For many online Blackboard instructors like my wife Paula, who teaches an online religion course at Wayne Community College, communication tools like course announcements, emails, and the discussion board provide an acceptable means of communication between the students and the instructor. However, online chemistry courses require additional communication tools for students to be successful. Some of these communication tools include:
Course Announcements and Emails – Blackboard allows you to make announcements to students about your course through the control panel. It also gives you the ability to email any announcements to all the students in your class.
Discussion Board – The discussion board is often used to post discussion questions relevant to the course for students to respond. The discussion board can also be set up as a place to answer student questions regarding the course or homework. The students’ questions can be answered by either the instructor or better yet - a knowledgeable student.
WebAssign – (found at WebAssign) is an online homework system that allows instructors to assign, grade, and record assignments quickly and accurately over the Internet. For example, I am able to post homework and pre-laboratory chemistry assignments for my students to do, and they are able to receive immediate feedback on how they are doing on this assignment. I am then able review student progress and provide feedback to students. Several publishers also provide WebAssign resources that coincide with their textbooks. These textbook supplements include homework problems and solutions – saving me hours of work that I would otherwise spend developing examples for my students. I also use WebAssign as a grade book so that my students are always aware of how well they are doing in my class. (Blackboard also has a grade book feature; however, I have been very pleased with the WebAssign grading program and have not felt the need to change grade books.)
WebAssign offers several tools for communicating with students. I post announcements for my students provide links to lectures notes and lab procedures handouts and post additional practice problems quizzes to help students prepare for labs and exams.
Another great communication feature in WebAssign is the “Ask Your Instructor” feature. This option allows students to ask their instructor for homework help. Students may also request additional submissions or request an extension for an assignment. When a student makes a request for help with his or her homework, I am able to see their submitted responses in WebAssign along with the correct answer. This feature allows me so to respond more knowledgably to their request for help.
Sympodium – (found at Smart Technology). In my classroom, I have an ID250 sympodium that I have used for the last two years. Two newer models, the ID350 and the ID370 have since been released. The Sympodium allows me to write over my power point slides and work out chemistry problems in digital ink. I can also access any website or multimedia file while projecting my work onto a large screen. I can then save my written notes and power point slides as an updated power point file can then be posted on Blackboard for my online chemistry students to use. This allows my online students to see the same “worked out” power point slides that my “face to face” chemistry students saw in class earlier that day.
Recent updates to the sympodium software, Notebook Software 10, will allow me to also simultaneously record my chemistry lectures while still capturing my handwritten power point notes at the same time. I will then be able to post both audio and video files to Blackboard for my online chemistry students to use. This software is something that I am looking forward to using in the very near future after I complete Smart Tech training.
Wacom 12 x 12 Tablet – In my office, I have a Wacom Intuos 3 professional pen tablet, found at Wacom.com. The tablet is often used to professionally edit photos and create different types of digital artwork. I, however, have begun to use the tablet as a way to “write out” chemistry problems for my online chemistry students. I can then capture the image and then either send the “image of the worked out problem” to the specific student or post it to everyone on Blackboard.
Audacity – (found at Audacity) Audacity is an open source software program for recording and editing sound. With either a microphone or a headset, I am able to create instructional audio files for my online classes. In one particular case, I was able to place an mp3 audio file on Blackboard that guided my students through a difficult pre-laboratory assignment and then outlined the procedures they would be using in their lab.
The students’ responses were very favorable. The most positive response came from a student who said, “I must say I am totally impressed and just flat out wowed. That was so helpful being able to listen to how the lab is done. Thank you so very much.” I plan to continue using audio files when appropriate.
YouTube Videos – Videos from YouTube can be used to help teach chemistry in both face to face and online classes. One of the best collections of videos that I recently found is the “Periodic Table Videos” developed by a group of chemists from the University of Nottingham. They have produced short videos for every element in the periodic table. Any of these element videos can be embedded in Blackboard as a video file for students to review as a learning resource.
Weblog – The newest communication tool that I have is a faculty weblog and internet storage space that I can use to provide information to my chemistry classes. It is powered through WordPress MU and I am very excited to have this new technology available to me. My Wayne Community College faculty weblog can be found at T. Griffin. Please feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.
Conclusions – Teaching classes online can be a real challenge for any instructor. Learning chemistry face to face is difficult enough for most of my students. Online chemistry students face an even bigger challenge to be successful. Having access to the right types of communication tools can make the job easier for both the instructor and the student. Hopefully some of the communication tools that I have outlined for you to use will make your job of teaching chemistry easier in the future.