navigating SFU’s learning management system
My latest suggestion to WebCT/Blackboard :
“Several users have complained of the pop-up window that informs them that their browser is not valid. Some browsers work “pretty well” with WebCT before being validated, and users prefer to use them.
I would like to see the pop-up window present a tickbox option to turn off the validation/reminders.”
WebCT/Blackboard has a suggestion page, and these suggestions occasionally make it into future iterations of the product. It’s productive way of expressing frustrations and limitations. The more people that they get suggestions from, the more likely they are to be integrated.
I’ve decided to start documenting my suggestions here - I hope that it may encourage others to make new suggestions, the same suggestions.
So, today’s suggestion was about social software, and enabling students to interact with content:
“I like the student notes and bookmarks function in the learning modules as it gives students a chance to interact with the content a bit. I would like for these additions to be more dynamic. Why not allow students to “tag” pages (much like we tag photographs in the online photosharing site www.flickr.com), and to share notes and bookmarks. This would engage the students more, and make the content more responsive to students. “
As the end of the semester approaches, final grades are coming.
The WebCT administrators at SFU have cooked up something to streamline moving final letter grades from WebCT to SIMS. It is not quite a one-click process, but it does all the formatting for you, creating a file that will not require any more edits and ready to import to SIMS.
If you are a current user of the WebCT gradebook, and you are comfortable with creating columns and entering grades, then this can streamline your end of term.