1. Jennifer Van Gundy and Christina Jones 9471

2. Blackboard is a useful tool for both online and face-to- face courses. If you implement Blackboard (Bb) you will soon find ways to use its components to save time. However, the extensive gains in time come about by restructuring the procedures of your course to take full advantage of these components. That requires rethinking the ways you choose to communicate with your teachers and how you will build your behavior with other students such that they are in sync with your communication process. With Blackboard, many students will come to class prepared for and expecting revised course structures and methods that incorporate the use of Blackboard components.

3. Even if you haven't taken an online course, it is easy to accrue a large number of emails from fellow students asking for clarification of content, schedule, procedure, due dates, etc., many of which are repetitive. An easy way to reduce time spent emailing multiple times is to have an understanding with peers and teachers that questions will be answered in a discussion board posting or on the course announcement page. You should check this frequently to see if your question has already been addressed. It is also a good idea check and see if the instructor has posted changes to the course syllabus, policies, due dates, etc., to the announcements page of the course. Both you and the teacher will have a record to refer to if questions arise later.

4. A popular use of discussion forums in Bb is to set up a Q & A forum where students are encouraged to answer each other's questions. The instructor then monitors the discussion and steps in if something needs explaining or if students are unable to answer the question. Having a forum like this in place can help you prepare for classes, as you will be aware of areas where other students are having trouble. Another use of discussion forums is to have students discuss topics that were brought up in class. This allows you to be active in their learning as they continue conversations and ask questions of each other.

5. There is both an expense and a time drain associated with paper copies. Often there are students who were not present when hardcopy handouts are distributed or who lost them, demanding additional trips to the copier, etc. If handouts are posted then they are available to students anywhere/anytime and cannot be lost. When posting documents to Bb, be sure that they are in a universal format, most suitable for posting like RTF or PDF. This way other students and your instructor can access your work.

6. Providing quizzes and tests online allows you to monitor your progress more closley. You can take problems/questions that require an understanding of the material in an online quiz or test that can be timed or untimed. If you have group assignments, Bb will provide group space. Groups can be set up with their own discussion boards, chat rooms, and file exchange areas. This allows students a place to share ideas as they work on their projects. This works well if you are in a group with students who are in different locations.

7. You can save some time on every homework assignment that you take. Bb's assignment function allows you to download all assignments at once for later reading on a home or other computer, without needing to access the Internet. You are also able to post the assignment and check back for your feerback from the instructor. Students can get their grade and feedback through the Bb grade book.

8. You can check your grade as soon as it is posted. That tends to eliminate some email requests for grades. You can also let Bb's grade book add and weight individual test and assignment scores for you. Bb will calculate our grade as the course goes on. You are also able to provide feedback on assignments you complete through the grade book.

9. You can share anything you create in Bb with teachers and other students. Consider, for instance, the situation wherein three students are in the same course. Suppose they all want to share materials for a group assignment. Each student could create the material for one third of the assignment and adopt material from each other to complete the project.