Welcome to the latest edition of BbMatters.

I hope that you will find the range of articles presented here gives you food for thought and useful reference points in your deployment of Blackboard. At BbMatters we value our editorial independence, but we also appreciate the support given to us by Blackboard, in particular Adrian Alleyne, Blackboard’s Communities of Practice Manager. Adrian is interviewed by Linda Wareck in this edition. In Linda’s thought-provoking and informative article, you will find numerous links to go to for further reflection – plenty to bookmark here!

Once again, Daniel Tiong, Hok Tan and Chye Seng Lee of the Centre for Educational Development at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore share the valuable experiences gained at NTU in their innovations in the field of eLearning.This time they have contributed an interesting piece on the subject of mobile learning.

For those looking for a technical flavour, I am delighted to have contributions from Herta Van den Eynde, Matt Elton , Duncan Brown and Jake Gannon. Elsewhere, Support Matters has an insightful article from Craig Gerdes and Peggy Kuhr on the subject of course design and also includes a brief look at the latest book by Dr Shirley Waterhouse, The Power of eLearning.

In Curriculum Matters, Merv Stapleton writes on the subject of contextualising information for learners and creating protocols which act as signposts to aid their learning. Also in this section, Joe Norton shares his experience of managing group work with Blackboard; Andy Ramsden discusses the JISC’s plagiarism detection software, with a focus on ease of use for both staff and students.

In Accessibility Matters, there is a fascinating case study from the United Kingdom’s Royal National College for the Blind (RNCB), as well as John Paul San Giovanni’s penetrating article on deploying Microsoft Office effectively to create accessible course materials.

For those of you looking to plan staff development for the next academic year, there is plenty to consider here – not least our highlighting of the range of tutorials now available on Blackboard’s website. Remember to access BbMatters (including previous editions) go to www.bbmatters.net (username: bbmatters; password: member).

Finally, here at BbMatters we have been considering ways to engage our learners in sharing their experiences with us. We have decided to offer a BbMatters bursary which aims to encourage students to take on the role of editor of Student Matters, for which they will be rewarded with a $500 bursary.

If you have any students who you would like to nominate for this role, please email me (editor@bbmatters.net) in the first instance expressing your interest in your institution being involved in this project. I will forward you further information upon receipt of expressions of interest. We hope it will build into an interesting project and career opportunity for our students.

Before I finish, I would like to thank the sponsors of this edition (Course Genie, Learning Objects and Respondus) who have demonstrated their commitment to the spirit of BbMatters in communicating best practice and developments in the field of eLearning by supporting this edition.

Have a great summer.

Cathy
editor@bbmatters.net