Blackboard Faculty Announcements

(VCU has a site license for LessonBuilder - accessible from My Faculty Tools in Blackboard)

Email from Softchalk follows:

Hello,

Over the past few months hundreds of your colleagues have come to these webinars to see for themselves how SoftChalk LessonBuilder creates online, interactive, and engaging learning content.

SoftChalk LessonBuilder is a powerful web lesson editor that allows educators to easily create lessons that can be packaged for delivery in any learning management system, or on a web server or CD-ROM. You will be amazed at how easy it is to use!

We offer webinars several times a week; each webinar will take approximately 45 minutes and have a question and answer session at the end. Private Sessions are also available for your organization; please contact us directly to schedule.

TO REGISTER GO TO http://www.softchalk.com/lb_WebinarRegistration.html

Wednesday, August 1
10 am Pacific | 1 pm Eastern
Monday, August 6
Noon Pacific | 3 pm Eastern
Tuesday, August 14
9 am Pacific | Noon Eastern

You will learn that LessonBuilder is a tool that makes it very easy for educators to create professional looking and engaging content. During the demonstration you will see how to:

* Create learning activities with pictures and sound as well as text.
* Create interactive Flash-based activities such as text and image matching, crosswords, interactive images, flashcards and more.
* Insert quiz questions, including self-correcting, quick-response questions embedded in your lessons.
* Insert glossaries and Pop-up text annotations to define terms or add additional lesson information.
* Insert Automatic intra-page and inter-page navigation and a Table of Contents

Note: LessonBuilder creates SCORM compliant, accessible web pages that integrate with all the major Learning Management Systems or the content can be simply placed on a CD or a web server!

For additional information you and your colleagues can:

1. Go to http://www.softchalk.com/ download and try the newest version for 30 days at no cost. You can also find a Users Guide as well as guides on how LessonBuilder works with your favorite Learning Management System.
2. Review some existing lessons at http://www.softchalk.com/lb_examples.html

Please feel free to forward this invitation to any of your colleagues who may have an interest in creating more engaging on-line lessons.

Please contact us with questions or concerns.
The SoftChalk Team
team@softchalk.com
www.softchalk.com
877-727-5548 (toll free USA/Canada)

Posted by at 3:33 PM | Permalink

The Blackboard maintenance was completed Saturday morning at 7am.

The Blackboard Team

Posted by at 8:15 AM | Permalink

We are experiencing a problem with the maintenance. The goal is to have the system back online by 7am.

The Blackboard team.

Posted by at 6:26 AM | Permalink

Topics covered in this blog entry are related to synchronous communication tools and voice tools accessible via Blackboard:

Topics:
• Wimba Live Classroom contract renewed for two years
• Blackboard’s Collaboration tools (Virtual Classroom and Chat) will not be available after August 10, 2007
• Overview of Wimba Voice tools in Blackboard and where to find them
• Technical support for all Wimba products (Live Classroom and Voice Tools)
• Teaching support for all Wimba products (Live Classroom and Voice Tools)

Wimba Live Classroom contract renewed for two years

If you are not familiar with Wimba’s Live Classroom, it is a web conferencing tool that permits synchronous interaction over the internet. Users in a Blackboard course/organization can interact online with each other via the internet using Live Classroom. Some of the features include voice over IP (VoIP), text chat, application sharing, web tours, and real time quizzing/surveys.

During the 2006-2007 academic year, Technology Services and the Center for Teaching Excellence collaborated to conduct a pilot project with a number of faculty using Wimba’s Live Classroom. Following a successful pilot evaluation, the Wimba Live Classroom license was extended for two years and is available to the VCU community via Blackboard.

Technology Services strongly encourages you to take a training class. A few lessons learned from the pilot; the setup wizard is required and was confusing for some users, using Live Classroom is a different teaching experience then being in the classroom face-to-face, once the user completed the set-up wizard the tool was easy to use and training and practice were very valuable.

You have three options for Live Classroom training:
1. Wimba online classes:
Go to http://www.wimba.com/support/liveclassroom/onlinetrainingSeminars.php for more information.
2. Center for Teaching Excellence (http://www.vcu.edu/cte/resources/technology.htm):
Learn how to effectively use Live Classroom in a teaching environment by contacting Britt Watwood (bwatwood@vcu.edu or 828-1896).
3. VCU Workshops:
Go to (http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/training/it/search.asp ) and type in Keyword: Live Classroom.

Documentation on Live Classroom can be found at http://www.wimba.com/support/liveclassroom.php .

Please note, if your students or you have problems with the Live Classroom tool, 24/7 (24 hours/ 7 days a week) technical support is provided by Wimba. The Wimba Support Center web site is found at http://www.wimba.com/support/liveclassroom.php or by calling 800-350-4978. The VCU Help Desk and Blackboard support team will direct the users to Wimba for support of this tool.

To create a Live Classroom session you have two options. One option is to go to your Blackboard Course, Click on Communication, Click on Live Classrooms, and Click on Create Room. The second option is to go to your Blackboard course, Click on Control Panel, Click on one of your Content Areas (example, Course Documents), Click on the Select dropdown box (top right of screen) and Select Live Classroom.

Blackboard’s Collaboration tools (Virtual Classroom and Chat) will not be available after August 10, 2007

The Bb Collaboration tools (Virtual Classroom and Chat) are being replaced with the Wimba Voice Tools and Live Classroom. The Bb Collaboration tools are found by clicking on your Bb course, clicking on Communication, and clicking on Collaboration. The Bb collaboration tools will not be available after August 10, 2007. The Wimba Live Classroom and Voice Tools provide all the functionally of the Bb Collaboration tools and more.

