BLOGS, WIKIS & DISCUSSION BOARDS IN ILEARN Contents What is ilearn?... 1 Blogs... 2 What is a Blog?... 2 Using Blogs in Teaching & Learning... 2 Setting up a Blog in ilearn... 2 Creating a Class Blog... 2 Creating an Individual Blog... 3 Creating a Group Blog... 3 Using Blogs... 5 Grading Blogs... 6 Wikis... 7 What is a Wiki?... 7 Using Blogs in Teaching & Learning... 7 Setting up a Wiki in ilearn... 7 Creating a Class Wiki... 7 Creating a Group Wiki... 8 Discussion Boards... 13 What is a Discussion Board?... 13 Using Discussion Boards in Teaching & Learning... 13 Setting up a Discussion Board in ilearn... 13 Creating a Class Discussion Board... 13 Creating a Group Discussion Board... 14 Services to help you use, populate and learn more about ilearn... 17 Need help?... 18 What is ilearn? ilearn is Swinburne s Learning Management System that is powered by Blackboard. ilearn has a range of tools, such as chat, blogs, wikis and discussion boards that provide and online area where students can collaborate and participate in a range of activities that you create as part of their learning in your unit. It is also a place where resources such as presentations, lecture notes and readings can be provided. 1
Blogs What is a Blog? A Blog is a web log. It s public journal made available to the web or, in the case of ilearn, made available to a unit or a group within a unit. A blog is a set of posts that participants with author privileges can publish to. Followers or readers of the blog can the engage in the blog by commenting on posts. Blogs in ilearn can be set up as unit wide, group specific or as individual blogs that only they and the instructors can see. Using Blogs in Teaching & Learning Blogs can be a great tool to use for reflective activities either as group individual tasks. Students can use the tool to capture and disseminate information to their classmates and receive feedback and participate in critical discussions on that material. These kinds of activities can foster peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. Some examples of blog activities are: Field Trip or industry work experience reflection pieces, Literature reviews, ice breaking or getting to know you activities, news and communication tools, publishing personal experiences, editorial pieces on major issues in the field, creative writing posts of flash fiction as examples of literary tropes or devices, among many others. Setting up a Blog in ilearn Creating a Class Blog A class blog is available to all students and instructional staff enrolled in the unit. Participants can post blog entries, comment on other people s blogs and look at blog posts based on the author and the date it was published. 1. Ensure Edit Mode is ON. 2. Navigate to the Content page you wish to add content to. 3. Click Tools. 4. Select Blogs. 5. Select Link to a Blog. 6. Select Create New Blog. 7. Enter a Name. 8. Enter Instructions for the participants. 9. Choose the Availability of the blog. Note: Blog availability can be changed later so that you can set up the blog in advance and then make it available to students when appropriate. 10. Select Availability options if desired. 11. Check Unit for the Blog Type. 12. Select the desired Blog Settings. 2
13. Select of you wish to Grade the unit blog. 14. Click Submit. 15. The blog you have just created will be highlighted in the Link to Blog box. 16. Click Next. 17. Enter Blog link information and settings if required. 18. Click Submit. Creating an Individual Blog An individual blog is available to be authored only by one person and can only be seen by that individual and the teaching staff in the unit. All individuals use the same link to enter the blog but see only their posts and the comments of teaching staff. No student can see the posts of other students. 1. Ensure Edit Mode is ON. 2. Navigate to the Content page you wish to add content to. 3. Click Tools. 4. Select Blogs. 5. Select Link to a Blog. 6. Select Create New Blog. 7. Enter a Name. 8. Enter Instructions for the participants. 9. Choose the Availability of the blog. Note: Blog availability can be changed later so that you can set up the blog in advance and then make it available to students when appropriate. 10. Select Availability options if desired. 11. Check Individual to All Students for the Blog Type. 12. Select the desired Blog Settings. 13. Select of you wish to Grade the unit blog. 14. Click Submit. 15. The blog you have just created will be highlighted in the Link to Blog box. 16. Click Next. 17. Enter Blog link information and settings if required. 18. Click Submit. Creating a Group Blog A group blog can only be created as part of setting up groups in the group management tool. Therefore, to create a group blog, you must set up groups. Groups blogs can be accessed via the groups page: Control Panel>>Users & Groups>>Groups. 1. From Control Panel>>Users and Groups>>Groups 1. Select Create Group Set OR Create Single Group 3
2. Select the type of enrolment process you need. 3. Enter the group/ group set Name and a Description if necessary. 4. Select if you wish to make the Group/ Group Set Available 5. Check the Blogs checkbox to ensure that the group blogs will be made available. 6. Select if the blog needs Marking. 7. Select the Points Possible if required. Note: Selecting to mark a blog and giving it a score will add a column for each of the groups blogs in the Grade Center. 8. Select the rest of the options as desired. 9. Click Submit. 4
