You will see videos from the Been There, Done That: Faculty Experience Using Connect panel during last year’s CTLT Institute. Also included are short quotes, their students’ reactions and some survival tips.

Explore the following quicksheets to give you a quick overview of each new feature and how you can get started in using them. Each quicksheet has a short video, highlights of what’s new, and some best practices to think about.

For Students & Instructors

• Calendar
• Content Editor
• Global Navigation

Instructors

• Discussions
• Improved Student View
• Item Analysis

More resources are coming soon. In the meantime, you can also watch the video below that gives you a greater sense of what to expect when you log into Connect.

Note: Other than the ones previously mentioned,not all features in the video will be available at UBC.

• Simplify development of media-rich materials that you can deliver to your students in a flexible manner;
• Encourage communication and collaboration between you and your students and between students and their peers;
• Improve your ability to assess student learning and provide rich, rapid feedback; and
• Enhance user interfaces that make it simpler and more intuitive to manage your course and access important information and updates globally.

Included in the upgrade are:

• My Blackboard and Global Navigation – An integrated drop down menu that delivers consolidated tasks, messages, alerts, and other important information from one menu, accessible from any page in Connect. Users can upload an avatar (if they choose) that will appear in discussion board posts. (VIDEO)

• New Content Editor with advanced features that allow you to easily add video, images, and audio within a fully-functioning HTML editor that incorporates a familiar and simple user interface (VIDEO). You can compare features of the new and old content editors here: (READ)

• New Discussion Board, including the ability to limit student participation until after they have made an initial post. (VIDEO)

• New Calendar A totally redesigned calendar provides new functionality in a clear graphical interface.  It will pick up assigned due dates and provides drag and drop functionality.  It can be exported on Windows machines to Outlook and with iCal to other calendars (VIDEO).

• Date Rollover Tool for better managing due dates as you move from term to term.

• Enhanced Item Analysis – (VIDEO) Provides statistics on overall test performance and on individual test questions. This data helps you recognize questions that might not adequately discriminate between students who understand the material and those who do not. You can use this information to improve questions for future tests or to adjust credit on current attempts. Ineffective or misleading question are identified easily, corrected in the Test Canvas, and are re-graded automatically.

• Pattern Matching Fill-in-the-Blank – Fill in the blank questions can be automatically scored using a pattern matching feature. (VIDEO)

• iPeer integration–For those not familiar with iPeer, it is an open source web application that allows instructors to develop and deliver rubric-based peer evaluations, to review and release students comments, to build progress report forms online, and to analyze evaluation results.

• Negative marking – Negative marking is something instructors enjoyed in Vista. It allows you to assign negative point values for wrong answers on test questions. This allows faculty to prevent (by penalty) guessing on a multiple-choice quiz.

• Interactive rubrics – Interactive rubrics simplify grading of assignments by establishing clear grading criteria.  Now they are available for grading discussions, blogs, and wiki contributions. Instructors can enter comments and grades into the rubric as they review student submissions.  These rubrics can help to improve student performance by providing students with clear information on grading parameters.

• Improved Student View – An easily-accessible Student View that allows instructors to switch back and forth between the Teach and Student Views easily.

• Enterprise Surveys – Allows instructors, departments or faculties to conduct surveys at the course, department, or institution level with the ability to track response rates, aggregate or disaggregate results, and even track results year over year.

• Improved Help Site: Blackboard Help SP10 and SP11

Details about the Flexible Learning Initiative can be found on the flexible learning website. The website outlines the strategic goals of the Initiative and information about this funding call.

The Flexible Learning Initiative is intended to help UBC build upon its strong foundation in learning innovation, teaching excellence, and its deep commitment to student learning.

UPDATE #2

There has been some confusion around the previous announcement. Connect will remain available through the end of the term. Access to your credit courses is NOT AFFECTED.

• This course is OPTIONAL. The closure will NOT affect your other Connect courses.

• The Student Orientation to Connect is an introduction course for students to the Connect environment. All students who are currently enrolled in a course within Connect were automatically added to the Student Orientation to Connect course. It is a non-credit course and has no bearing on any other courses in which you are enrolled.

• The purpose of the course is to help you explore and learn the various functions of the Connect environment.

• This closure aims to update the course content to better reflect the new features of Connect in the upcoming upgrade.

• If you have not participated or entered the Student Orientation to Connect course, please disregard these messages.

• If you have participated in the Student Orientation to Connect course, your content will be migrated with the updated version of the course.

We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused. We aim to have the course available by May 6, 2013.

If you have any further concerns, please visit our website at http://elearning.ubc.ca/connect/connect-program/connect-blog/ and enter a comment.