Overview of Wimba tools in Blackboard and where to find them

Following is a list of other Wimba tools available and where to find them in your Bb course:

• Voice Announcements (Bb Course - Control Panel – Voice Announcements)
• Voice Recorder (See **Note below)
• Voice Email (See **Note below)
• Voice Board (See **Note below)
• Voice Direct (See **Note below)
• Voice Presentation (See **Note below)
• Wimba Podcaster (See **Note below)
• Pronto (Bb Course – Tools – for download and settings)

**Note: The tool can be found by selecting any Content Area (example, Course Information or Course Documents), clicking on the Select drop down box at the top right of the screen, selecting the item in the drop down box and clicking Go.
Documentation on these tools can be found at http://www.wimba.com/support/ . Click on Voice Tools or Pronto to find more information.

User Technical Support for the Voice Tools is provided by Wimba 24/7 (24 hours a day / 7 days a week). The Support Center web site is found at http://www.wimba.com/support/liveclassroom.php or by calling 800-350-4978. The VCU Help Desk and Blackboard support team will direct the users to Wimba for support of these tools.

To learn how to effectively use these tools for teaching contact the Center for Teaching Excellence (http://www.vcu.edu/cte/resources/technology.htm).

Technical support for all Wimba products (Live Classroom and Voice Tools) is provided by Wimba
Technical support for Wimba Live Classroom and Voice Tools is provided 24/7 (24 hours/ 7 days a week) by Wimba. This support is for faculty, staff, and students at VCU. The Support Center web site is found at http://www.wimba.com/support/liveclassroom.php or by calling 800-350-4978. The VCU Help Desk and Blackboard support team will direct the users to Wimba for support of all Wimba tools.

Teaching support for all Wimba products (Live Classroom and Voice Tools) is provided by the Center for Teaching Excellence

To learn how to effectively use these tools for teaching contact the Center for Teaching Excellence (http://www.vcu.edu/cte) or attend CTE Workshops. The workshops can be found by going to http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/training/it/search.asp ) and selecting Sponsor: Center for Teaching Excellence.

Posted by at 1:26 PM | Permalink

Presentations from Innovators in Online Learning (sponsored by SoftChalk - LessonBuilder)

A last reminder: tomorrow is the Innovators session telling how Broward Community College uses Instructional Events and Learning Outcomes to ensure quality eLearning content. If you want a "Certificate of Attendance" for being there, we do that too!

Presentations from Innovators in Online Learning

A last reminder: tomorrow is the Innovators session telling how Broward Community College uses Instructional Events and Learning Outcomes to ensure quality eLearning content. If you want a "Certificate of Attendance" for being there, we do that too!

=====Register Now for any of these events at http://www.softchalk.com/lb_WebinarRegistration.html======

======================================================
Creating a Roadmap for eLearning
using Instructional Events and Learning Outcomes

Broward Community College, Florida
Wednesday, July 26
12pm PT | 1pm MT | 2pm CT | 3pm ET

You will learn from Jeff Larson, the Director of ELearning Content Solutions and Sharon Rifkin, ELearning Faculty Associate, at Broward Community College, how they focus on providing faculty with an Instructional Event model which quickly ramps up their ability to prepare eLearning content. (Hidden in this model, is the end-result of digital content being 'chunked', a first step in getting it ready for a Learning Object Repository). They will discuss how an Instructional Event is driven by a Learning Outcome and/or used to achieve a Learning Outcome. Because of the nature of the tools in Learning Management Systems, like Blackboard/WebCT, SoftChalk LessonBuilder is an important resource to develop the templates as well as the content and self-assessment for their eLearning classes.

=======================================================
Delivering Professional Staff Development Online
with PowerPoint and LessonBuilder
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Center for Education & Development
Wednesday, August 22
10am PT | 11am MT | 12pm CT | 1pm ET

Margo Saum, RN, MSN, MBA, Informatics Project Manager, Center of Education & Development, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ. will discuss their development of learning modules and professional development for hospital staff who must complete annual competencies. St. Joseph's has recently moved a portion of new hire orientation to online learning. They have built over 100 lessons with 80 in PowerPoint and 20 in LessonBuilder; in the next year they plan to move over half of their online lessons to LessonBuilder. A Learning Management System (WebInservice/MCStrategies) is used to deliver the content developed to the staff. How the Softchalk lessons are incorporated into and delivered with WebInservice will also be discussed.

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Our LessonBuilder Introductory Webinars....
A 45 minute presentation introduces the key features of SoftChalk LessonBuilder. We will view sample lessons, and then demonstrate how the lesson content was created using SoftChalk LessonBuilder. The session ends with a question and answer period.

=====Register Now for any of these events at http://www.softchalk.com/lb_WebinarRegistration.html======
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Posted by at 10:51 AM | Permalink

A Blackboard downtime will be observed from 4PM to Midnight, July 27, 2007.
Blackboard Maintenance is the second and fourth Friday of the month.

Posted by at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blackboard maintenance is complete - 12:45 AM on Saturday, July 14th.
Thank you.

Posted by at 1:44 AM | Permalink

A Blackboard downtime will be observed from 4PM to Midnight, July 13, 2007.
Blackboard Maintenance is the second and fourth Friday of the month.

Thank you.

Posted by at 2:35 PM | Permalink