Fall 2013 Teaching Assistant and Digital Assistant Orientation

FIU- Religious Studies

Teaching Assistant (TA) and Digital Assistant (DA) Orientation

August 22, 2013

Fall 2013

Liz P.

Online Technical Assistant

What Liz  does:

·      Conducts individual and/or group workshops on how to use Blackboard for TAs, Graders, and DAs

·      Helps set up your Blackboard Courses

·      Troubleshoots online and web-assisted courses for professors, instructors, and TAs

·      Assists faculty in developing online courses for the Department

Digital Assistants’ Online Duties

In charge of adding an extra component of interactivity with online students

·      Carries on and encourages discussion topics throughout the semester inside Blackboard’s Discussion Forum

o   Discussion topics will be provided each semester; however, DAs are encouraged to come up with additional topics as well.

·      Reads assignment drafts and provides informative feedback in a timely fashion

·      Uses Turnitin integration with Blackboard

Teaching Assistants’ Online Duties

In charge of assisting professors with grading and lectures

·      Grades assignments inside Blackboard for particular professors

·      Uses Turnitin integration with Blackboard

·      Leads the team of graders that have been assigned to your course

o   Reminds the graders of the rubric for grading

o   Sets up a timeline for when each assignment should be graded

o   Communicates with the professor about problems with students and other graders

·      Keeps track of students’ extra credit inside Blackboard Grade Center

Evaluating your online course design - based on Quality Matters standards

Course objectives
-you should have overall course objectives
-you should have module and/or weekly objectives
-all course objectives must be measurable

Alignment
-all of your assignments should align with the course objectives

Practice exercises
-how will your students practice for exams/quizzes?


Welcome video or note
-expectations of instructor, important policies, introduction to the course...etc
-students are introduced to the structure of the course

Links to 3 types of support
-academic support (library, research databases)
-disability support (disability center)
-technical support (troubleshooting)

Videos
-all videos must have transcripts for blind and/or deaf students

Navigation of the course
-do students know how to get started
-where is most of your content located

Moodle: Viewing all your topic boxes

Press the icon below instead of using the Jump To drop down menu to see all the Topic Boxes

Religious Studies Graduate Orientation Presentation

Click image below to download the presentation on Online Teaching in FIU Religious Studies Dept.

(This was made for a Teaching Assistant Orientation)

Changing Answers to Exams/Quizzes After Students Have Attempted Them

Applicable to Blackboard 9 only

If you realize a question has the wrong answer set up as the correct answer, and students have already taken the quiz/exam, there is still a way to change their grades.

The example below exemplifies a True or False question, in which the correct answer was set to False when it should have been set to True.

Follow screenshots below in order to give the student credit for the question.

Instructions:

1. Go to Grade Center
2. Select the drop down menu on the column of the exam/quiz you need to edit.
3. Select Grade Questions
4. Select the question set where the question is located.
5. Select the number on the rightmost column of the question that needs editing
6. Select Edit for each student that did not receive credit for the correct answer
7. Override the score with the points the answer was worth.

Click Image to Enlarge

Two Ways to Grade Turnitin Assignments in Blackboard 9

One way to grade Turnitin Assignments in Blackboard 9 is through Grade Center> Needs Grading.

There is another way as well. If you prefer grading as if you were inside Turnitin.com, in which you see the Turnitin Inbox, here is how to grade in this view. See screenshots below.

In this view, you can delete papers and submit papers on behalf of students, in addition to grading.


Click on image below to enlarge

Submitting a Quiz on behalf of a Student - Blackboard 9

If your Blackboard 9 online course has multiple choice quizzes or exams that grade themselves, there are some confusing situations that can arise if the student does not submit the exam/quiz/assignment on time.

Use these same instructions for quizzes that get stuck with the "Attempt in Progress" icon:

• For quizzes/exams that grade themselves and show up in the Grade Center with a Green Exclamation Mark, go to Grade Center.
• Click the dropdown menu next to the quiz/exam that Needs Grading.
• Select Attempt that shows the exclamation mark.
• Find the button that says Submit. (It should be under Test Information or near the top of the screen)
• If the Submit button is not showing, select "Save and Exit"

Click Image below to see Larger View of Screen shots