Information Technology Services

By: Emily Keener

Blackboard and other campus technologies offer a number of tools that can enhance learning, but not all of them will be the right fit for your course. One framework that can help us make technology choices based on effective teaching strategies is David Merrill's First Principles of Instruction. In Merrill's synthesis of instructional research, the following (likely familiar) ideas emerged:

Problem-centered focus: Learning is supported when students are involved in solving real-world problems or tackling real-world tasks. This is at the center of effective learning designs.

Activation: Learning is supported when students are asked to recall prior experiences related to the new concepts being taught. If student experiences are limited, the instruction should provide a relevant experience through, for example, a storytelling activity.

Demonstration: Learning is supported when new ideas are demonstrated to students.

Application: Learning is supported when students can apply new ideas through practice.

Integration: Learning is supported when students bring new ideas into their own daily lives.

Assuming you are starting with a real-world problem or task, how can the above strategies help guide our technology decisions? Here are just a few ideas, many of which come from SIUE faculty:

Activation

What do you want to do?
Asking students to share what they know about a subject not only prepares them for a learning task, it gives you an idea of what students are bringing to the class - past experiences, background knowledge, strengths and weaknesses. This might look like a brief discussion at the start of class, a quick pre-test, or perhaps something else. One SIUE faculty member asks students in her intro courses to create a collaborative paper quilt at the start of class to help student "build" on their initial understanding of a topic. However it happens, the activating of students’ prior knowledge is an effective starting point for learning.

What tools can help you do it?

1. Blackboard's Announcement tool is a one way to send out a quick email prior to class, asking students to start thinking on an upcoming topic and maybe even preparing a list of what they already know about the subject. (Just remember to check the "Send email immediately ..." box in the Announcement to send off a copy of the note to students' inboxes and keep a record in the Blackboard course).

2. Blackboard's Discussion Board offers a place for students to trade ideas, including their past experiences with a subject. A quick, focused discussion prompt before the start of a new topic, or a particularly challenging concept, lets students do the work of activating what they already know and gives the professor a glimpse into the minds of students. For example, when graduates in a technology program on campus are learning about interface design for the first time, they use the discussion board to share websites they use – ones that frustrate them, ones that bring them joy, etc. Even students with limited web skills can begin to relate the examples to their own experiences and the professor can see which design elements students are intuitively "getting" and which ones might be outside of the students' immediate realm of experience.

3. Poll Everywhere an audience interaction platform used around SIUE primarily as a way to check for understanding before, during, and after lecture, but it can also be a useful tool for activation. You can even use images in Poll Everywhere to ask students, "Where have you seen THIS before?" And get an idea of which contexts students might have familiarity with the subject at hand.

Demonstration

What do you want to do?

Showing makes more sense than telling when it comes to just about everything, especially processes and procedures. We can come to a common understanding much faster when you can "see" what I mean. It turns out that demonstrating not only saves us from reading mounds of text, it actually primes us for being able to complete a task ourselves, whether that is a physical or a cerebral task. Faculty demonstrate to students in a number of ways: by working out a problem on the board, showing a model, or illustrating a concept through a case study, for example. Demonstrations are in every course; not just subjects that lend themselves to "procedural" teaching.

What tools can help you do it?

1. Zoom is SIUE's software for lecture capture, web conferencing, and even recording brief demonstrations. This tool can be stretched to fit a number of pedagogical goals. For example, accounting and mathematics faculty often use Zoom along with a document camera or a touch screen device to write out problems and work through solutions with students, either in a live video meeting or in a recorded homework feedback session. Faculty in performance-centered disciplines have used Zoom to record "good" and "bad" examples of hard-to-describe concepts like projecting your voice or listening actively.

2. Demonstration doesn't have to be on video, though. You might want to demonstrate how to identify a logical fallacy, for example. You don't necessarily need a video of yourself pointing out false logic across the Internet. Perhaps you use something like Microsoft OneNote to collect examples of fallacies and label them by type, pointing out their defining characteristics. You can share OneNote pages via email or Blackboard so that students always see your most up-to-date concept demonstrations.

Application

What do you want to do?

We know that practice is how students get to mastery in any discipline, but it's true that some concepts are more difficult to practice than others. SIUE’s School of Nursing has invested in simulation technology and experiential learning opportunities for that very reason – it's hard for nurses to practice caring for patients unless they have an opportunity to actually care for patients. But, application occurs in a number of ways in our classrooms, with and without technology: quick knowledge checks during and after lectures, reading quizzes, homework sets, projects … the list goes on. What makes a good application strategy? It is directly connected to an outcome you intend for students reach and it is followed by specific, corrective feedback.

What tools can help you do it?

1. Blackboard's Test tool is used in many departments to deliver homework sets and even short reflective activities. One benefit of using this over the Assignment tool is in the way you can "pre-program" feedback (to some degree) and provide further resources for students beneath each incorrect answer. A benefit of using the Assignment tool would be the ease of grading with a rubric, which can be a beneficial form of feedback.

2. Some publisher materials, such as Pearson's MyLabs, have similar systems that deliver practice items to students and provide automated feedback that is (to some degree) corrective. If your department is already using these services, they might be worth a close look.

3. Many of the tools built into Microsoft Office 365 are potential venues for your students to practice their newly acquired skills. If writing and publishing are an important part of a course objective, for example, perhaps OneNote would be a good place start a community style book or mini publishing suite. For data analysis and survey development, Microsoft's Excel and Forms tools might be appropriate. Or perhaps professionals in your field need to know specialized software like SPSS, which SIUE students can access from their own computers.

Integration

What do you want to do?

The end-all goal for learning is that it transfers beyond the classroom. Although it's difficult to track these outcomes overtime, we can create the types of learning opportunities that make it more likely for students to integrate knowledge in a deep and lasting way. How? A few examples from SIUE faculty include using reflective exercises to encourage students to make the connections between course concepts and life/career/goals; providing public or semi-public avenues for students to share and report on their course work; asking students to "dig deeper" and investigate alternative ways to use new skills, whether it's in a desired career field or another part of the student's life; or maybe just brief activities where students are asked to make something new – like a website or a patient questionnaire – based on the concepts they learned in class.

What tools can help you do it?

1. Zoom is often used for production-oriented course activities, such as delivering a speech or presentation, or recording a how-to video. It is used in several SIUE programs to facilitate capstone or other culminating assessment activities, where an audience can be invited to see students' work.

2. Any number of Blackboard submission tools – Assignments, Tests, Turnitin Assignment – might be suitable for accepting reflective work from students. But the Discussion Board can also be a powerful tool for reflections, as it gives students the opportunity to gain new perspective and reflect more deeply, even after hitting the "submit" button.

3. Students won't always have access to Blackboard; they will eventually graduate and move on from us. Still, the Blackboard portfolio tool - or ANY online portfolio tool - can be a good place for students to gather artifacts that show their skills, write narratives defending/exploring the worth of those skills, and share it with future employers or institutions of higher education. If students do use Blackboard's portfolio, they will have to do a little work exporting files before they can share it with people outside of SIUE. Some other tools for portfolio development include WordPress, GoogleSites, and LinkedIn. Students can easily share these sites after graduation. 

Have other ideas for using technology to enhance learning? Send along your stories to idlt_center@siue.edu and we'll feature them in an upcoming newsletter.