If you are not familiar with basic Blackboard instructor functions, or have forgotten how to use specific tools in Blackboard, we recommend that you review the self-paced Blackboard tutorial. Please follow these self-enrollment instructions – you must self-enroll in this course in order to gain access. Please note that you will be prompted for the access code – you can locate the access code on the instructions.

If you have not logged into Blackboard recently, please use these step-by-step instructions on how to access your courses in Blackboard.

To make your course available, please follow these steps: Go to your Course CONTROL PANEL > Select CUSTOMIZATION > Look for PROPERTIES and finally, look for SET AVAILABILITY and simply change NO to YES and Submit! See this PDF for step-by-step instructions. The instructor needs to make the course available to students. If the course is not available, students will not be able to access your course materials.

• After activating your Blackboard class site with the minimum content enabled, let your students know by sending an email from within Blackboard and let them know that you will be emailing them announcements from the Blackboard course site to keep them up to date on the class activities.

• Revise the syllabus and schedule as needed to account for how and when you will continue assignments, discussion, tests, etc. during the expected time period you will not meet on campus.

You can arrange for students to submit their assignments via an assignment link in Blackboard. This guide can help you set up assignments for your class assignments in Blackboard. You can use the various tools available there for providing feedback via text, audio, or video, writing in comments directly on papers via the in-line grading function, or grading by means of a rubric. Additionally, you can use Turnitin, which is also available in Blackboard. If you don’t want to use Blackboard for assignments, you can also explore making use of Dropbox to which CUNY faculty and students now both have access.

You can create many types of quizzes or exams in Blackboard and there are many options available such as timed or not timed, multiple attempts, or automated feedback. Learn how to set it up by reviewing the Blackboard Help page. You might also be interested in our webinar on this subject.

While the storage limitations for Blackboard class sites have been expanded to 1.5 GB for Spring 2020, if you want to upload large files such as narrated PowerPoint, or very large doc or PDFs, we recommend that you instead upload those larger files to Dropbox. Dropbox is now available to all active CUNY faculty, staff and students. Faculty and staff have unlimited storage space. Once you upload your file to Dropbox, you can copy a link and upload that link as a web link in Blackboard. Large video files can be uploaded to YouTube rather than directly to Blackboard, then categorized as ‘unlisted’, and their URL shared in the Blackboard class site as web link.

Below are some tools used to online annotation: 

• Manifold is an annotation tool supported by CUNY. Manifold allows for annotations--highlighting, comments, and social media linking on readable, accessible longform texts. You can also include resources--audio, video, and weblinks anchored within the text or an associated resource collection.
• VoiceThread can also be used for some annotations. You can upload your text to VoiceThread and students can comment on the text using audio, video and/or text. 
• You can also Google Apps for Education such as Google docs for annotating. Students have to highlight and comment on text using various Google tools. Currently, Google Apps for Education is only being supported in Schools of Education across CUNY.

As we explore and experiment with the HyFlex course design, it is essential to communicate the experimental nature with your students as well. Send a welcome message to students with some key information about your HyFlex course, providing additional course specifics and context.  Furthermore, consider soliciting feedback about student experience throughout the semester. Consider informal ways of gathering information from students such as surveys to further develop your HyFlex course design in subsequent semesters.

Faculty should expect that all students participate remotely and not penalize them if they do so.  There are faculty who might choose to teach from the classroom whether students come to the classroom or connect virtually. You might ask students about their intended participation on a regular basis. Some faculty offer participation credit to students for responding to a weekly poll. This can help with planning each class session to ensure that you account for student choice of participation.

Yes, these courses can work very well as HyFlex if they have a lab, recitation, or some other built-in small group interactions. The lecture component can be recorded and shared to enhance group work. Parsing out asynchronous and synchronous components of the class, as well as scheduling flexibility, in line with facilitating small group interactions can make a larger class particularly well aligned with a multi-modal approach.

As you begin to teach remotely, you may need to update your syllabus to reflect the necessary changes to your course. Susan Ko, our faculty development consultant in the Office of Online Education has provided strategies in her book Teaching Online A Practical Guide on how to design your syllabus for online and blended courses. You can review examples of sample syllabi on pages 126 - 127 of Chapter 5 Creating an Effective Online Syllabus.

As you begin to redesign your course you may want to use a planning document to help you map out your course. This planning document can then be used to create your course schedule. Course Planning Document: Version 1, Version 2 (Table version).

