TimesavingTechniques

=Timesaving Techniques=

Tips
Save copies of all items that repeat from term to term, such as beginning-of-week announcements, comments that you seem to make over and over, etc.... so that you can just paste into your course with minimal adjustments instead of reinventing the wheel every term. JH

In organizing a class discussion online, do not put yourself in the middle of the wheel, answering all the messages. Organize groups, much like you do in the classroom. Then you can have the discussion leaders report out to you and you will only have to read 5 messages, instead of 25. Of course, all the messages are there, if you want to go back and review or sample some of the groups. - Lucy

I got this idea from a Blackboard conference session I attended in Washington State this fall. The presenter (Sheila Palmer) used these in math classes. It goes along with the idea of self-managing discussion groups. 1. At the beginning of the week, post a list of study questions related the the week's objectives. At the end of the week there will either be a quiz or a required assignment based directly on these study questions that you post. 2. Students must discucss a set number of questions (per week/per chapter/per objective...) on the Discussion Board. They can post their own answers, see what others have to say, ask questions about the ones they don't understand etc. 3. At the end of the week, you will either have students each turn in their their own answers to the questions, or choose from your list of questions to make up a quiz. There are several variations to this basic theme. Julie
 * "OPQ" = Online Participation Quiz**