Recording Blackboard Collaborate Sessions For Assessment Purposes Gray Scott, Ph.D., grayscott@twu.edu

Purpose of the Assignment The following idea for a group Assignment is designed to do the following: Record students as they collaborate Enable raters to view the recording Enable students to prepare for an in-class challenge Minimize the attendant grading load for the faculty member. Although the Assignment is designed with the core’s TEAMWORK objective in mind, it could just as easily be used in other years for assessment of COMMUNICATION, CRITICAL THINKING, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, and/or SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

Overview of the Assignment Students collaborate online in teams of 3 to 5 to solve a tough study question (or similar challenge). By using Blackboard’s Collaborate tool, you can ensure those group sessions are recorded. The recordings become the artifacts that you submit for assessment. The study question prepares them for a related or similar challenge in a paper, assignment, or test that they will have to complete individually later, so they have intrinsic motivation to take this collaborative task seriously. Because it’s the grade on the later test that affects their course grade, the online team practice session doesn’t need to be directly graded itself. It can be scored credit/no-credit for those who participate.

Step 1: Choose or Create Two Similar Challenges

Creating Appropriate Challenges Again, the idea here is to come up with two examples of a challenging task or question. Students will attempt the first such challenge in teams, online, for practice. They will then attempt the second, similar challenge in-class, in a way that might be graded or scored. The first challenge is submitted for assessment. Effective challenges will … Require practice before students improve. Be similar enough to each other that the first provides practice for the second. Benefit, during practice, from multiple perspectives. Support your own educational goals for the class.

An Example, Part I For a class focused on environmental responsibility, four students are each provided with environmental impact reports and other materials related to a city council decision about whether to permit construction of a truck stop on a local road. Each student has at least one item that the others don’t. For the recorded practice round, they must draw on their understanding of environmental responsibility to reach a consensus and rationale on whether to permit the construction.

An Example, Part II Later, all students will have a solo written assignment in which they must evaluate environmental merits in a similar case study. Hence, the collaboration that they did earlier helps them practice the skills they will need for those individual papers. Note that the practice challenge could just as easily lead to a series of objective test questions that require the same analytical or evaluation skills as the collaborative challenge.

Step 2: Set Up a Collaborate Session on Blackboard Go to Blackboard Click the + Symbol above the Menu to add a new menu item, and select Tool Link. Using the drop-down menu, select Blackboard Collaborate Scheduling Manager. Click on the new menu item to open up your Blackboard Collaborate Scheduling Manager. Click Set Defaults under the Schedule a Session header. The time and date options are up to you, but set Recording Mode to Automatic. Under Roles and Access, click Restrict Access to this Session. Click the Participants button to assign as many as five students to this team. Save. Repeat the above process until all student teams have their own collaborate sessions.

Step 3: Give Us Access to Your Collaborate Sessions In Blackboard’s home screen, click the Organizations tab. In Organization Search, type “Core Curriculum Assessment.” When our Core Curriculum Assessment shell appears, hover your mouse over the hyperlink CORE_CA and then click the down-carrot symbol that appears. Select Enroll. Once you’ve done this, we will upgrade your role in the organization to Instructor. By default (at least, last time we tried this), the Collaborate sessions of all instructors should appear in that shell. Which means that your Collaborate sessions should then be available in that shell.

Step 4: Find Your Criteria The next step is to create your Assignment, and for that, you need to be able to tell our raters which criteria they should be assessing.

Where to Find Assessment Criteria Address http://www.twu.edu/academic- assessment/7008.asp Navigation TWU / Academic Assessment / Core Assessment / (Google Drive) What to Do Open the rubric for the objective you mean to assess. Keep that rubric open as you move to Step 5.

Step 5: Select 3 to 5 Criteria The next page lists some criteria that might pertain to a recorded team meeting. You can find those criteria on the Teamwork rubric.

Aligning Assignments with Criteria Assignment RECORDED TEAM MEETING Relevant Objective TEAMWORK Appropriate Criteria Stage of Group Development Facilitates the Contributions of Team Members Perspective Taking

Step 6: Fill Out an Assignment Profile on CASSIE An Assignment profile tells us what you have asked your students to do. By completing the form, you tell us what you did and which criteria our raters should be scoring. CASSIE is our online core-assessment system, a link to which appears on the following page, along with instructions.

CASSIE Creating Assignments Address https://twuls.twu.edu/CoreAssessment/Default.aspx Navigation TWU/Pioneer Portal/My Tools/Core Assessment Tasks 1. Click Assignments on the top menu 2. Pick term, course 3. Enter title and instructions 4. Identify objective(s) 5. Identify relevant criteria (3-5 per objective) 6. Add key (or other rater aids, as needed)

Step 7: Submit Artifacts Through CASSIE Once your students have completed their surveys, collect all of the peer-ratings for each of the students being sampled and pool the results by individual. For example, if Jane Pioneer has been rated by three of her teammates, create a document listing how each of those three teammates rated her for each of the Criteria. Then submit that document as an Artifact through CASSIE by following the instructions on the next page. Do this for each student in your sample.

CASSIE Uploading Artifacts Address https://twuls.twu.edu/CoreAssessment/Default.aspx Navigation TWU/Pioneer Portal/My Tools/Core Assessment Tasks 1. Choose Artifacts from the top menu 2. Pick term, course, student(s) (up to 3 at a time) 3. Choose Assignment that artifact fulfills 4. Instead of attaching artifacts paste in the URL for the Core Curriculum Assessment page on Blackboard. 5. If student did not participate, use No Artifact Available option.