You have many choices for presenting or lecturing online, whether you want to use slides, or just create an audio or video presentation. The following are all relatively easy to learn:

• You can present your lecture, with or without slides, via Blackboard Collaborate Ultra (or using other video and audio conferencing options) with students attending in real time or you can record it beforehand and make it available for students to access later, then create a discussion forum to engage with students. You can also record a live session and share with students who were not able to attend live.

• You can use VoiceThread which can be enabled in Blackboard to upload slides and add narration, or just create a short video or audio recording. Students can comment and engage directly with the VoiceThread lecture you created. This page contains tutorials on what it is, how to add and enable it in your Blackboard course site, and information for your students. Also, you might find it helpful to review our webinar on the subject.

• If you have a class that requires you to draw or sketch, note that some of the video conferencing tools include a whiteboard feature you may want to explore. Additionally, you may request a LiveScribe pen from the Office of Online Education to take home to record your demonstrations. It is particularly helpful for STEM subjects. Visit the Lehman Livescribe support page.

It is best for you to use Blackboard to communicate with students and to share course materials.

• You can send an email to students via Blackboard.
• You can also Lehman360 Roster Email Instructor Manual to students via Lehman360.
• You can also send an email to your students through CUNYFirst.

Students would receive an email to the account associated with that tool, note that it might not be their Lehman email address. Ask students to check and confirm their email is updated and correct in Blackboard and other systems.

• For tests and quizzes offered online in Blackboard, help ensure academic integrity by creating a large question pool from which you draw your test, randomizing the questions for the test taker, and add other test options like no backtracking, time limits, or password enabling, depending on the nature of the test. To review these options and find those most appropriate for your tests, see Test and Survey Options.

• Plagiarism in writing assignments occur no more frequently for students in online classes than those who attend only in-person classes, because all students have access to the internet. For writing assignments submitted online, consider using SafeAssign or Turnitin in Blackboard. This may allow you to reduce the chances of plagiarism by noting similarities of content submitted with other content. You can also use Google to search for specific odd phrases and vocabulary that don’t seem to fall into the student’s usual writing patterns. Consider asking students to review the originality report and resubmit after revising, if need be.

• To discourage students in online discussion from simply repeating or copying what other classmates have said, use the "Post first” settings option in Blackboard discussion. This will prevent students from reading others’ responses before they have posted their own.

Please see below for some options for reproducing these online:

• Both Zoom and Blackboard Collaborate Ultra have a whiteboard feature which allows you to share a whiteboard that you and other participants (if allowed) can annotate on. 
• Search for YouTube or any other sites for video tutorials which can be used to replace the written content. Links to these videos can then be placed in your course sites.
• You can write out the demonstration by hand and either scan or take a picture of the written work then upload the scan/picture to your course site. If you would like to provide an audio explanation to accompany your written work, record your audio using an Online Voice Recorder tool and upload to the course site.
• Similarly you can upload your written work to VoiceThread. Visit Lehman’s VoiceThread for tutorials on what it is, how to add and enable it in your Blackboard course site, and information for your students.
• You can use a LiveScribe Pen to write your notes in a special notebook and record your audio with the pen. You can then save the notes and audio as PDF and upload to your course.
• If you do not have a smart tablet or touch screen computer, you can use your mobile device or a webcam attached to your computer to focus directly on the paper as you write during the Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate session.

In order to check if your students have accessed the course, you can check the “last access” column in the grade center in your Blackboard course. You can also find the access information through the performance dashboard or generate a course report.

No, you do not have to be online 24/7. It is important at the beginning of course to outline your communication protocol. Let your students know the length of time when they would expect a response to their email, questions in a dedicated Q&A forum in Blackboard, etc. For example if you create a dedicated Q&A forum in the discussion area in Blackboard (highly recommended to cut down on email), you can tell students you will respond to all questions within 24 hours or 24-48 hours on weekends, whatever the case may be.

If you use email as a main method of communication, it can become overwhelming. To help decrease the amount you might receive from students, create a Q&A or Ask the Instructor discussion forum in Blackboard and have the students post course related questions to the forum, reserving email for the personal questions. Let them know when to expect a response, and for private questions they should send via email. Also encourage the students to subscribe to the forum so they can receive email alerts when questions/responses have been posted and to respond to each other’s questions if they can. 

