Using Blackboard to engage students in practical tutorial assignments Karen Clarke, Politics Ian Fairweather, Social Anthropology

The course Study skills/research methods course for st year social science students Weekly one hour lecture & fortnightly tutorials Tutorials involve exercises which students upload and peer review Contribute 25% of final mark

Problems and Aims Problems: –Technical problems with uploading –Peer review on fortnightly basis too cumbersome –Time intensive for GTAs –Poor student engagement with lectures Aims –Improve the design of the Blackboard site for the tasks to make it more user-friendly (for both students and GTAs) –Better integration of lecture, tutorial and independent learning, incorporating more problem based learning into the lecture time

Progress Redesign of aspects of the Blackboard site: –Inclusion of guided tour to Blackboard –Improved look and feel of pages: simpler and easier to find way around Provision of Blackboard demonstrations Laptops for tutors’ use in tutorials Rethinking the tutorial exercises: individual assignments with fortnightly feedback from tutor More interactive lectures, including guidance for tutorial assignments –Occasional use of classroom clickers –Blackboard quizzes

Lessons so far Improved attendance and participation Keep it simple! –avoid being tempted to use complex features of Blackboard (e.g. selective release dates for different groups) –be aware of need for cut-off date at very end of course to allow for excused late submissions Importance of keeping up with returning work to students Use lectures to provide opportunities for feedback from students

Longer term Challenges –Developing the interactive aspect of the lectures –Providing useful content to students with a wide range of backgrounds Possible Solutions –Use principles of interactive, cooperative learning in lectures to support students’ independent learning. –Move to ‘enquiry based learning’ –Blogs and/or wikis to develop the collaborative and problem based aspects of teaching.