What advantages of a universally designed Blackboard site? Focus on the content not the troubleshooting: A consistent and accessible course site frees up time to focus on creating new content and establishing a strong learning community. Reduce student emails: A consistent and accessible course site will cut down on troubleshooting questions from students. Streamline file management: A consistent navigation and folder system allows for an instructor to have an easy to use template in place for one’s ongoing needs (such as adding new content quickly and easily). •
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Become more comfortable using Blackboard: A streamlined course site helps overcome some of the complexities of working with an interface such as Blackboard. •
Create Clear, Descriptive, and System Readable File Naming Conventions Consistency and clarity to naming conventions will save you a lot of time in both the short and long run. The major accessibility consideration is different software systems: •
Some systems can read any file name, but other systems are structured where they cannot read certain naming characters. Blackboard is one such system in that it can only read particular file name conventions as illustrated below. Spaces: Never use spaces within, before, or after the name of any file. Different web servers handle spaces differently may replace your space with a series of characters. This can cause problems with links locating these files. Consider: toolsforteaching.htm over tepstaff2010.jpg over tools for teaching.htm tep staff 2010.jpg Special Characters: Never use unusual characters within a file name. Avoid punctuation marks (other than the period before the extension, hyphens, and underscores), accented vowels, and other special characters. Consider: lecture81404.htm over lecture 8/14/04.htm over tim&george.jpg tim_george.jpg Length: Keep your file names short but meaningful. Consider: teachtech.htm over teachingwithtechnology.htm over picture29.jpg 2students.jpg Text Case: Some web servers are case-­‐sensitive. That is, the file hello.html is regarded as a different file than Hello.html. The safest course is to keep everything in lower case. Consider: georgeleonard.htm over GeorgeLeonard.htm over biopict.JPG biopict.jpg Universal Design and Blackboard Robert Voelker-­‐Morris, Teaching Effectiveness Program Page 1 of 4 Provide File Extensions Extensions are the three letters on the end of many files. When creating web content (which is what you are doing with Blackboard), you need to always add the file extension. Macs work fine without them, but various versions of Windows expect file extensions and don’t know what to do without them. Get in the habit of always adding those file extensions. Some common extensions you might be using include: .htm for web pages .jpg or .gif for images .doc, .rtf, or .txt for word processing files .ppt for PowerPoint files .xls for Excel files Construct Navigational Consistency In general, creating a Universally Designed course site means that your documents, assignments, tests, and other areas are accessible to all students. One very important consideration is that the navigation of a course site is consistent and makes sense to students. What this means is that your files are placed within name-­‐appropriate sections in the menu, that you keep alike files together, and you don’t layer the important information too deep within the course site structure. In simple terms if you have an Assignment menu area, a student will find assignments there. In another example, if a student normally finds the weekly readings in week-­‐by-­‐
week folders in the Weekly Readings section, later in the term don’t put readings into the Course Information section. This could cause confusion to your students. Here is a very basic sample course navigation schematic (this can be modified to make the scheme work for your own course needs): Menu Area = Announcements: Post short weekly announcements that explain what assignments are due, what readings and content should be studied, and your basic learning objectives for the week. Menu Area = Assignments: Post a folder for each week that includes each week’s assignment instructions and scoring rubrics. Menu Area = Contacts: Post a basic introduction to yourself, the course GTF(s), and if available any Blackboard support staff your program has available for students. Menu Area = Course Information: Post information such as your course syllabus, basic course calendar, academic honestly resources, disability resources, and copyright statement. Universal Design and Blackboard Page 2 of 4 Robert Voelker-­‐Morris, Teaching Effectiveness Program Menu Area = Readings: Post a folder for each week that includes each week’s readings and additional content that is needed to complete the weekly assignments. Menu Area = Discussion Board: Create a link to the main Discussion Board forum area for your weekly discussions. Menu Area = Tools: Default link provided to the students so they can access the various tools such as My Grades, email, blogs, calendar, etc. Important Note: The tools section includes a long list of tools that are available through the Blackboard system; it is an important consideration to “hide” all the tools that will not be needed for your course. Final Note: Blackboard allows you to create your own customized menu areas. There is no reason to keep the default settings; make the menu areas work best for your needs. In the example above the default “Course Documents” section was changed to “Weekly Readings”. The key is to keep the phrasing and available information consistent. Designate Clearly Essential Course Content In a Blackboard course site, you will often have different levels of information (i.e. required, recommended, additional resources) available to students. It is important to designate the essential (required) materials in four ways: 1) Keep all essential course content on the top level of your site navigation. One example would be to make sure all this content is accessible through the main course site menu bar. 2) Designate the essential course content under easy to find titles (Assignments, Weekly Readings, etc.). 3) Write text descriptions for the folders of essential course materials. Examples: “This reading is required for our second week’s discussion session” or “Important Note: All the assignments found in this section are required for completion of the course.” Again, make this work for your course needs. 4) Create easy to read headers, lists, and highlight areas of emphasis in your instructions so that students are able to easily read your guidelines. An example would be creating a bold and CAPS scheme for due dates (e.g. DUE DATE: February 14, 2011). Colors can also be a useful designation tool, but colorblind students maynot be able to see the color differences so you must include clearly written designations to complement all color schemes. Universal Design and Blackboard Robert Voelker-­‐Morris, Teaching Effectiveness Program Page 3 of 4 Provide Support Resources To reduce student confusion and technical support communication, include support resources for students. These resources could include the following: UO Blackboard FAQ Index for Students: http://libweb.uoregon.edu/scis/blackboard/faq/questions.html?category=students The Information Services (Computing Center) Help Desk in 151 McKenzie Hall (541-­‐346-­‐
4412) can assist with browser problems or email logins: http://micro.uoregon.edu/ Visit the Knight Library Learning Commons -­‐-­‐ especially the Computer Help Desk -­‐-­‐ for additional help using blackboard: http://libweb.uoregon.edu/systems/help.html Consider Multiple Media Types You may want to consider creating materials for your course site in multiple media types to provide alternative points of access. This could include offering audio versions of your text documents or short screen capture videos that show a student how to properly submit an assignment. Creating these multiple media types can be a little bit of work at the outset, but will save you and the students time in answering questions that might be missed if the material is only covered in a Word Document. As with any formats you create for Blackboard access, consider how these different media types will be accessed. Some questions to consider: • Are the file formats accessible by both Windows and Mac operating systems? • Are you providing application download links, such as QuickTime or Flash Player, so the students can open the files? • Are the media types placed logically, and consistently, within your course structure? • Have you designated which of these media types are essential for the course and what are non-­‐essential help tools? Universal Design and Blackboard Robert Voelker-­‐Morris, Teaching Effectiveness Program Page 4 of 4