The Announcements tool in Blackboard is another feature to help decrease the amount of emails. You can post periodic announcements in your course providing students with important updates and deadlines, clarify any misconceptions, provide general feedback, etc. When you create your announcements you can check the option to send the announcement immediately as an email to the students. Announcements and responses to Q&A forum questions remain  in the course and can serve as a reference for students throughout the course.

It is important to establish a consistent pattern of communication for students. In order to manage student expectations, consider establishing a regular pattern of posting announcements--for example, at the beginning and end of each week. Or you might want to post a midweek announcement if there is an upcoming deadline. For email...you will respond within 24 hours to an email or question posted in the Q&A forum in Blackboard, or you will respond within 24 hours M-F, and within 48 hours on weekends (whatever the case may be).

Please see below for some options for conducting student presentations online:

Asynchronous option: students can view each others’ presentation during a period of time, they don’t have to be online at the same time which allows them to actually spend more time and focus better. VoiceThread is ideal for student presentations, with students being able to add their own slides along with video or audio. Such presentations also afford the ability for other students in the class to comment on those presentations. You can have students create their own VoiceThread presentation and post the URL to the Discussion Board. Note: before you have students create a presentation in VoiceThread, instructors can create Blackboard Collaborate Ultra sessions for students to conduct group presentations in real-time. Blackboard Collaborate Ultra can also be used by students to communicate with each other while working on their project without the need for the instructor to be present. 

If you do not already use a Blackboard class site to support your course, we recommend that you get your Blackboard class site ready as a potential back-up. Each course automatically gets a Blackboard course site when courses open for registration and students are automatically enrolled. Instructors need to manually make the course available in order for students to view course materials and resources and to engage. To set up your course site in readiness, do at least the minimum:

• Post an announcement telling students where to find everything.
• Post your syllabus and/or class schedule by uploading a file to the Blackboard course site.
• Create at least one discussion forum where students can ask questions (you can call it something like Ask the Professor or Q&A forum). You can easily add more discussion forums if they are needed--generally a good idea to have one for each week of the class.

Prepare your students by having a conversation with them about the following:

• Show them the Blackboard class site and explain how you would use it to continue the class in the event you or students are not able to meet on campus. In the event you are not able to meet in person, you can record a walk-through video (screencast) and share it with your students.
• Have students download the Blackboard app to their phone or other device and test it out together. (Note that you can also access Blackboard via a mobile app).
• Ask students to check and confirm their email is updated and correct in Blackboard.
• Find out who does not have a remote computer or smartphone to access Blackboard. It may be possible to arrange for the student to borrow equipment from the college.
• Also find out how many have only limited access to wifi at home - you will want to adjust the kind of content you post in Blackboard accordingly, avoiding materials for which prolonged access or bandwidth is necessary like long videos or the use of video conferencing.
• Reassure your students by communicating before any eventuality, and if you do experience a disruption to campus meetings, keep your students informed by emails or emailed announcements from within Blackboard.
• Include info on how to contact the Helpdesk in your communications, and on your syllabus.
• Encourage your students to complete Blackboard online student orientation - "Are You Ready?" It is a self-paced course that takes about an hour to complete and students can enroll themselves by following these guidelines.
• Students can visit the Student Resources page to access specific resources.

For those interested in meeting online in real-time with students, learn more about using Blackboard Collaborate Ultra or explore other video and audio conferencing options. Breakout groups are available for small student group meetings. Meetings can be recorded and saved for later review. Also, you might find it helpful to review our webinar on the subject.

There are a number of options available.

• Set up groups in Blackboard so that students can collaborate asynchronously in a discussion forum, or work together using tools like blogs or wikis.
• Create break-out rooms when using a video conferencing tool.
• Have students use Teams in Microsoft 360. To learn about Teams, see this tutorial.

To take attendance in Zoom, you can have the students register for the session. When you set-up a meeting in Zoom, you have the option to enable registration. You can then run a report to see all registrants for the session. Alternatively, you can create a non-anonymous poll where you ask students a question at the beginning of the class, you can then generate a report for the poll and you will be able to see who was present at the time of the poll. You might also want to do another poll midway through the meeting in the event someone joined late. You can also use the chat to capture attendance. Students can type the first and last name in the chat at the beginning of the meeting and you can save the chat with the information.