Not everything you post on Blackboard will register with all your students.
Why? Because everyone learns differently.
What to do? Use multiple presentation methods to help mix it up.
Following are some of the ways everyone presents lessons on Blackboard, followed by some "beyond" ideas on how to present them:
3. Short whiteboard videos
Short is the key. Great for 2-5 minute tutorials but too much is, well, too much!
The beauty of available Whiteboard programs is you don't have to be an artist.
The ugly is some are pricey.
My J302 students said they liked Whiteboard videos because the information was in small pieces.
5. VoiceThread
VoiceThread ranked high with the summer J302 students because it was easy for them to pinpoint a specific spot in the video for review.
You can narrate slides or a video and allow students to record questions at selected points. It's fairly easy to learn.
Plus it integrates with Blackboard.
7. Google Docs
It's easy to do a "living" assignment in an asynchronous environment by using a sharable Google Doc.
As students add their work on blank slides, you can comment for the full class to see.
Also, with a sharable Google Doc and chat system, students can do in-class group work at a social distance.
Other Beyond Blackboard ideas
Pop-up presentations: ThingLink let's you annotate photos with pop-up text and media. And it has a free option for teachers.
Games: Two of my students used Kahoot to make an interactive game that lets students review J302 material. Creating a game may take longer, but letting students create it keeps them engaged.
Polls: I did two non-scientific polls for my Summer 2020 class. One used a poll extension for Slack and one used Google Forms. Both allowed quick feedback.
Think about which presentation mode works best for which material. Also consider using presentation modes that are most easily edited for future reuse.
Credits:
Title image by Sensay - "Education and reading concept - group of colorful books on the wooden table in the classroom, blackboard background"; Other images are screenshots of presentations created by Gerri Berendzen