Contents
What are the interactive activities in My Studies?
The interactive tools are a flexible suite of tools for interacting with and collaborating with students within a module or course area. Structured use of these tools can support engagement with learning content, student interaction and collaboration. The tools can be used for formative or summative work and specificially during this time could be used in place of some in-person interaction. Offering this option for engagement can provide continuity for students who may not be able to take part in synchronous sessions run in Microsoft Teams.
Available tools:
- Discussion Boards – main page from Blackboard Help about the Discussion Board tool
- Blogs – main page from Blackboard Help about the Blog tool
- Journals – main page from Blackboard Help about the Journal tool
- Wikis – main page from Blackboard Help about the Wiki tool
Planning your Interactive Tools Activity
The key to running successful online activities with the interactive tools is to use a planning framework.
We can recommend the following options:
- Gilly Salmon’s e-tivities planning framework
Some introductory information is provided on this page of Salmon’s website. You can also access the eBook – E-tivities, The Key to Active Online Learning (2nd Edition), pp. 109-112 via the online library. - Kahn, P. et al (2017) Understanding student engagement in online learning environments: the role of reflexivity. Educational Technology Research and Development. 65(1):203-218
Here is a blank template [download] that we have prepared based on these two approaches.
Select an Interactive Tool based on the type of Activity
Here is a comparison table based on what we know from best practices within the university and recommendations from Blackboard.
Key concept: for it to be worth using an interactive tool you must be asking students to complete more than one response and responses should be provided over a period of time. If you are only asking for one piece of written work then you need to stick to a document submission. To be a digitally authentic exercise, you must be asking for more than one response in the same format.
*Privacy: all of the tools listed below are provided within My Studies module or course areas and are only accessible to those who are enrolled on that module/course area. However, it is important to understand whether student can read each other’s work when selecting a tool.
| Interactive Tool | Format | Modes | Interaction | Privacy* | Accessibility | Example Activities |
| Discussion Boards |
Short to medium form dialogue-based writing. Informal writing style. Link/resource sharing. Sharing deliverables based on a task: images, attachments, links, video, audio, etc. Micro-blogging type entries, e.g. like Twitter |
Module/course wide Small group Separate topic-based forums All options can be formative or summative |
Comments by students and staff are threaded and can be tagged |
All students in module/course OR all students in a defined group Access to other students’ work can be restricted until a contribution has been made. |
Can be used with JAWS screen reader as outlined on this guidance page. To help to counteract the blank canvas effect. An effect where students can feel like they cannot initiate activities, provide starter threads and model the length of writing that you want to see. |
Discussions Debates Resource sharing FAQs Activity setting and reporting back on findings |
| Blogs |
Medium form writing, upto 500 words. Informal writing style. Writing can include media elements such as: images, links, embedded video/audio, etc. |
Module/course wide Small group Individual (still accessible to all students in module/course or group) |
Students can read each other’s blog posts. Staff can leave comments on individual posts or write blog posts to respond to students’ writing
|
All students in module/course OR all students in a defined group |
No specific information. Based on experience students can find blog post length to be daunting. Students who struggle with writing may not feel able to engage without very clear instructions. Release blog prompts incrementally and within the blog itself and blog posts. You can draft these incrementally but you cannot automate blog post publishing. |
Topic based writing Critical writing Shared reflections/experiences |
| Journals |
Short form to student-preferred length. Self-reflective writing style. Writing can include media elements such as: images, links, embedded video/audio, etc. |
Individual [recommended] Individual (accessible to module) Indivdiual (accessible to group) |
Staff can read student reflections. Staff can leave comments on student journal entries. If open, students can read and comments on other students’ journal entries. |
Individual students [recommended] OR All students in module/course OR all students in a defined group |
No specific information. To encourage engagement and to minimise anxiety related to writing, allow students to write shorter posts often rather than feel that they need to write long entries. Provide framework templates to support longer reflections. |
Work placement reflections Reflection on practice or personal development Lab notes Skills/development diary |
| Wikis |
Short to medium form. Technical or descriptive writing style. |
Module/course wide Small group |
Students and staff can collaboratively edit asynchronsly (cannot edit the same page in real-time). Staff can pre-emptively setup content and pages for students to edit.
|
All students in module/course OR all students in a defined group |
No specific information. Provide starter pages to help get students started. This is easier to do when module/course wikis are used, as compared to multiple small group wikis. |
A glossary Shared class notes Students can write sections to form a module-sourced mini publication Lab notes Simulated patient notes Scenarios and case studies Research notebook Group presentation planning |
Setting up Interactive Tools – Instructions and Micro-Learning Videos
All videos are publically accessible - please do share with others.
