Dr. K. Shimabukuro

Dr. K. Shimabukuro

Monday, June 14, 2021

Building Online Composition Classes in Blackboard Ultra: Intentionality and Reflection

One thing I always really liked about online teaching (not the triage of the last year and change, ongoing, but intentional online teaching) is the intentionality and reflection it can focus. I also like that we talk about building classes, constructing them. Now, I don't think that any class online or not should be totally constructed by professors. What I tend to do is build my module blocks in my Google Docs syllabus first. Then I build module folders to match those blocks in the LMS (my school uses Blackboard and has recently moved to Blackboard Ultra).  Ultra has more built in accessibility and is more restrictive and stripped down. You can't copy and past embed code anyone. You can attach items, and attached images appear in line. The alt-text is hit and miss. So differentiating items visually, which I have found really helps students, is not really an option. If you click on the module folders they open to reveal the contents. The icons for document, assignment, discussion boards are different, but it is still a lot of plain text to scroll through. 

The alt-text is not the default, so that's an issue.

Adding items are more restrictive, if it's not what they list as media, you have to attach, and that adds another layer, which is often a complaint of students.

Screenshot of Blackboard Ultra Course Homepage. Navigation on the left and upper right, module folders centered and down.

Plain icons of folders and documents, with four folders listed Module 1: WRiting about writing; Module 2: Research; Module 3: Informative and Analytical Writing; Module 4: narrative writing

Once I start building my class I try to think roughly in the "read this" to provide background, notes, mini-lessons that students need, then "practice" whatever skills they're focusing on, get feedback on, then they build up to the "major assignment" where they demonstrate what they have learned. When I build online classes I tend to cut a lot as I start actually building the pieces. I stop and consider whether that reading, that extra practice, is needed. One thing I may do (if I can figure out how best to design it) would be to add a piece between the practice and the major assignment, of "extra" readings or practices if students want/need them. Ideally I could add a folder within the module folder but currently Ultra won't let me do that.

The combination of ugly navigating and paring down led to me not just cutting things but also rethinking how I present them. So rather than separate chunks for read this, mini-lesson, practice, practice again, which would have been several different elements, I had to rethink them.

So, these were the original steps:

Read and annotate a reading. 

Read and ask questions of a reading

Identify the stance, how they support that stance/argument. Ask analytical questions of the text

Resources:

I cut the Staples (which I hated, but also, summer school is 5 weeks. I want to add it back for semester). One thing I do tend to do in semester classes is have more practice, more chances to see growth through feedback.

With the Baldwin, I wanted students to read and annotate. So I gave them guidelines for how to annotate, and included the instructions in the assignment. So that's one chunk. Then I asked them to ask questions in a discussion board, but for the Baldwin. Then the demonstrate skills assignment was to use those activities to write a response paragraph.

Expanded module 1 with document outlining, discussion board, assignments, and document icons and labels

Expanded module 1 with document outlining, discussion board, assignments, and document icons and labels

This module 1 expansion is still a bit long, mainly because it has all the "getting started" stuff too.

Module 2 layout: assignment, discussion board for drafts, final assignment.
You can compare with the module 2 expansion, which is also what module 3 and 4 look like. Notice there's not a lot here. The first assignment (shown below) has the list of topics, students choose. In my classes students always choose. I set loose parameters, but they choose. Next are the hyperlinked resources for help, and additional help if they need it as they work. The final assignment is just their submitted research, with no real parameters, they submit how they work.

Module 2 first assignment expansion, shows the list of topics, hyperlinked resources, assignment instructions at the bottom.

I was able to reconstruct these because my focus is on the practice, feedback I'll give, and how they'll apply that. It's still skill based, just less work. In my face to face class I don't grade the in-class practice, just the major assignments, but this past year online composition students struggled with that, so for module practice they used to get just a complete, incomplete. I made their practice 75% of the final grade so even if they struggled with content, if they worked they could earn a "C" and then the major assignments were additions. I mostly ungrade in all my classes, but with the online composition classes I've struggled with how best to do this. What I'm trying this summer and the fall is that there are five modules, each is 20% and the practice and major assignments all go in that 20%. The practice is still complete/incomplete, but major assignments they write reflections for their own grades which I (except for rare instances) accept without debate. Ultra got rid of that grading schema (green check marks) so I had to figure out what to do. The solution sucks but it's the best I can do. My school does A-F grades, no plus or minuses, so I created a Letter Schema for A-F. I made "A" 90-95. I made "F" 55-59. Then I added an INC that went in as a 50 and a COM that went in as 96-100. 

Because my school just moved to Ultra (we soft launches the navigation this past year), a lot of my reflection and consideration is about what to build for my summer class with an eye for what I can use in the fall. I created a Writing Help folder that will be part of the template for all classes on campus, so I'm excited about that. I added that here. You'll notice that there are some hidden assignments in module 1 that I created then cut but will probably add back for the semester so I've just left those. We don't do evaluations in the summer but I want to add a folder towards the end that expands on the blogpost I did for students ABOUT evals, how they work, some of the pitfalls, etc.

One thing that is nice is that the announcements now are a pop up, so students have to close them before they enter the course. Hopefully they will read them. I'm a little bummed about the lack of flexibility in Ultra, especially for announcements, as I really liked posting fun, useful, embed code thingies to help inspire and guide for the week. We'll see how that works out. I build my entire course out online. Then each weekend based on emails, feedback, what I've seen in assignments, I add general notes and resources in announcements, and it needed add target extras in that week's work.

Now that the course is built I will do a short video overview of how to navigate, where to find things, and post in that first announcement. I'll also add a video intro to me.

I'm not going to know about navigating the gradebook, items, leaving feedback, until the class is live. Ultra does default to the day you create as "due date" so I had to back those out to not have due dates. I also had to set to unlimited attempts and highest grade for each assignment. 

In case anyone is interested:

Summer Composition II syllabus

My Composition I template

My Composition II template

I don't know why I put template because I redesign my classes every semester to incorporate new information, scholarship, respond to whatever is going on. I made the narrative writing for summer for students to write a photo essay, choosing a photo they think represents the last year for them. For the fall/spring, I am using Ahmed's Be the Change to center identify for the narrative. Challenging stereotypes with the "What others think I do" meme. 

I did update the Class FAQs, which is linked at the bottom of the syllabus and links to my Google Site.

I won't have long between this class ending and fall starting, so I'll have to build my fall online class, and revise/tweak as I go based on how this works. It's not ideal. But I do just have one online class, so hopefully that's okay.

I wish I had more reflection time, but I do have a lot of built in time the next 7 weeks, so hopefully I can use that.


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