Time-Saving+Tips

1. Use the integrated tools, because they work together.
 * **Time-saving Tips for Your Online Class:**

For example, if you set the Discussions up as Gradeable, you can Grade them directly from the Teach tab while the system counts and compiles all of the individual student’s posts for you. From this same location you can also send private feedback via Mail.

While in the Gradebook or while reading a Discussion post, you can also click on any student’s name and get a brief progress (tracking report) or send them a Mail message without having to go directly to either tool.

Requiring students to use the Mail tool within the course will help keep all related correspondence together, spam-free, and archived in case of a grade challenge later. Forwarding a copy of your course Mail to your campus or other email account will help alert you when you need to login to a course and respond.

2. Use the Grade Book wisely.

Reorder your grade columns while on the View All tab- this tab and only this tab – represents the order of the students will see when they go to their My Grades listing.

Simplify your grading scheme on one standard method – either adding up points or averaging graded task out of 100.

Use a Calculated column to calculate your grades for you.

Note that you can Sort and Grade Book column as needed.

3. Set clear expectations – both for yourself and your students.

Setting clear guidelines and giving detailed instructions and examples will cut down on confusion, anxiety, and the work it would take to clarify the mess later.

Let students know if you expect for all class-related communications to happen within the course.

4. You don’t have to respond to each and every post.

Some Discussion boards may have hundreds of posts. You do not have to respond to each and every one – and the students would not want to read them anyway. What you can do is make it clear that they can expect you to not respond to each and every one, but can expect you to give general feedback at the conclusion of each topic’s discussion; this feedback, coupled with their grade, will serve as their individual feedback on their work. In your wrap-up feedback, you may wish to highlight one or two exceptional ideas and also comment on any important points the class missed.

5. Grading Forms may help with Discussion or Assignment Feedback.

The new Grading Forms allow you to set up a rubric that you can complete for each student’s Discussion work on a single Topic, instead of having to type out lengthy feedback narratives.

6. Stay Organized.

Follow a naming standard with all files, so that you will know at a glance a year from now what the file contains and its location without having to open the file. For example: Lesson1_intro, Lesson1_course notes, Lesson 1_quizprep, etc.

Follow a naming standard with all questions in your Assessment’s Question Database, so that you will know at a glance a year from now what the question contains and its location without having to open the question. For example, Lesson1_numberincongress, Lesson1_presidential pardons, etc. Furthermore, if you want the questions to be in a particular order when you add them to your Assessment, name the questions accordingly using starting letter in the beginning of their name. For example, question 1 might be named a_ L1_numberincongress, b_L1_presidential pardons, etc. (Using numbers is harder because the system will place them in true order, listing #20 directly after #2)

Using Folders within your File Manager and Categories within your Assessment’s Question Database is helpful.

When setting up a Grade Book column, name the Column wisely and in short format.

7. Keep yourself on a schedule.

Just like a face-to-face course in which you have a set time to interact with your students, it may help if you set aside the same time every day to check in with your class. Keeping up with the grading and feedback on a regular basis will make you both more efficient and effective.

8. Use Audio and or Video instead of Text.

Using the integrated Wimba tools can help cut down on having to type long narratives or record and produce audio/video presentations for production and upload outside of the system.

Wimba Classroom – Use for live or recorded audio-visual presentations. Wimba Voice Authoring – record up to a 20 minute audio narrative or feedback. You can include this in a Learning Module or Download and attach it to a Mail message. Wimba Voice Board – Just like the Discussion Board, except both you and the students can record your audio answers instead of having to type. Some instructors have set up private Voice Boards for each student, in order to provide individual feedback. Wimba Voice Email – just like Voice Authoring accept it automatically sends the message to the student’s EXTERNAL email account. Wimba PresentationVoice – Allows you to annotate web pages with audio. Wimba Podcaster – similar to Voice Board but can only be arranged by date (chronologically), however this option allows for users to subscribe and download the audio to their computer, Mp3 player, etc.

9. Use the Group Manager as needed

The Group Manager can randomly assign groups for you. Then, from the Group Manager you can also have the system automatically set up a Discussion or Chat room for each group, for you.

From Assignments, you can assign the Assignment to each Group. When you grade the Assignment, you only need to put the group’s grade in once and the system will cross-reference and place the grade within all of the member’s grade records, for you.

10. Use the Discussions Journaling option as needed

Instead of having students submit journal-type narratives or work via Mail and then having to keep track of it all, have the students post the work to their very own Journal Discussion Topic. You can set the privacy so that only you and the student see the posts, if you wish. The system will set up these individual journal areas for you automatically.

Encourage students to help students, and all Q&A on the Discussion Board

You could set up a Discussions Topics like “Students Helping Students” and giving participation points for those who assist.

You could set up a Discussions Topic like “Ask the Instructor” and request that students post all of their questions there, so that you only need answer them once for the whole class.

11. Use Other People’s Resources See if your textbook publisher provides free content and resources (beware though, some content comes with a student surcharge). USG Share. [] Merlot. [|http://www.merlot.org] Open Courseware Consortium: [] iTunes U YouTube/ Teacher Tube GPB United Streaming MathTV – [|http://www.mathtv.com] /http://www.mathtv.org Collaborate with peers Try Googling your subject – there are tons of other free resources out there.

12. Efficiently manage your content.

Any content that you can put in HTML (instead of Word, PDF, or PPT) can be created or edited within the system using the built-in HTML editor.

Any content that does not need to be private, can be FTPed to your public-html space and linked to within various course sections. Then, you’d only need change the one file and the changes will be reflected in all sections.

Likewise, if there is content that needs to be protected but is used in multiple course sections, you can post it in your Repository and link to the file within in each course section. When you make a change to the file in your Repository, the changes will be reflected in all sections. ||