Discussion Boards
Discussion Boards forums can setup in the following ways:
You will find that a module-wide forum is already available for your use in the Module Information area of all your modules.
- Go to the Course are in My Studies (studentcentral).
- Click on the '+' at the top-left of the course area menu and select the 'Tool Link' option.
- Select the option for 'Discussion Board' from the drop-down list.
- Type in a name for your Discussion Board link, click on the tick box to make the link available to users (you may come back and do this later). Click on 'Submit' to confirm.
- Use the reordering tool to get the new link to your preferred position in the course menu.
- Click on the Discussion Board to get to setup. For info, this is always accessible via Course Tools > Discussion Boards in addition to this student facing link.
- Click on the 'Create Forum' to setup an area for discussion. You can have more than one forum depending on your needs, however we recommend starting with one and then using discussion threads within that forum for specific topics.
- Recommended settings for a Course Forum are outlined in steps below, followed by an annotated screenshot to illustrate the sections.
-
- Add a title for your discussion board in the 'Name' field.
- Use the description field to explain how the discussion board should be used by students and staff on the course.
- Set availability to 'Yes'.
- Use 'standard view'.
- Set the forum to 'No Marking…'.
- Allow members to subscribe, but to protect privacy only include a link to the post in the subscription email.
- Turn on 'Allow Author to Delete Own Posts' > 'Only Posts with no replies'. Turn on 'Allow Author to Edit Own Published Posts'
- Click on 'Submit'.
-
- Your discussion board is not ready and is available for use. Students click on the blue 'Course Discussion Board' link shown in the screenshot below to start engaging in discussions.
- Please note: there is no way to auto subscribe students to disscussions via email. If you would like students to subscribe via email then you need to encrouage then to go into the forum and click on the 'subscribe' button as shown below. This is another good reason to only have one forum.
A short video explaining how to setup self-enrol groups. Self-enrol groups allow students to join the group of their choice.
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
A short video explaining how to setup manual enrol groups. Manual enrol groups mean that you need to add students and instructors to the group membership manually.
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
When you setup a group there is not an option to make the discussion board a marked activity. This explains how to apply theses settings after you have created your groups. Please watch the 'self-enrol' or 'manual enrol' videos above first.
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
How to create topic-based discussion boards within your module. We go through three methods: standard forum, post-first before seeing other students' work and marked discussion threads.
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
In addition to our bespoke training materials above, you may also find the following materials from Blackboard to be helpful.
- Create Discussions [Blackboard Help]
General information about where to find settings and planning your activities. - Create Forums [Blackboard Help]
Forums are where the discussions actually take place. - Create Threads [Blackboard Help]
Threads live as sub-topic discussions within forums.
Blogs
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
Journals
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
Wikis
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
Setup Interactive Activites for Groups (Blogs, Journals, Wikis)
Issues with the embedded video? View the video on YouTube instead.
Assessing Student Contributions
Discussion Boards
- Grade Discussions
- Grade Forum Participation [Blackboard Help]
- Grade a Thread [Blackboard Help]
The marking button will be shown alongside the thread within your discussion forum (SEE the purple arrow in the screenshot below).
- Grade a Group Discussion
Students are marked indivdiually for group discussions. A column for each group will be available in the Grade Centre for marking purposes.
Blogs
- Grade Blogs [Blackboard Help]
- Grade Individual Blogs [Blackboard Help]
- Grade Group Blogs [Blackboard Help]
Journals
- Grade Journals [Blackboard Help]
- Grade Individual Journals [Blackboard Help]
- Grade Group Journals [Blackboard Help]
- Giving a different Grade to Group Members [Blackboard Help]
Wikis
- Grade Wikis [Blackboard Help]
- Grade Wiki Contributions [Blackboard Help]
- Grade Group Wiki [Blackboard Help]
- View Participation Summary [Blackboard Help]
Student help materials
Blackboard provide comprehensive help materials for students, including videos and segmented instructions with screenshots. You can find help materials based on the interactive tool you are using at this main page for interaction. We recommend that you do not rely on these materials alone as the use of these tools tends to be unique based on your spark/invitation/prompt/provocation, so it always a good idea to write your own instructions or create a short welcome video using Panopto.