Using Blogs Contextual menu to edit the blog options. Drafts of your own posts can be saved to post and review later, Create a new Entry using this button. Blog information. On creation, instructions can be added to explain to participants ther requirements of the blog. View students participation or lack of, View posts by member. Blog entry options including to edit and delete the post. View posts in chronological order by title. Blog Legend View comments made by other participants. Create a comment. 5
Grading Blogs If you wish to grade blogs using the inbuilt grading tool you must have selecte Needs Grading when setting up the blog initially. This will add a side bar to the blog that only teaching staff will be able to see. To grade the blog: 1. Enter the blog you wish to grade. 2. Click on the Post or the name of the idividual you wish to grade. 3. Click on Edit Grade. 4. Enter the Grade. 5. Enter Feedback if required (Feedback is seen by the student). 6. Enter Grading Notes if required (Grading Notes are only seen by other teaching staff). Tip: Click and drag the corner of the text boxes to make them larger. Click Text editor to format text using fonts, font size, colour etc. 7. Click Save Grade. 6
Wikis What is a Wiki? A wiki is a set of web pages that can be collaboratively edited, reviewed, modified and deleted by a group of authors. They can have a standard web page hierarchy and generally allow you to see the different version of the wiki with the different revisions that have occurred over time. Wikis generally have the ability for authors and readers to comment on pages as well. Using Blogs in Teaching & Learning Wikis can encourage group interaction and collaboration working together on a living document, sharing ideas, and information to construct a knowledge base that they are actively involved in. Two examples of wikis used in teaching and learning are: Writing up lecture notes after lectures and tutorials one student is asked to write up the lecture notes from the previous lecture. The class are required to add, edit and review the notes. At the end of the semester, everyone has a definitive set of lecture notes to study from. Group presentation students are asked to use the wiki as an area to collaborate online for an in class presentation. Setting up a Wiki in ilearn Creating a Class Wiki A class wiki is available to all students and instructional staff enrolled in the unit. Participants can edit wiki pages and comment on them. 1. Ensure Edit Mode is ON. 2. Navigate to the Content page you wish to add content to. 3. Click Tools. 4. Select Wikis. 5. Select Link to a Wiki. 6. Select Create New Wiki. 7. Enter a Name. 8. Enter Instructions for the participants. 9. Choose the Availability of the wiki. Note: Wiki availability can be changed later so that you can set up the wiki in advance and then make it available to students when appropriate. 10. Select Date and Time Restrictions if desired. 11. Select if the wiki is open or closed for editing by students. 12. Select of you wish to Grade the unit wiki. 13. Click Submit. 14. The wiki you have just created will be highlighted in the Link to Wiki box. 15. Click Next. 7
16. Enter Wiki link information and settings if required. 17. Click Submit. Creating a Group Wiki A group wiki can only be created as part of setting up groups in the group management tool. Therefore, to create a group wiki, you must set up groups. Groups wiki can be accessed via the groups page: Control Panel>>Users & Groups>>Groups. 1. From Control Panel>>Users and Groups>>Groups 2. Select Create Group Set OR Create Single Group 3. Select the type of enrolment process you need. 4. Enter the group/ group set Name and a Description if necessary. 5. Select if you wish to make the Group/ Group Set Available 6. Check the Wikis checkbox to ensure that the group wikis will be made available. 7. Select if the wiki needs Marking. 8. Select the Points Possible if required. Note: Selecting to mark a wiki and giving it a score will add a column for each of the group s wikis in the Grade Center. 9. Select the rest of the options as desired. 10. Click Submit. 8
Using Wikis Add a wiki page using the button. To see students participation and contributions in the wiki and grade the students. Navigate through the wiki structure to secondary pages. The current version of the wiki s top page will be shown automatically when the wiki is opened. Comments can be read by all participants. All participants can comment on each of the wiki pages. 9
Reviewing Student Contributions 1. Enter the wiki you wish to grade. 2. Click on the Participation & Grading button. 3. Click on the student s name you wish to grade. 4. Select a Page Version to look at. 5. The version will pop up in a new window. OR 4. Selecto to Compare a version to the previous version. 5. A comparison page will pop up in a new window. 10
6. Click OK to close the window. 7. Click OK to return to the participation page. 8. Click OK to return to the wiki. Grading the Wiki If you wish to grade wikis using the inbuilt grading tools you must have selected Needs Grading when setting up the wiki initially. To grade the wiki: 1. Enter the wiki you wish to grade. 2. Click on the Participation & Grading button. 3. Click on the student s name you wish to grade. 11