Sincerely,

Sharon Doucet
Connect Professional Development Team

UPDATE #1

Dear Participants,

The Student Orientation to Connect will be unavailable while the course content is under construction in light of the upcoming upgrade to Connect.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and we will notify you when the course is available again.

Sincerely,

Sharon Doucet
Connect Professional Development Team

Illustration by Jonathan Lister

Congratulations to another academic term completed and under your belt. Most students are finishing up their papers or projects and will start preparing for their exams. Instructors are already looking ahead to their marking and to future terms. The Connect team is still busy creating new resources to help you take advantage of the features built into Connect.

iPeer

Resources are now available for iPeer’s integration with Connect. If you’re not familiar with iPeer, an open source web application that allows instructors to develop and deliver rubric-based peer evaluations, to review and release student comments, to build progress report forms online, and to analyze evaluation results. Learn more from the Student Peer Evaluation Toolkit.

With its integration with Connect, instructors can now access iPeer within their courses. See the resources below for more information:

• Enable iPeer
• Create an iPeer Course
• Create Groups in iPeer
• Transfer Student Groups Between Connect and iPeer
• Sync iPeer Roster to Connect Roster
• Create and Edit iPeer Evaluations
• Create and Edit iPeer Surveys
• Create an iPeer Event
• View iPeer Evaluation Results

Other New Resources

We have also developed resources relating to a variety of topics:

• Personalize Your Course List Module
  

  If you are a part of a lot of courses but are only working on a handful, this is the resource for you to help you manage your course list module.

• Create a Content Pass
  

  Learn how to share files from Connect‘s Content Collection.

• Edit Notification Settings
  

  Missed something new in your courses? Adjust your notification settings to receive email messages when they happen.

• Enable Daily Email Digest
  

  Condense your notification emails by enabling the daily email digest.

• Clear a Student’s Test Attempt
  

  Students may encounter technical glitches while taking an online test. Instructors can choose to clear their last test attempt allowing them to take the test again.

]]> http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/04/08/new-connect-resources-april-8-2013-edition/feed/ 0 Collaborate-Feature-Image Collaborate Illustration Illustration by Jonathan Lister http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/04/02/connect-looking-back-and-looking-forward/ http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/04/02/connect-looking-back-and-looking-forward/#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2013 22:48:01 +0000 Roselynn Verwoord and Tammy Yasrobi http://elearning2.sites.olt.ubc.ca/?p=5361 Connect migration progress, and preview some of the plans coming up in the near future. ]]> When the Learning Management System (LMS) Pilot launched in January 2012 approximately 4,000 students and 40 instructors became the first users of Connect (Blackboard Learn 9.1) on both the UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan campuses. The experiences of and feedback from those users shaped the direction and goals for the university-wide implementation of the new LMS.

Now, just over one year later, there are approximately 33,000 students in 1,156 courses in Connect. No new courses are being created in WebCT Vista and, by September 2013, all of the courses across all faculties will be running in Connect. The Faculty of Medicine undergraduate Medicine program and Sauder School of Business MBA programs have launched pilot projects that use Connect’s Content and Community functionality, reporting great success and ease of use. The Jump Start orientation program for new international and Aboriginal students is piloting Connect to support their programming this year.

The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) at UBC Vancouver, and the Centre for Teaching and Learning at UBC Okanagan have provided professional development opportunities for instructors throughout the migration process. Both organizations have also developed a number of resources and tools to facilitate a smooth transition to the new platform. A faculty member noted that, because of these professional development opportunities, he has a good understanding of Connect and is now able to facilitate uptake and effective and engaging use within his program.

In a further effort to facilitate a smooth transition, UBC conducted a year-long mixed-methods research study from January-December 2012 to determine users’ experiences (students and faculty) with Connect. The study provided an opportunity to better understand the users’ experiences, professional development needs, and system operations prior to the broader rollout. The research questions included:

1. What are the experiences of key user groups – students and faculty – who participated in course offerings delivered via the new Blackboard Learn 9 LMS?
2. To what extent did the structures, materials, and personnel available provide users with the support needed to work within this new LMS environment?
3. What recommendations can be made for the rollout of Blackboard Learn 9 across UBC?

The research study involved three phases: January-April 2012, May-August 2012, and September-December 2012. In each phase, students and instructors involved with courses being offered in Connect, were invited to voluntarily participate in an initial online survey and/or interview. Instructors were also invited to participate in a follow-up survey. Data from the year-long research study is currently being analyzed and a report summarizing the findings will soon be shared with the UBC community. Findings will inform the rollout of Connect at UBC, including operating procedures, professional development, and user support.

