Getting Involved in a Blackboard Course:
Ideas for Librarians

• Ask the faculty member to add your contact information to the course page.
• Ask the faculty member to add you to the course as a course builder. This allows you to create assessments, post documents, participate in the discussion board and chat sessions and email students. It does not give you access to the grade book.

• Show the faculty member how to add links to existing resources, such as e-journals, e-books, databases, specific articles, subject pages, digital collections and more. Step by step instructions are available at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/faculty/blackboard/index.html
• Create a tailored research guide and send it to the faculty member to upload to the course page.


Hint: If you are a course builder, you can add these links and documents yourself.

• Post research tips to the discussion board. For example, you can post weekly tips or just post relevant tips around the time of a research assignment.
• Hold virtual “office hours” – let students know that you will be available in a chat session to answer questions at a certain time/date.
• Start a Research Help thread on the discussion board and ask students to post their questions to that thread. Chances are, the person who posts the question isn’t the only student in the class with that question. By posting questions and answers to the discussion board, your answer can benefit everyone.

• Create pre-tests to measure students’ knowledge of research concepts. Use the results to plan an in-person class, an assignment delivered through Blackboard, or the contents of a research tip on the discussion board. Follow up with a post-test to see if students mastered the concept.
• Create assignments to teach research concepts. Offer to grade these assignments yourself or, if the faculty member grades them, ask to see the results. Based on the results, you can follow up with students in areas that are still unclear to them and refine the assignment for future semesters.
  
  Hint: Library Instruction Services is available to help you create effective assignments.



• Assign group activities to students. Use the Manage Groups Tool to create a group and then assign them an activity they have to complete together. Each group can either post their activity results to the discussion board or send them to you and/or the faculty member. (By creating groups with the Manage Groups Tool, you are providing virtual discussion board space for that group to work together.)
  
  Example: Break the class into groups and give each one a different web site on the same topic. Ask each group to evaluate the web site and post the results of their evaluation to the class discussion board where you and other students can comment.


Hint: Pre and post-tests and assignments can be created using the Test Manager feature or uploaded as Word documents.