4. Click on Edit Grade. 5. Enter the Grade. 6. Enter Feedback if required (Feedback is seen by the student). 7. Enter Grading Notes if required (Grading Notes are only seen by other teaching staff). Tip: Click and drag the corner of the text boxes to make them larger. Click Text editor to format text using fonts, font size, colour etc. 8. Click Save Grade. 12
Discussion Boards What is a Discussion Board? A Discussion Board is an asynchronous communication tool, allowing messages to be posted, read and sent any time. The board is organised into forums and each forum can have multiple threads. Threads begin a conversation and participants reply to comments within a thread. Using Discussion Boards in Teaching & Learning Discussion Boards provide an online space to teacher and students to engage together in meaningful discussions on their learning topics. A board can create a learning community that can end up as an archive of learning over the semester. A rich and focussed board can be created in which students begin to answer each other s questions allowing the teacher to take a back seat and allow the board to move in it s own direction. Examples of discussion boards in teaching and learning are: Q&A forums about assignments, tutorials and administration. Discussion board posts can be made anonymous to allow students to feel more comfortable asking what they may feel to be naïve questions. Ice breaker activities where students introduce themselves (or a classmate) to the rest of the class and welcome each other. Debates, role plays, research activities and focussed discussion questions can all work very well through the discussion board tool. Setting up a Discussion Board in ilearn Creating a Class Discussion Board A class discussion board is available to all students and instructional staff enrolled in the unit. Depending on the options you choose, students and teaching staff will be given different abilities within the discussion board. 1. Ensure Edit Mode is ON. 2. Navigate to the Content page you wish to add content to. 3. Click Tools. 4. Select Discussion Boards. 5. Select Link to a Discussion Board Page. 6. Select Create New Forum. 7. Enter a Name. 8. Enter Instructions for the participants. 9. Choose the Availability of the forum. Note: Discussion Board availability can be changed later so that you can set up the Discussion Board in advance and then make it available to students when appropriate. 10. Select Date and Time Restrictions if desired. 11. Select the Forum Settings. Note: ensure that you choose all the options you require for the board now. You cannot change these options later. 12. Click Submit. 13. The forum you have just created will be highlighted in the Link to Discussion Board box. 14. Click Next. 15. Enter Discussion Board link information and settings if required. 16. Click Submit. 13
Creating a Group Discussion Board A group discussion board can only be created as part of setting up groups in the group management tool. Therefore, to create a group discussion board, you must set up groups. Groups wiki can be accessed via the groups page: Control Panel>>Users & Groups>>Groups. 1. From Control Panel>>Users and Groups>>Groups 2. Select Create Group Set OR Create Single Group 3. Select the type of enrolment process you need. 4. Enter the group/ group set Name and a Description if necessary. 5. Select if you wish to make the Group/ Group Set Available 6. Check the Discussion Board checkbox to ensure that the group discussion board will be made available. 7. Select if the discussion board needs Marking. 8. Select the Points Possible if required. Note: Selecting to mark a discussion board and giving it a score will add a column for each of the groups wikis in the Grade Center. 9. Select the rest of the options as desired. 10. Click Submit. 14
Using Discussion Boards Managing the forums. A forum generally is one discussion board topic. You can have multiple forums in the discussion board. You can view the forum wither by thread (list view) or you can see the whole tree of replies to each thread as well on this page. Create a new thread using this button. A thread is a discussion starting point. Participants reply to threads. Change the view of the forum page to show all, published only, and other options as desired. Flag, mark as read or un read, publish and delete multiple threads using the checkboxes and thread actions. Collect threads on one page to read all posts and replies on one page. Use the contextual menu to open, mark as read, flag, collect and delete threads. If you have many threads in the forum, you may need to edit the paging to be able to see more of them on the one page. 15
Using Discussion Boards Thread Detail To keep the forum up to date use the refresh button to see new posts. Flag, mark as read or unread, publish and delete multiple posts using the checkboxes and thread actions. Posts are show in chronological order with the initial thread post at the top then all replies underneath. Replies and threads in bold are unread by you. Arrange the page to you preference by moving the screens using these buttons. Reply posts to replies to the original thread are shown underneath the reply in a tree structure. Move through posts quickly by using the arrows. 16 Manage and reply to the post shown in the window using these buttons.
