1. ACTIVITY 7
TEACHING ONLINE
Day Seven: Collaborative
Learning

2. AGENDA: DAY SEVEN
 Creating Groups
 Course Tools
 Blogs
 Wikis
 Group Discussion Board
 Journals
 Tasks
 Skype

3. ONLINE COLLABORATION: GROUPS
Overview
Bb offers a variety of group tools that give students a
way to share their ideas with each other. To access
these tools, students need to be placed in groups. The
groups creation tool is illustrated in the following
slides.

4. ONLINE COLLABORATION: GROUPS
The first image is the list of sign up sheets that
students see when they are choosing groups. The
second image is a list of all the group tools.

5. ONLINE COLLABORATION: GROUPS
These two slides show all of the options you have in
creating groups. To prevent confusion, it might be best
to limit the number of tools each group can access.

6. COURSE TOOLS AND GROUPS
Students access the tools added to the Group Homepage under Group Tools.
Only the Instructor and the Group members can access tools enabled for the
Group, with the exception of comments in the Group Blog and Group Wiki
tools.
Group Blogs and Wikis are visible to all Course members when the tools are
accessed on the Tools page.

7. COURSE TOOLS AND
GROUPS the tools added to the Group
Students access
Homepage under Group Tools or My Tools.

8. BLOGS
About Blogs
Blog is a shorthand term that means Web log. On the
Internet, a Blog is usually an online journal that is
frequently updated and intended for general public
consumption.
In Blackboard, only enrolled users can view and
author Blogs. Blogs address the need to expand
various aspects of social learning. Blogs provide a way
to share the knowledge and materials collected.

9. BLOGS
In Blackboard, Blogs consist of two elements:
 Blog entries: Text, images, links, multimedia, and
attachments added by Course members open for
comments.
 Comments: Remarks or responses to Blog entries
made by other Course members, including the
Instructor.

10. BLOGS
YOU CAN ALLOW STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN BLOGS IN THREE
WAYS:
 Course Blogs: Created by the instructor.. All Course members
can add Blog entries and add comments to Blog entries.
 Individual Blogs: Created by the instructor for individual
students. Only the owner of the Blog is able to add Blog
entries. All other Course members can view and add
comments.
 Group Blogs: The instructor enables the Blogs tool for the
Group; all Group members can add Blog entries and make
comments on Blog entries, building upon one another. Any
Course member can view Group Blogs, but can only add
comments. A Group Blog is different from a threaded
discussion as each entry does not need to continue the
discussion of the previous entry, but can be a complete thought
on its own.
The Instructor can edit and delete entries in any of the three Blog

11. WIKIS
Think of a Wiki as a bulletin board. All the students in a
Group are able to work on the Wiki to add or alter the
content.
Wiki pages can be created and edited quickly, and you can
track changes and additions, allowing you to measure how
effective the collaboration has been between the multiple
writers of the Wiki.
You can create one or more Wikis for all Course members
to contribute to or Wikis for specific Groups to use to
collaborate.
Wikis can also be used to record information and serve as
a repository for course information and knowledge—like a
student created course glossary.

12. WIKIS: GRADING
You have the capability of viewing all changes to all
pages in the Wiki. You can choose to see an overview
of the changes or drill down to retrieve information about
the development and contributions for any individual.
Once a Wiki is set to be graded, a grade column is
automatically created in the Grade Center. Then,
individual Student and Group contributions can be
graded inside the Wikis tool, where all pages and edits
can be referenced, as the grade is determined.

13. WIKIS: GRADING
Once a Wiki is set to be graded, a
grade column is automatically
created in the Grade Center.
Then, individual Student and Group
contributions can be graded inside
the Wikis tool, where all pages and
edits can be referenced, as the
grade is determined.

14. WIKIS: GRADING You can view all changes
to all pages in a Wiki.
The changes can be
viewed at a high level and
you can drill down to
retrieve information about
the development and
contributions for any
individual.
Student contributions to
a Wiki can be assigned
a grade or can be used
solely for course
content review.

15. GROUP DISCUSSION BOARD
The Group Discussion Board
differs from the Course
Discussion Board because only
members of a Group can access
the Group Discussion Board.
Group members can access
their Discussion Board through
the My Group area below the
Course Menu.
You might also consider adding a
Groups button on the Course
Menu (by adding a Course Link
to the Course Menu).

16. STUDENT ACCESS TO GROUPS
If you choose to use a
variety of collaborative
tools, you may want to set
up a Groups area either on
your Course main page or
as a button on the Course
Menu.

17. JOURNALS
Journals are typically private—either belonging to a
single student or to a Group. While Journals can be
made public, the purpose is for reflection on a topic
rather than on sharing research or ideas with the
entire class.
Group Journals can be used to allow users within a
Group can share their thoughts with each other and
communicate with the Instructor.

18. GRADING GROUP JOURNALS AND
BLOGS
CREATE A GRADABLE GROUP BLOG
 While creating a Course Group or editing an existing
Course Group, select the Blogs or Journals tool.
 Select Grade and type a number in the Points
possible text box.
 You can grade the quality of the discussion, as well as
the number of entries and comments that are made by
an individual or a whole Course Group.
 Grades for Blogs and Journals can be changed,
deleted, reverted, and overridden just like other grades
in the Grade Center.

19. GRADING GROUP JOURNALS AND
BLOGSGRADABLE GROUP BLOG
CREATE A
 You can assign a grade to a Group Blog but not include it in Grade
Center calculations.
 You can grade on the Blog page with a side panel where entries are
graded for individuals and Course Groups. The side panel consists of
three sections which expand to four when grading begins:
 About this Blog: Includes type, number of entries, and number of comments.
 Blog Grade: Enter grade for Group or individual student along with Feedback or Grading
Notes
 Previous User and Next User let you navigate among users to grade (or click a user's name in
the list).
 View Entries by: Users who have submitted one or more entries appear with
exclamation marks, the needs grading icon. Click a user's name to access the
 Index: For a selected user or all Course members, view a list of entry titles added during
the index span—by month or by week.
*Note: All Group members receive the same grade, but you can edit individual grades in Grade
Center.

20. GROUP TASKS
Encourage students to use the Group Tasks function to
create a plan for group projects.
Tasks can be assigned
specific due dates and
priorities.
Students in a Group
can set the Task in
motion or alter the
status.

21. SKYPE
10 WAYS TO USE SKYPE IN
YOUR ONLINE CLASS
 http://www.informationtechnol
ogyschools.org/blog/2010/10-
ways-to-use-skype-in-online-
classes/
 Videoconferencing  Student Presentations
 Tutoring  Classroom Discussions
 Live Lectures  Announcements
 Guest Lectures  Oral Examinations
 Global Projects  Virtual Fieldtrips

22. AFTERNOON SESSION AGENDA
 Create Groups
 Create a Blog
 Create a Wiki
 Create a Journal for individual students
and for a Group
 Create a Group Task
 Create a Skype account