
Appendix B. Course Information and online learning activities The Course Information section above briefly states what you should make your students aware of if you are to carry out one or more learning activities online. Below you will find an elaboration of these items. Make students aware of: Your overall course design o What takes place online? o What takes place in any face-2-face lessons or lectures? o What is the connection between the different elements of the course and how are these connected to the learning objectives of the course? o How is the underlying principle of teaching at SDU active teaching and learning complied with? The specific learning path you have planned for your students o What are students supposed to do, where (what tool will be used?) and when and what teaching and learning materials are they to make use of? A learning path typically includes the following: Allocation of roles Learning objectives Clear instructions stating preparation, specific tasks/activities and deadlines Links for the relevant teaching and learning material on the course site Use the same logic when naming the individual elements in your learning path as you did when organising the folders and items you have created for your teaching and learning materials. See Course Materials. If you are using external systems or tools like web pages, Google Docs etc., provide clear instructions for students regarding where to access the tools and what the purpose is. Match expectations o What demands are made concerning students use and participation: recommended login frequency and extent of contributions including any assessment? o Who will be present on the course site and what are their roles? Lecturers, instructors, programme/module secretary (monitoring, interaction, assessment). Do any other people have access to the site and what are their roles (e.g. external examiners). Netiquette o Students are often unfamiliar with and insecure with respects to learning, communicating and interacting online. Therefore, clear guidelines for communication in discussion boards, blogs and wikis are important. See the Code of good online conduct. Bring into focus this code and give students the opportunity to discuss and interpret the individual items of the code. Navigation instructions o Which part of your course site should students visit first? o Where will they go next? o Provide an overview of information, materials and functions on the course site. o What can be found in the different sections of the course site? 8
Appendix C. Examples of Getting started documents Introduction to the Teaching for Tomorrow course site: Below you will find a description of the structure and contents of this Teaching for Tomorrow course site. Hopefully this will help you navigate around the site without problems so that you can fully engage with the course activities and interact with your fellow participants and e- moderators. Announcements This menu item contains announcements from your e-moderators, and it is important that you keep up to date with these announcements since they will contain important information about course activities. Course Information In the Course Information area, you will find the latest version of the course curriculum, a course calendar showing the start and end dates of each module, a calendar of live sessions that take place in Adobe Connect and the invitation for the kick-off meeting in Esbjerg on 27 October. Be sure to study the two calendars carefully and put the dates in your own calendar. Course Materials Here you will find a folder for each module of the course. Module materials will be made available app. 1 week before a new module starts. Assignments The menu item Assignments contains all the e-tivities, online teaching and learning activities, that you need to complete to pass the course. An e-tivity contains learning outcomes, instructions for you concerning what tasks to complete including how to engage with fellow participants, e- moderators and resources and what e-learning tool to use. Tools From the Tools area, you have access to discussion forums, blogs and wikis that we will be using for this course. You can also access a list of participants. We hope that you will enjoy participating in the Teaching for Tomorrow course and look forward to collaborating with you both via this course site and also via Adobe Connect. 9
Introduction to the course site and an overview of the contents Purpose This course site is used in connection with the open course: Setting up your course site in Blackboard/e-learn.sdu.dk. The purpose of the course site is to give you access to information, materials and exercises related to the course and furthermore to illustrate the principles for setting up a course site. The course menu Announcements contains messages from your lecturers on preparation, deadlines, new materials etc. In the Course Information section, you will find information on the course, such as the course description, the agenda for the face-2-face event, relevant literature and contact details on your lecturers. The menu item Course Materials contains materials on the topics that we will cover in this course. The materials have been organised in folders according to topic. In each individual folder, you will find all the materials that relate to the topic in question. In the Assignments section you will find all the hands-on exercises that you are to work with on the face-2-face event. Some of the exercises are to be completed in the Sandbox course site that has been made available for you here in Blackboard. Some of the exercises are discussion exercises that you complete with the other participants. Finally you will be using your own mobile device (smartphone or tablet) for yet other exercises. Tools includes a link for, among other things, Blackboard Help, where you can search for guides on how to use the different functions and tools in Blackboard. At the face-2-face event it is important that you study the exercises in the Assignments section carefully and do your best to try to complete them. The lecturers will be present to guide you and answer questions. Don t hesitate to ask Now you are ready to explore the course site. 10
