Guide for Blackboard Course Template

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Guide for Blackboard Course Template

Tidewater Community College has adopted Quality Matters, a faculty‐centered, peer review process. To support that adoption and assist faculty, especially those new to online instruction or Quality Matters, the college adopted this course template developed by the Online Assurance Quality Committee. It addresses numerous standards from the Quality Matters Rubric,

particularly Standard 8.1 Course navigation facilitates ease of use.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE template:

NAVIGATION AREA

All Blackboard courses will include the navigation links displayed to the left. The single exception is that faculty must select one of the two “Course Content” items, delete the other, and eliminate the comment within the parentheses (see note below).

The intent is to give students a consistent online experience while supporting faculty in meeting QM standards.

Faculty may add a maximum of 3 additional buttons to the menu. However, the content contained in any added button must also be included in the required button where

prepopulated. For example, a Syllabus button may be added, but the official syllabus must also be located in the designated area of Course Information.

Several of the areas are pre‐populated with “placeholders” that help to address standards from Quality Matters. Some placeholders contain information and others are to be populated by the faculty.

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2 Announcements is the official opening page of the template. It includes announcements identified as important by the instructor.

The Start Here area contains the following placeholders:

• Meet Your Professor – faculty to populate • Welcome to the Course: Summary of the

Purpose and Structure of the Course – faculty to populate

• Prerequisite Knowledge and Technical Skills Required for this Course – link to minimum technical skills provided, faculty to add prerequisite knowledge (often from the official course outline) • Required Textbook and Instructional

Materials – faculty to populate • First Steps – faculty to populate

• How to Navigate This Course – faculty to populate

• Netiquette link (faculty may augment as desired)

• Do You Have Any Questions About This Course? – link to Discussion area

• Introduce Yourself to Your Classmates – link to Discussion area

The above items are required. Faculty may add additional information as deemed appropriate.

Course Information area contains the following placeholders:

• Syllabus, Schedule, and Course Policies o Syllabus

o Course Schedule with Official TCC academic dates

o Grading Policies

o Late or Make‐Up Work Policies for this Course

• Office of Educational Accessibility Individuals with Disabilities link

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3 Course Content – the intent of the content area is that all instructional (“content”) material be located in this area. Faculty are to DELETE the unused Course Content menu item and update the item to simply “Course Content” (remove parentheses).

Both Course Content by Units and Weeks are fully loaded (8 Units in “by Units” and 16 weeks in “by Weeks”) with prebuilt learning modules.

Example of Folders:

Course Content (by Units):

The design of course content addresses QM General Standards 2 (learning objectives), 3 (Assessment and Measurement), 4

(Instructional Materials) and 5 (Learner Interaction and Engagement).

Course content includes: • Power Points • Podcasts • Videos • Documents • Assignments • Quizzes

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4 Example of Folders:

Course Content (by Weeks):

The design of course content addresses QM General Standards 2 (learning objectives), 3 (Assessment and Measurement), 4

(Instructional Materials) and 5 (Learner Interaction and Engagement).

Course content includes: • Power Points • Podcasts • Videos • Documents • Assignments • Quizzes

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5 The Discussions has been pre‐populated with three folders corresponding to the

“Learning Unit” assignments plus the following: • Class Introductions (Self-introductions) • Water Cooler Forum (may be

renamed)

• Open Forum – students ask questions of other students about assignment topics

Not all faculty will want to use these; however, they are available.

For those who prefer to make use of Blogs, Journals, Collaborate and/or Wikis,

“Discussions” may be turned into a content area with links to each, or into a discussion tool (such as groups or Collaborate) while retaining the name “Discussions”

My Grades has a great deal of student support. It provides a quick link to a topic of significant interest to our students.

Student Services has been populated with links for the following:

• Academic Support for Students folder o TCC Libraries Information,

Resources and Tutorials folder o Student Services folder

o TCC Academic Calendars link • Technical Support for Students folder

o Blackboard Help with link o Minimum Computer

Requirements and Technical Skills link

o Wireless Service Access at TCC link

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