Discover Best Practices

Teaching Tips
It's never too early to start planning for the next term, whether it's the course syllabus or the course materials themselves -- including your Bb course site. Each link below provides timely tips concerning the corresponding week of the semester.

• Week One - Use SPOT report to improve current course, block student access to copyrighted materials on last semester’s Blackboard courses, the first-day attendance policy for online courses, and assignments for recently enrolled on-campus students
• Week Two - Get to know your students
• Week Three - Use the Technology-Enhanced Classrooms
• Week Four - Deter unoriginal work
• Week Five - Help students maintain integrity in their papers and projects
• Week Six - Get feedback from your students at midterm
• Week Seven - Organize grading criteria in a rubric
• Week Eight - Integrate "active learning" into your class
• Week Nine - Place book orders online
• Week Ten - Use a course calendar to manage your workload
  Creating a Course Calendar can keep your workload evenly balanced and help you avoid weeks where professional commitments (conferences, proposal deadlines, defenses) collide with teaching responsibilities. You'll find it helpful during the planning stages for your course to compare your professional and teaching calendars (see the university's academic calendar by clicking the link, selecting the upcoming semester and then Academic Calendar) side-by-side and adjust accordingly, so you can provide prompt feedback on student assignments. In addition, consider strategies such as grading rubrics, peer reviews, Blackboard’s discussion board, groups, quizzes, and surveys to keep students on track and your grading manageable.
• Week Eleven - Design an online lesson for those days you have to cancel class
• Week Twelve - Increase your students' research skills
• Week Thirteen - Keep a teaching journal
• Week Fourteen - Begin drafting next semester’s syllabus
• Week Fifteen - Copy contents from your spring Bb course site into your summer or fall course site

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