Sharon Hudson, Instructional Technologist at Hinds CC and a member of the state’s eLearning Trainer group (ELT) has been hard at work this past spring and summer building tutorials for students new to Blackboard.
The Flash-based tutorials are part of the new Learning Simulation series, intended to teach students and faculty about particular tasks using a linear model of progression. The first set in the series are intended for students.
The tutorials play inside a browser and are available now in the Institutional Content area of Blackboard for faculty to place in their courses (see news story, Installing Bb Tutorials in Course).
Colleges may decide to incorporate the files in their course templates for the spring 2010 semester.
The primary investment for Sharon Hudson was to better serve students. "When thinking of a way to increase student retention through the MSVCC, the concern that kept coming to mind dealt primarily with the students’ level of competency with Blackboard.
There are multifaceted approaches and services that can increase the capacity to serve, retain, and satisfy online students, and I felt that creating simulation tutorials was one solution. The tutorials are between three to five minutes and students can access them as often as needed."
There are four videos in all: Navigating Blackboard, Submitting Assignments, Understanding Your Blackboard Gradebook, and Orientation to the Blackboard Discussion Board.
This marks the first time that tutorials have been built specifically for students and made available for faculty to place directly in courses; the tutorials were built using Adobe Captivate.
Keri Cole, Dean of eLearning at Hinds, sees great value in the tutorials.
"These tutorials will ensure students are receiving effective and consistent training in the technologies made available to them. Exposing students to the tools used by their instructors will allow our faculty more time to concentrate on course curricula."
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