Grading the Discussion Board If you wish to grade Discusion Boards using the inbuilt grading tools you must have selected the Grade options when setting up the Discussion Board initially. To grade the discussion board: 1. Enter the discussion board you wish to grade. 2. Click on the Grade Forum button. 3. Click Grade next to the student to be graded. 4. Click Edit Grade on the right hand side 5. Enter the Grade. 6. Enter Feedback if required (Feedback is seen by the student). 7. Enter Grading Notes if required (Grading Notes are only seen by other teaching staff). Tip: Click and drag the corner of the text boxes to make them larger. Click Text editor to format text using fonts, font size, colour etc. 8. Click Save Grade. 9. To move on to the next contributor, click on their name on the right hand side list, or click the arrows to move back and forward. Services to help you use, populate and learn more about ilearn Learning & Teaching Technologies Portal http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lt One stop for all your learning technology questions. o Training o Self-help guides o Inspiration o News and information on research, pilots, projects and evaluations. Swinburne Commons - http://commons.swinburne.edu.au/ Swinburne Commons hosts digital media that you can link to from ilearn, such as: o Public lectures, seminar series o Instructional course material o Historical video and audio o TV and radio broadcasts copied under Part VA of the Copyright Act (Access restricted to Swinburne only) Subject Materials Service - http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/subjectmaterials/brochure_staff.htm The Library provides this service to help teaching staff make readings and other resources available directly to their students. Contact your Liaison Librarian for assistance. o o o o Hawthorn: Business and Enterprise: Jane O'Donnell ph: 9214 8983 Engineering and Industrial Sciences: Madeleine Bruwer ph: 9214 8337 Information and Communication Technologies: Kim Hodgman ph: 9214 8407 Life and Social Sciences: Annette Steere ph: 9214 8177 TAFE Liaison: Heather Coutts ph: 9214 8719 TAFE Liaison: Nick Pavlovski ph: 9214 4671 Reference: Sue Foster ph: 9214 5197 Croydon Liaison Librarian: Leanne Meere ph: 9726 1555 Lillydale Social Sciences, Writing, Media Studies, Public Relations: Colleen Skinner ph: 9215 7006 Accounting and Finance, Business Management, Technology, Law: Julie Badger ph:9215 7008 OUA, Distance and Disability: Susan Roberts ph: 9215 7009 Prahran 17
Business, Library/Information Services, Integrated Communications and Retail Management, Hospitality, Tourism and Events Community Services, TAFE Arts, Circus (NICA): Cleve Carvalho ph: 9214 6553 Community Services, Child and Family Services, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity, Lifelong learning, VET Practice: David Bradley ph; 9214 6940 Higher Education, Design: Gordon Turnbull ph: 9214 6936 o Wantirna Liaison Librarian: Maha Abed ph: 9210 1296 Liaison Librarian (Computing & IT): Nancy Seeger ph: 9210 1940 Need help? Learning Technologies Portal: Find training sessions, inspiration and self-help guides www.swinburne.edu.au/lt Please report any issues with this guide to: lt@swin.edu.au To report problems with ilearn: servicedesk@swin.edu.au i i Copyright in this publication is owned by Swinburne University of technology. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. We have endeavoured to ensure that all information in this guide is correct at the time of creation. If information is incorrect, please let us know: lt@swin.edu.au 18