Blackboard Learn is the official university learning management system (LMS). This is where all course materials should be posted, course announcements should be made, etc. Below are some resources to help you get started if you need help with this platform:
These tools are useful if you would like to have a synchronous meeting with some or all of your students.
- Zoom
- Zoom Safety
- Blackboard Collaborate
- Microsoft Teams
- Additional Resources
These tools are useful if you would like to record video to share with your students for their use at any time (i.e., for asynchronous instruction).
- Zoom (see above for additional resources to support you in using Zoom)
- PowerPoint
- VoiceThread
- Camtasia
There are lots of existing lecture videos and educational videos that may be useful for your courses. Below are some we have identified, which will be updated over time.
Instead of recording videos or doing a voiceover on your slides, you could write notes into the notes section of your PowerPoint slides and share the slide set with notes with your students. This is an easy strategy and similar to a voiceover recording. In both cases, this would be for asynchronous instruction.
These tools are useful if you would like your students to participate in discussions with you and/or with each other as part of the class.
- Blackboard Learn Discussion Board
- Slack
- Other
- Blogs, wikis, or journal tools could also be used for asynchronous discussions, and are part of Blackboard Learn
- Video conferencing tools often have features for hand raising and chat, which can be used for discussions during synchronous instruction.
If you include group work in your courses, there are multiple ways that you can make use of technology to facilitate that work, which go beyond the pedagogical considerations that you may already put into the development of your group work strategies. Some of the resources in the “Discussion Tools” and “Sharing/Collaboration Tools” are relevant here too, but we wanted to have a special section to acknowledge group work specifically.
- Provide space for your teams to work and share ideas, or make suggestions as to where they can do this.
- Blackboard Learn - through Blackboard Learn, an instructor can set up a groups and group sets to allow collaboration and sharing:
- Microsoft Teams - Drexel has access to Microsoft Teams, which can be used as a communication tool to connect people at Drexel with each other. Groups could make use of this tool to interact.
- Google - many students are more familiar with Google and the GSuite tools. If instruction intervention is not needed, students can collaborate using Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drive, etc.
- Slack - this is a commonly used tool for collaboration. Groups can start their own Slack for collaboration and sharing, or separate private channels could be started for each group within an existing Slack for a course.
- Make sure your students know how to use the tools you are encouraging them to use to collaborate. You can suggest the below resource, or other resources that discuss troubleshooting the specific tools you are recommending. Of note, make sure that your students know that they have access to Zoom and can use this to communicate with each other.
- Learning Remotely- from the Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence (CASTLE)
- Breakout Sessions in Class - if you would like students to work together during a synchronous class session, here are some options: