Enhancing Lectures
John Herd Thompson
Professor and Chair
Department of History
Before using Blackboard Professor John Thompson would bring in a slide projector, cassette player, VCR and TV to show multimedia materials to his class. Now he plugs in his laptop and logs in to Blackboard to display a map of the American West, show a John Wayne clip and play a Canadian folk song. The materials shown in class can be previewed and reviewed by students, which improves class discussion quality. "The intellectual level has been raised a couple notches," Thompson says.
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John Thompson explains how Blackboard enhanced his lectures. |
Blackboard features used
- The Course Documents area contains links to readings in e-reserve and multimedia materials stored on CIT's multimedia server
Time commitments
Faculty:
- One day to learn Blackboard and set up a course site
- Part of one class period at the beginning of the semester to train students on Blackboard
- Several weeks working with a student assistant to create multimedia components
- Ongoing maintenance and updating of course materials during subsequent semesters
Students:
- One hour to learn how to use Blackboard features
- Frequent use of the course site throughout the semester
Last modified July 15, 2008 3:00:14 PM EDT