effective teaching

Kick Off Rubric Creation with Blackboard AI

Posted on March 14, 2024 (March 18, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Russell Davidson, Associate Director for Digital Education Blackboard has introduced an array of AI-assisted tools to enhance ultra-style course sites. If you have utilized the stock image search to add a course banner following our February 2024 newsletter, you have already interacted with one of these AI features, as the default image search keywords […]

Banners Bring Color to Your Ultra Course Site

Posted on February 6, 2024 (February 6, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Russell Davidson; Associate Director for Digital Education By design, Blackboard’s Ultra style course sites limit some of the customization found in the classic-style sites. Consistent navigation among course sites means students don’t have to re-learn how to locate resources and tools in every course. Adherence to a black-and-white color scheme avoids potential usability issues […]

Learning Technology Integrations

Posted on March 3, 2023 (January 16, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Russell Davidson, Associate Director for Digital Education YuJa, Perusall, McGraw Hill Education, Vista Higher Learning, Cengage, MacMillan Learning, and Top Hat are all examples of external tools that can be made available for students to use through Blackboard. While some are fairly basic textbook integrations that let you link to particular chapters or publisher-provided […]

Creating Student Peer Review Assignments

Posted on March 1, 2023 (August 15, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Lauren RinkeThis article will illustrate how peer review will benefit your students both as writers and as learners. Collaborative editing will lead students to recognize their strengths and weaknesses as writers, enhance their critical reading skills, and create a sense of comfort and community within your classes. Peer review will also assist students in […]

A Case for Weighted Totals

Posted on November 29, 2022 (December 9, 2022) by Erin Bell

By Russell Davidson; Associate Director for Digital Education, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Office of Digital Education Blackboard’s Grade Center (or Gradebook, in Ultra-style courses) is a powerful tool that makes it much easier for both students and faculty to track student performance and share feedback on graded items. As a dedicated grading […]

Grade Center Check-in

Posted on November 8, 2022 (January 16, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Russell Davidson, Associate Director for Digital Education Blackboard’s Grade Center is a powerful tool that can simplify the process of tracking student performance and calculating grades. But, like any tool, it is only effective when used properly and if used improperly it can do more harm than good. As a result, it is a […]

What Can I Do with the YuJa Media Library?

Posted on October 10, 2022 (January 11, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Russell Davidson, Associate Director for Digital Education Over the summer, the University added a new online tool to our teaching toolkit. YuJa, which gets its name from the Sanskrit word for join or connect, provides the Detroit Mercy community with a feature-rich, easy-to-use media companion to Blackboard. At its most basic, YuJa’s Media Library […]

Evidence-Based Study Methods to Mitigate the Forgetting Curve

Posted on October 6, 2022 (September 6, 2023) by Erin Bell

By Dr. Grace Jacek, Associate ProfessorCollege of Health Professions/McAuley School of Nursing “The mark of a successful college student is the mastery of knowing not only what to study, but also how to study it.” — Patricia I. Mulcahy-Ernt. Often, faculty receive questions from students inquiring about the best methods for study. Educators know it […]

Utilizing Top Hat and Collaborate Ultra for Student Engagement in Concurrent Synchronous and In-Person Classrooms

Posted on September 26, 2022 (January 16, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Sonya Kowalski and Traci Stewart, McAuley School of Nursing Teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic challenged educators to find creative and engaging ways to connect and meet the needs of students at a pace no one was expecting. Overnight the University was shut down and was reopened in a completely remote learning format. Perhaps we […]

Teaching Students Time Management

Posted on September 7, 2022 (January 16, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Dr. Erin Bell, Assistant Director of Educational Development Many college students — particularly those who are in their first year — may find it difficult to effectively manage their time. For such students, college is often the very first period that they are responsible for managing their workload and schedule to complete assignments and […]