Blackboard+Collaborate

Diane Neary

Introduction
[|Blackboard Collaborate] bills itself as a "collaborative, interactive, and mobile learning experience." Universities as well as K-12 institutions have adopted this platform to fill their needs for online classrooms, virtual meetings, online professional development, and tutorials. Originally introduced at Blackboard's 2011 educational technology conference, the newest version of this e-learning environment was unveiled at the Blackboard Collaborate Connections Summit 2012 (July 10-12). Blackboard is a big player in the LMS (learning management system) world with some competition from open source alternatives such as Moodle and Sakai. (Dawson, 2011). Despite the competition, one of Collaborate's important new features includes the ability to integrate it with an institution's non-Blackboard LMS.

This is not just a 21st century tool for online learning; it's a well-stocked toolkit! Institutions are seeking the means to increase their reach and improve student satisfaction and retention. Professionals are seeking affordable, authoritative, real-time or archived webinars and meetings. Students often benefit from small group tutorials, collaboration with peers or the convenience of virtual meetings with faculty. Distance education demands new thinking about course design and alternative assessment. Blackboard Collaborate provides a host of tools to make all of these things possible.

The aim of this page is to provide educators a general overview of this tool and make the case for including it in your e-learning assessment toolkit. Why does BbCollaborate deserve a place in the kit? The work of Dr. Curtis Bonk offered some clues about the future of web 2.0 tools in at least two of his articles.

He noted in 2004 that "thousands of learners [were] enrolling in online courses...around the globe"; "a plethora of collaborative and interactive techniques to engage online learners in both synchronous and asynchronous environments" were being developed; and budgets were being cut. Along with these fast-paced changes in online education, Bonk was dismayed to note that, "Unfortunately, most online courses, programs, and resources still lack sufficient interactivity and collaboration needed to effectively engage online learners." (Bonk, 2004)

There's the key! Bonk saw the pressing need to engage learners through interactivity and collaboration. Later on, in 2011, Bonk made an impassioned call for educators to recognize the essential feature of web 2.0 tools: they allow us to deepen our learning as we share our knowledge. He wrote, "Each tool, system, resource, or course built online must have sharing opportunities or consequences for it to be highly valued and used." (Bonk, 2011) Blackboard Collaborate falls into the "Peer-to-Peer Collaboration" tool category, thus qualifying as a valued tool according to Bonk's standard. Professionals use the platform to share their examples of incorporating new digital tools in their physical and virtual classrooms. (Hargadon, 2012) Students attend class during synchronous sessions or, if unable to attend in real-time, they can access archived sessions.

Shared learning is all well and good, but if instructors are to assess what learning has taken place in an online or hybrid course environment, the tools need to include appropriate features. Read below to explore how Blackboard Collaborate supports both assessment of learning and assessment for learning. No doubt instructors will want to have this tool in their kits; they will also want to influence their students to share their own work in building their toolkits.

Benefits
Taking a look at Blackboard Collaborate's features from the instructor's viewpoint, it is easy to target a number of ways that the platform supports assessment activities in an online course:
 * using the audio and video capabilities, the instructor can present lectures on a virtual whiteboard; share access to his/her desktop or microphone, while making instant messaging chat available to the participants (See screenshot #1 below)
 * during the course of any presentation, the instructor can ask questions, create polls, or view "emoticons" in order to gauge the participants' level of understanding
 * the instructor can share applications from his/her own desktop, showing participants how to perform various operations with that application (See screenshot #2 below)
 * the instructor can then permit the student to use that shared application in order to demonstrate his/her own ability to use the tool
 * the instructor can divide the class into groups and set up several "break-out sessions" or study rooms (See screenshot #3 below)
 * the instructor can visit each of the rooms to observe the discussions or presentations
 * the instructor can invite each of the groups to re-join the full class, take over the whiteboard space and present their projects to the entire class while inviting questions and discussion throughout
 * the instructor can record the session and build follow-up assessment activities which depend upon a review of the classwork and might take place outside of the Blackboard environment

