learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Karen Hughes Miller and Linda Leake
courses include Financial Basics, Procuring and Paying for Goods and Services, and Sponsored
Program Administration Core (for managing extramural funded research). Examples of people
systems courses (HR) include Hiring and Compensation, Benefits, and Personnel Actions. Specialty
electives, while once envisioned as part of the core curriculum, have recently been re-defined as a
continuing education requirement to maintain certification. Examples of specialty electives include
Advanced Sponsored Program Management, Revenue-Based Budgets, and Student Administration.
The most challenging component of developing online courses in business or finance is the same
regardless of the course being for academic credit or for staff development; in general, it is more time
consuming to develop numbers-based content than it is to develop language based content for online
learning (Chao and Miller 2002). However, some of the newer development tools located in
Blackboard’s text boxes including MathML, WebEQ, and adding QuickTime, audio content,
Flash/shockwave, and Mashups. All of these multi-media capabilities expand the range of options
for sharing content. With these multi-media options, materials can be created that allow the
participants to actually “walk through” or rehearse the process to fill out a needed form or process in
real-time. Many software programs can be packaged in a format that can be uploaded into
Blackboard to allow for more capabilities for interactivity to help the participants of the UBT program
retain more knowledge of the related information. The information can then be available as a
reference or resource for all the participants.
5. Case #5: Blended orientation and graduate advising
U of L’s Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work found a way to provide a blended approach to
orientation for incoming students to their Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) program as well
as a way to communicate important advising information for all MSSW students. For ease of use, the
Kent School organization site is divided into separate sections; one for Orientation and one for
Advising. When administrators realized that using a Blackboard organization to support Orientation
was actually saving approximately four hours in the required face-to-face sessions, they were able to
reduce the sessions by half a day. As far as the Advising section of the site, it has saved countless
advising staff hours answering basic advising questions via e-mail.
The Orientation section of the site includes required readings and information on which students are
quizzed using Blackboard’s testing feature. There are also optional readings and information as
well as the information about the half-day face-to-face orientation session. The discussion board is
used to create a dialogue among the new students on practical issues such as car pooling, looking for
someone to share an apartment, as well as areas (or “forums”) to generate ideas for the
organization’s upcoming priorities. The information on which students are quizzed is taken from the
Kent School Catalog, and 8 out of 10 correct replies are required for successful completion.
Since each student in the MSSW program has a specific course plan and specializations, the
Orientation and Advising Staff have developed a truly unique application of the Blackboard Grade
Center. To help students stay organized, each student’s My Grades page reminds them not only of
which items they need to complete but also (after their first advising appointment) the name of their
advisor, the program plan that the student has selected, and their specialization. If a student has been
admitted with conditional status, the Grade Center also contains columns that list any pre-requisite
courses the student may need to complete as well as if any documentation is needed such as
transcripts for the student’s files. This innovative use of the Grade Center is possible because
columns in the Grade Center accept text as well as numerals. Column content does not need to be
included in a calculated “score”, so any type of relevant information can be included in column format.
While the “master” Grade Center includes a complete spread sheet of student data, individual
student’s My Grades page (see Figure 2) displays only their personal records.
The Advising section of the site includes a list of curriculum plans for the current year, information on
what to expect if pre-requisites are needed, a list of important dates, and the Kent School Phone
Directory. Having all of this information easily at hand helps students get their questions answered
without having to e-mail the advising staff. The Catalog, the Academic Calendar for the current three
semesters, and the MSSW Student Handbook are also included under Advising. Once a student is
assigned to an advisor, they are enrolled in a “Group” for that advisor within the organization. Groups
include between 10 and 15 students. The Groups function in Blackboard allows each advisor to use
tools such as Group E-mail, Group Discussion Board, and File Exchange to communicate with each
of the students assigned to the advisor.
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