Best Practice Guide for constructing a study area in studentcentral which is designed for friendly viewing in Blackboard Mobile Learn

Transcription

1 Best Practice Guide for constructing a study area in studentcentral which is designed for friendly viewing in Blackboard Mobile Learn Blackboard state that Blackboard Mobile Learn was designed to provide students with instant access to their courses via mobile devices. Technically, there is nothing you need to do as an instructor to enable access to your course via Blackboard Mobile Learn; the information you publish using the Learn environment on your desktop or laptop will seamlessly integrate with the mobile environment, and vice versa. However to get the most out of your study areas on studentcentral, there are several things you could do to make the online version you are used to, present itself as friendlier to a mobile environment. These recommendations work with smartphones (iphone, Android etc.) tablets (ipad, Galaxy etc.) and ipod Touch devices 1

2 Blackboard Mobile Learn is a free mobile app that can be downloaded to a mobile device (smartphone or table) and allows access to certain features of studentcentral. The free app can be downloaded by visiting the appropriate app store and searching for Blackboard Mobile. Once installed simply search for Brighton and choose University of Brighton when it appears. Login using your university username and password (this can be saved so you don t always have to do this step) While the app does offer a method of accessing content from studentcentral on a mobile device, the underlying technology of whichever mobile device being used may limit some of the features that can be accessed from the app. The table below outlines some of the features that work well and some that will likely not work when accessed from the app and therefore should only be used when accessing from a full browser on a computer: studentcentral tool Announcements Contacts Class List / Roster Viewing content Adding content Viewing media Adding media Assessments and assignments Tests and surveys Discussion Boards Blogs Journals Wikis Can be read and added from the app Viewable on browser where images are shown Can be read from the app Most can be viewed from the app directly or via second party app software Can be added via the app in some areas Most can be viewed from the app directly or via second party app software Can be added via the app in some areas Scores can be viewed via a My Grades menu link Most tests and surveys can be taken via the app and results stored in the Grade Centre Most aspects of Discussion Boards can be accessed from the app Most aspects of blogs can be accessed from the app Most aspects of Journals can be accessed from the app Some devices do not display Flash or all YouTube content Not recommended to set up Turnitin point or Blackboard assignments via the app Do not work from the app Do not work from the app 2

3 General Content Best Practice Guide for Blackboard Mobile Learn Recommendations Best to Avoid Tips To upload a file, use the Build Content > File tool Avoid embedding content with the Visual Don t use embedded html coding in Editor tool on the toolbar or content created the content title and description in html which may not be able to be viewed from a smartphone or tablet Try to a Media To upload audio and video use the Build Content > Audio or Video tools with mp3 and mp4 formats as these will generally play across all devices and operating systems Avoid embedding Flash from the toolbar as that won t play on ios devices. If the file can t be downloaded for listening offline, you might want to ensure the clips are not too long as that may incur costs from the listener/viewer Also avoid the YouTube mashup tool but use a direct URL instead General use Creating announcements, commenting on discussion boards blogs or journals from your mobile device are good ways to interact with your students and to get a feel for the technology Avoid filling your study areas with lots of content which involves scrolling vertically and horizontally. Many mobile browsers don t handle the complex navigation inherent in studentcentral so keep it simple 3 Use.pdf files wherever possible rather than uploading Word documents in case the mobile device does not have the appropriate reader

4 Feature Specific Best Practices The following studentcentral features are available in the Blackboard Mobile Learn application: Content in general Content items and files that are uploaded to studentcentral as documents can be viewed from mobile devices. Additionally, ios device users have the ability to open documents in 3rd party applications, including ibooks. You can add content directly from your mobile device by clicking the Add Content button available on the app. This would allow you to add content already stored on your device or to add a picture taken on-the-go Announcements Students can read Announcements on their mobile devices, providing them with instant on-the-go access to your messages. Instructors have the ability to create Announcements using the mobile app. Just as in the desktop browser version of studentcentral, only instructors can create announcements using Blackboard Mobile Learn. If you have an Android or BlackBerry device, you can add an announcement by going to the Announcements section of your study area, clicking the Menu button on your device, and selecting Add Announcement in the resulting popup menu. If you have an iphone, ipad, or ipod touch, simply use the Add Announcement button in the Announcements section within the app. Grades Students will have access to all of their grades using the Blackboard Mobile Learn app if you have a My Grades menu link. It is recommended that instructors continue to access the Grade Center and perform other course-management duties via studentcentral on your desktop or laptop browser. Palm 4

5 Discussion Boards If you intend Discussion Boards to be used primarily from the mobile app, it is recommended that you create a larger number of more finely-focused discussion threads rather than one long board. This will allow students to more easily navigate through discussions. Both instructors and students can read, create, and comment on discussion posts using the mobile app. Attachments can be uploaded to discussion posts directly from certain mobile devices. The chart below shows Discussion File Upload capabilities by device: iphone/ ipod Touch/ ipad Android Existing Media: Choose a photo, video or sound file that already exists on the device to upload to a discussion post New Media: Take a photo, video, or sound file to upload to a discussion post Files: Upload existing.doc,.pdf,.xls, and other files to a discussion post BlackBerry Blogs Instructors and students can read, create, and comment on blog posts using the mobile app and have the ability to upload attachments to blog posts directly from certain mobile devices. The chart below shows Blog File Upload capabilities by device: iphone/ ipod Touch/ ipad Android Existing Media: Choose a photo, video, or sound file that already exists on the device to upload to a blog post New Media: Take a photo, video, or sound file to upload to a blog post Files: Upload existing.doc,.pdf,.xls, and other files to a blog post BlackBerry 5

6 Journals Students can view and create journal entries from their mobile devices. Instructors have the ability to view and also comment on journal entries using the mobile app. Roster /Class List If you have a Class List or Roster menu link, clicking that in the mobile app brings up a list of all students registered in that area very useful for checking of one of your students is saying they can t access that area Media Most audio, video and image files uploaded to studentcentral can be accessed directly from mobile devices using the appropriate media-specific software. Some formats, e.g. Flash, do not work on ios devices (iphones, ipads, ipod Touch). It is always worth checking as many device types as you can before telling your students that the media clip is available on studentcentral. The best formats to use are mp3 and mp4. On some audio and video capturing software you can choose to save the file specifically for ios devices Many tools that are not natively built into the Blackboard Mobile Learn application can still be viewed in a mobile web browser but some (e.g. wikis) are not readily accessible. 6