Using Blackboard Assessment Tools for Blended or Face-to-Face Courses   28 July 2006

Giving prompt feedback is one of the key principles in Chickering and Gamson's (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education . They state that reflection is critical to learning and “ knowing what you know/don't know focuses learning”. Students require feedback on performance before, during and after a learning experience…
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Some observations from the EDUCAUSE 2005 conference.   07 July 2006

This years Educase Conference will be taking place in Dallas, October 9th - 12th. The theme of the 2006 conference is 'Spurring Innovation and Marshalling Resources', Barbara Newland, from Bournemouth University England attended Educase 2005 for eLearning Matters and offers her observationsfrom the conference in the following article...
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Getting maximum leverage from your investment in the Blackboard Academic Suite…some food for thought.   07 July 2006

Blackboard, as we are all aware, is primarily designed as learning platform. Its purpose is to allow teachers and students to communicate with each other in a variety of direct and indirect, synchronous and asynchronous means, and via that communication, to support and foster learning. For some, that function alone may be sufficient to justify the licence fee and was certainly the view that I took in my early years of utilising Blackboard in my teaching. Things have changed, however…
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Podcasting … arrgh ! Everyone is talking about it, but where do I start?   06 July 2006

At the moment podcasting seems to be the buzz word in learning technology. Here at the University of Bristol, I’ve just started two pilots studies involving podcasting to support teaching and learning. Given the increased interest I think it is worth going back to first principles to identify what it offers you, the Blackboard instructor. This article addresses four questions which are often asked...
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