Blackboard

What is Grade Center?

The Blackboard Grade Center is where grades for all assessments in CSCC courses are updated and housed for faculty and for students. Instructors can see a full Grade Center and manage it. Students only see a page with a list of assessments and their own grades.

NOTE: All College faculty are required to use the Grade Center in Blackboard. According to a resolution approved by Academic Council:

"In order to increase student success, the OAA Digital Learning Committee recommends that all Columbus State faculty employ the Blackboard Grade Center for students in a manner which allows students to determine, at any point during the term, their current grade in the course (e.g. a running average; running total, weighted or unweighted; other up-to-date benchmark that allows a student to compare their performance to that course’s overall standards of assessment)."

The Blackboard Grade Center is designed to resemble a gradebook. It is organized with the student roster and each row includes student grades. Grade Center columns include each assignment or test. The Total column calculates grades. The elements of the Grade Center can be customized by the instructor.

Basic Grade Center Best Practices:

• Setup your course's Grade Center before the starting date of the course. The FAC can help: teaching@cscc.edu
• Various Blackboard tools and assessments will automatically added as Grade Center columns:
  • Assignments
  • Quizzes and tests
  • Discussion Boards
  • Blogs
  • Journals

Our course design development process is an integral part of achieving the goal faculty leaders set to increase student success. As such, it will follow the same instructional design process that the college has adopted for all digital content where you will be paired with an instructional design team devoted to producing digital content according to your specifications.

Research and Theories

The evolution of mobile technologies provides for the opportunity to increase student engagement, retention and completion in targeted courses and programs.

Previously agreed upon departmentally defined standards for digitized content at Columbus State involve the creation of engaging and dynamic online learning experiences that draw from four learning theories:

• Competency Based Learning
  Applying course concepts to real life scenarios to provide evidence of student knowledge and competencies in their chosen field (Lumina Foundation, 2015)
• Mastery Learning
  Interactive academic games, assessments and exercises where students must master course concepts at their own pace before moving on (Guskey, 2009)
• Active and Collaborative Learning (ACL)
  A pedagogical approach that promotes a high level of student engagement with course content while the students work individually and collaboratively on course goals/outcomes. An ACL experience contains the following hallmarks: student to student interactions, positive interdependence (shared goal and resources), individual accountability (assigned roles, specific tasks and timelines), group processing (discussion and synthesis), and social skills (encouraging, reflecting, and active listening) (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2006).
• Digital Storytelling
  Creating a meaningful and relevant story as a backdrop to content presentations to enable students link course concepts to familiar scenarios (Bryan, Brown, 2005)

Benefits to Students

• Content engages the learner in multiple instructional methods, learning levels and multiple cognitive thinking types
• Students take responsibility for their own learning
• Students work at their own pace
• Allows students to practice what they are studying
• Provides simulations
• Remediation helps students identify what they have learned well and what they have not learned well

The Process

Digital Education & Instructional Services (DEIS) instructional designers help faculty digitize content, but each faculty designer is the architect of the design process. Faculty are assigned to work with an Instructional Design team in digitizing the most complex portions of the course.

Multimedia Digitized Assets:

The following types of assets combine into a digitized course:

• Learning objects (LOs): dynamic, motion-driven videos that include comprehensive educational lessons that address challenge points in the course. LOs contain auto-graded assessments and lesson review information as well.
• Course enhancements (CEs): interactive digital activities (widgets) that reinforce learning through immersive content. Examples include user-driven simulations, academic games, digital flash cards, and competency-based activities. They are typically auto-graded assessments that include responsive remediation.
• Video introductions (VIs): motion-driven presentations in which faculty members provide personalized introductory overviews for every unit/chapter of the course.
• eBooks: Free textbook within Blackboard that can include interactive videos, images, quizzes and a glossary to engage students that can display on any device.