Thursday, August 4, 2016

Suggestion For Improvement on Blackboard Forums

Blackboard is far from the worst LMS, but while reading a post, something came to me. Discussions online are supposed to help foster a sense of community and foster discussion. If Blackboard were to allow students to tag each other in posts, this would go a long way towards building that sense of community and fostering discussion.

In the short term, Blackboard does have a search function. I often search for my name in forums to see if anyone has mentioned me or replied to one of my comments. I always make sure to respond if someone mentions me by name. If there were a way to tag classmates and be notified of being tagged, I think it would be good.
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6 comments :

  1. UnknownAugust 4, 2016 at 12:13 PM

    So true, Bruce. Also, rating a classmate's discussion post would be a nice touch for a subtle peer review opportunity. :-)

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    Replies
    1. Bruce E. Screws, Jr.August 4, 2016 at 11:46 PM

      Blackboard currently does have a rating function. On some of our class discussions, we could choose between 1 and 5 stars for the post. I just would be feel bad giving someone less than 5 stars for their post. It feels like criticizing someone for their thoughts. Even in the discussion about the ratings, it wasn't utilized much. I am curious if there are situations where the rating system was helpful.

      As I recall, YouTube used to allow you to rate a video. They found most people rated either 5 stars or 1 star (or whatever the equivalent was at the time) and so they switched to just a simple like/dislike system.

      I do like on Facebook that you can choose from a range of reactions to a post. I do tend to utilize them.

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  2. JLawcomAugust 4, 2016 at 10:11 PM

    That's a good idea Bruce. I've used the search tool to check my replies as well. This summer I acted as the "sponsor" for a group of web designers' capstone project where they made a mobile app that sync data across multiple LMS. One of the things they included was a notification for and link to comments made on your posts.

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  3. Jonathan WinskieAugust 7, 2016 at 6:51 PM

    Great idea. I think if LMS's were to strategically incorporate elements that you might find in social networking sites, it could greatly increase their capacity for social learning. Have you had any experience with a LMS that incorporates social learning in this way?

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  4. 임태형 교수August 7, 2016 at 8:41 PM

    So much true!

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