Appendix D. Examples showing how to organise the Course Materials section Examples from the Faculty of Science 11
Examples from Health Sciences 12
Appendix E. Uploading and presenting teaching and learning materials Standard Formats Definitions and examples We recommend that you keep an eye on the size and format of the files that you upload for students. Texts for reading, i.e. materials that students will not be editing or adding to, should preferably be pdf files. In Blackboard always choose the option Open in new window if possible large files can be slow in opening directly from Blackboard. When you select Open in new window, the pdf file will open in its own browser window or in the pdf reader which will speed things up. Audio and video files: use the most common formats. These do not require specific (browser) plugins or computer software to play. Recommended formats are: mp3, mp4, mpeg, mov, avi, wmv, vma, waw. On videos in particular We recommend that you reduce images that you embed so that they do not take up the entire screen. In Blackboard, you can insert images in e.g. Items and then you can click and drag the image to the proper size using the handles in the corners of the image. Avoid uploading videos directly to the course site since this can slow down the playing of the video and problems might occur when playing the video on different devices. We recommend that your store videos to be used in your teaching on a web/media server and that you then link to these videos from the course site on Blackboard. Via the MyTEACHING tab in Blackboard, you have access to MyMEDIA where you can upload your videos. The purpose of teaching and learning materials You can also upload your videos to YouTube as long as they do not contain sensitive information or materials. YouTube videos can be embedded on the course site using the MashUp function which you will find in all content editors on Blackboard or you can link to videos. The purpose of the teaching and learning materials should be clear to students and students should be able to see whether the material is compulsory or optional. E.g. Article A is part of the syllabus, but articles B D are optional/supplementary reading. You can also help students by providing a brief description of the different materials this could be a key word to describe the type (background information, in-depth study, case for the exam etc.) or an informative title (e.g. item title: Article on punctuation for test 2, week 42 ). 13
Instructions for students/manual Include a brief description where possible and relevant that explains to students how to make use of the uploaded materials. In case of activities, describe how the assignment should be handled and where relevant provide a model answer that students can use for self-assessment. Links for external web pages Copyright materials Where MCQ tests are concerned, state in the description whether questions have only one correct answer or whether several answer options can be marked as/are correct. You can link to external web pages but they must open in a new browser window. This is more reader-friendly (the student does not see both the Blackboard course menu and the web page in the same window) but it is also a requirement where copyright is concerned. All materials texts, images, audio, video etc. must be correctly referenced. For further information on copyright, see the SDU Library s web page. Pay particular attention to Course Packs and scanned materials: http://www.sdu.dk/en/ophavsret 14
Appendix F. Code of good online conduct Netiquette At SDU we seek to promote learning environments that focus on respect and tolerance, therefore we expect all students to adhere to these guidelines when communicating online via SDU s e- learning platform. Respect other people s right to have an opinion even though you might not share it. Insulting, condescending or abusive words will not be tolerated. Debate and discussion are welcome as long as you stick to the case and do not attack the person. How will other people perceive what you are writing online? If you think that something can be misunderstood, it is generally best not to write it at all. If you would like to communicate something to your lecturer or to a fellow student that you think is not fit for full publicity, then write a personal e-mail instead. All in all, virtual learning environments are good places to share ideas and to support each other. Be happy that the posts you write can contribute to giving yourself and your fellow students a great learning experience. Posts that do not adhere to the guidelines above may be removed. Advice on keeping up to date The notification system in Blackboard will let you know when new information, materials and activities are available in your different courses. A red box will appear in the top, right hand corner of Blackboard the Global Navigation menu - when something new has been added. From the Global Navigation menu you can click and access the new element. 15