Faculty Spotlight
By requiring students to check the course twice daily, Dr. Costen has also been able to use the Announcements tool to provide information regarding extra credit opportunities, which are frequently offered for attending lectures, etc. It also provides a great way to post job opportunities for her students. And since Announcements appear on the front page of the course site, she can be assured that if students are accessing the site as instructed, they are getting this information in a timely manner. And, because so much of the course interaction happens online, she doesn't “…print anything, literally, other than exams.”
Dr. Costen has continued to refine and to simplify deployment of her course materials each semester. One of her Teaching Assistants suggested copying all of the Gradebook items into the new course section; as few of the
assignments change per semester, implementing this simple suggestion—literally, a checkbox presented when the course copy is initiated—became a great time saver. Additional assignments/quizzes can quickly be entered, and discussion board topics are preserved, while old posts are cleared.
So why, with all of these conveniences, are many faculty reluctant to
use course management systems in their own classes? Dr. Costen suggests that often, departments don't encourage incorporation of technology into the classroom, and that faculty may experience trepidation that including an online element would require a tremendous investment of time and effort. ”It's not, after that initial semester,” she says.
For Dr. Costen, technology also plays an important role inside the
classroom. Where class outlines used to be Microsoft Word transparencies
displayed via overhead projector, they were replaced by Powerpoint files
projected via laptop, then Powerpoint files with space for notes. To
prepare for class, Dr. Costen only needs to take a printout of the day's
outline, and a laptop. She continues, “For me to have the type of rigor I like in my classes, and interaction I like with my students, I think Blackboard completely enhances that to a level that I am now comfortable with and I wouldn't want it any differently. I think I would have a really hard
time.”
She notes that not only does this sort of use of technology create an air of professionalism—at conferences, for example—but it also models important
behaviors for students. Of her students she says that, “I have shown them the power of technology for their lives.”