Informed by user feedback, the results of the research study, and institutional goals, there are many planned improvements and upgrades to Connect that will, over the next few months, improve the overall user experience. In May 2013, UBC will upgrade Connect from Service Pack 9 to Service Pack 11. Included in this upgrade are improvements to the user interface, a new discussion tool, and a new calendar tool. By September 2013, further upgrades are planned that will include improvements to the Assessments tool and will allow for further improvements and integrations.

Along with the upcoming improvements to Connect itself, the Sauder School of Business is implementing the Blackboard Outcomes module to support, streamline, and automate the management of outcomes assessment instruments, metrics, and data, and generate reports that can inform academic program reviews and planning. Sauder’s experiences will help inform a future university-wide implementation of the Outcomes module. UBC is also exploring the implementation of Blackboard Analytics to allow for the extraction and analysis of course and institution-level data.

A user feedback suggestion box process will be launched in May 2013 that will allow Connect users to provide feedback and ideas for improvements even after the migration to the new LMS is complete. Users will be able to submit their suggestions and to vote on and prioritize other submissions, giving the UBC community a voice in the continued improvement of the tools they use directly in teaching and learning contexts.

For more information about the LMS research project, please contact Roselynn Verwoord, CTLT Evaluation and Research Coordinator, at roselynn.verwoord@ubc.ca.

For more information about the Connect Program, please contact Tammy Yasrobi, Connect Communications Coordinator, at tammy.yasrobi@ubc.ca.

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Article courtesy of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology: Connect: Looking Back and Looking Forward
]]> http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/04/02/connect-looking-back-and-looking-forward/feed/ 0 Connect-Word-Mark Connect http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/03/22/its-always-helpful-to-announce-a-change/ http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/03/22/its-always-helpful-to-announce-a-change/#comments Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:41:46 +0000 Zack Lee http://elearning2.sites.olt.ubc.ca/?p=5308 I talked to a few students about their experience with Connect and in general, they are quite satisfied. When asked to be more specific, the comments were a bit more mixed. Some mentioned Connect had a cleaner visual design than WebCT Vista, while others said Vista was cleaner and less cluttered. Some found Connect easier to navigate but others disagreed, saying it was confusing with too many subfolders and links.


WebCT Vista automatically adds a green asterisk in the course menu when a section has been updated.

I also asked if they could change one thing in their course in order to improve it, the majority mentioned improving notifications. If you did not use WebCT Vista before, updates to any section will automatically create a green asterisk beside its name. It is an important visual signifier that automatically catches a student’s attention when they sign in. Fortunately, Connect has a built-in notifications feature that will get better with the system upgrade to Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP 10 & 11 in May 2013. More information about this feature can be found at help.blackboard.com. On the other hand, the notification settings are a bit difficult to access.

Below are a few tips for both students and instructors to take advantage of the notifications feature:

For Everyone

• By default, course notifications sent via email are turned off. Edit your notification settings in the My Places area. See How to Edit Notification Settings.
• Regularly visit the Notifications Dashboard found under the Courses tab.


A screenshot of the Notifications Dashboard under the Courses tab.

For Instructors Only

• Take advantage of the Announcements tool. Create announcements to inform students when new assignments are available, an important deadline is coming up or changes have been made to a section. See How to Create an Announcement.
• Set the course home page to the Announcements so when students enter the course, they can see your announcements immediately. See How to Set the Course Home Page.
• Create an early warning notification based on a due date rule to see if you need to send students reminders about a due date. See How to Send Early Warning Notifications Based on a Due Date Rule.

For notifications to work, please make sure you have the right email stored in Connect, preferably something you check on a regular basis. For students, you can update your email via the Student Service Centre (SSC). Instructors please make sure you have an up to date email in the Faculty Service Centre (FSC). If you need to update your email please contact your Faculty’s Instructional Support Unit.

]]> http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/03/22/its-always-helpful-to-announce-a-change/feed/ 0 Notifications-Post-Feature-Image Vista Green New Item Connect Notifications Dashboard http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/02/28/connect-program-milestone-no-new-courses-created-in-vista/ http://elearning.ubc.ca/2013/02/28/connect-program-milestone-no-new-courses-created-in-vista/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:18:09 +0000 Tammy Yasrobi http://elearning2.sites.olt.ubc.ca/?p=5259 A milestone was reached today in the transition from WebCT Vista to Connect. As of today (February 28, 2013), the “Create Course” functionality in CTC2 will be decommissioned. At that point, no new courses can be created in WebCT Vista and will instead need to be created in Connect.  All existing UBC courses or workshops with online components in Vista must be migrated to Connect by November 2013.  Please note that ISS with CTC2 access will still be able to manage their existing WebCT Vista courses using CTC2 until January 2014.

If you have any questions about this or if you would like additional information, please contact your Instructional Service Staff representative or the Connect Program Manager.

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