Challenges
When we examine the challenges involved in adopting Blackboard Collaborate, we see a "good news, bad news" story. Here's the mixed bag: = =
 * Cost
 * Since this is built as enterprise level software, it is meant to be used by institutions. Prices are negotiated with the company. It is not surprising that open source, less expensive tools such as Moodle are quite popular. On the positive side of the ledger, Blackboard allows for multiple administrators, so a large scale installation promises to function well.
 * Bandwidth
 * While wifi networks on major campuses are generally robust, smaller institutions will need to explore the strength of their setup
 * Technical administration
 * BbCollaborate is platform agnostic: it's happy to work with a Mac or a PC. It can be installed on the institutions' own servers or be hosted by Blackboard. The bad news is, if you want to keep the platform close to home, you will need a strong tech support team (and that is likely to drive up your total cost)
 * Instructor training
 * Training for faculty is essential. Jennifer Golightly, an academic trainer, notes that, "As postsecondary distance education offerings increase and budgets become tighter, it is becoming essential for institutions to rely on senior faculty to embrace unfamiliar — and at times daunting — pedagogical modalities." (Golightly, 2012). In the same EDUCAUSE article, she calls for academic institutions to provide release time for ongoing training. Whether you want to adopt this tool in a college or a K-12 setting, plan to invest a considerable amount of time in learning how to use it. The good news, there is lots of online support on Blackboard's site as well as in user communities.
 * Student training
 * Student orientation will be essential. The good news here is that online students are increasingly web 2.0 savvy and are likely to approach a new tool with enthusiasm. It's important to note that Blackboard has taken care to include accessibility features to accommodate students with various special needs
 * Time zones
 * While BbCollaborate can reach around the globe, it cannot erase time differences. That's the bad news. The good news is that recorded sessions can be made available for anytime, anywhere use.
 * Digital Divide issues
 * If we are to assess student work fairly and if we expect collaboration among all participants, we cannot ignore questions of technology equity. Instructors and institutions will need to take into account hardware and student access or ownership requirements before adopting any particular platform.
 * More good news/bad news: an enhancement with the latest iteration of this platform allows users to make use of their computer's internal microphone. External headsets are no longer needed. That's good news. Students will need up-to-date computer systems that support good sound. That could spell bad news if such hardware is beyond the means of any of your students.
 * Mobile technology compatibility
 * The good news: some time this summer, this platform will be accessible from your iPhone or your iPad; it's in beta now.
 * The bad news: Are you a Blackboard enterprise campus or are you a Moodle shop? (Bb Collaborate can now be integrated with your Moodle platform.) As recently reported in a user community (Moore, 2012), only enterprise level users can participate via the iPad or iPhone.

Applications for online educators
Blackboard Collaborate enables instructors to create a variety of opportunities for learners to join together to share their learning. Large groups can meet in the main room to participate in lectures or demonstrations. While engaged in this sort of class session, students can be granted permissions to use the microphone or write in the chat box in order to raise questions or take part in the current discussion.

Online learning might also involve working in small groups on discrete activities, later returning to the full group to share their findings or projects. The instructor can create special group rooms. As the course develops, the instructor might move the students in and out of the rooms in order to build community or create new mixes of student skills and strengths.

Peer-tutoring is a perfect way to use BbCollaborate. Again, using breakout rooms, facilitators can match previously trained tutors with students who need extra help. Some K-12 schools now have service-learning programs where students learn through community service projects. Students could use the BbCollaborate platform to tutor students in partner schools within the service program. This use would certainly embody the learning-through-giving-and-sharing approach that Bonk promotes. (Bonk, 2011) Assessment for learning can occur when students demonstrate their own mastery while teaching others.

While the main focus of many online courses is not likely to be on the digital tools themselves, peer-to-peer collaboration tools will provide an added benefit: technology literacy skills will be enhanced during course participation.

Examples of possible learning objectives
Objective #1 For an online mini-course which aims to provide learners with basic skills in using Microsoft Office applications:

Following a lecture, demonstration, and discussion of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations in the Blackboard Collaborate virtual classroom, learners will create (outside of the virtual classroom) a 4-slide PowerPoint presentation about their neighborhood and successfully share that slideshow with the class in the next online class session. The instructor will share the whiteboard with students one at a time to enable this sharing.

Objective #2 For a hybrid service-learning training course which uses the Blackboard Collaborate platform for asynchronous sessions:

After viewing a recorded orientation session from last year's service-learning course, current students will write a one-page letter to introduce themselves to the little-sister they've been partnered with for the peer-tutoring service project. Successful letters will follow the format demonstrated in the orientation session.

Objective #3 For a hybrid collaborative course connecting History, Public Speaking, and Library 2.0 classes in a high school:

Having previously participated in a web tour and discussion of the New York Public Library site (via the instructor-led web tour), the Seniors will take turns leading the class on a web tour of an academic or public library's web presence. Students may select a library from a list provided by the instructor or propose one of their own. Tours will be presented in the Blackboard Collaborate virtual classroom using the web tour function. Successful tours will be narrated and lead the class to at least three of these virtual library areas:


 * 1) the online catalog
 * 2) electronic resources
 * 3) research guides
 * 4) special collections

Successful narrations will be clearly enunciated, moderately-paced descriptions of the areas on the tour.

Screenshots
Screenshot #1. In this screenshot, you can see in the sidebar that the instructor has invited one of the participants to respond to a question via the microphone. The microphone icon indicates the student who is about to speak. The instructor's presentation slides appear in the large window at the right. Participants are each listed in the sidebar, with various tool icons to their right. The CHAT box is supervised by the moderator/instructor and messages can be shared there or directed solely between instructor and learner.

from Gail Casey's presentation Creative Learning Environments Promote Creative Thinking (Hargadon, 2012)

Screenshot #2. This screenshot illustrates an instructor's application (in this case, Microsoft Excel) as it can be shared in a virtual classroom. This is actually a shot of the whiteboard taken from within Collaborate. If you are in a live session, you will actually see the execution of the various Excel activities as they occur.

This shot is taken from my Blackboard Collaborate trial session during the week of July 9, 2012.

Screenshot #3. This is an illustration of the screen you will see after you have divided the class into groups and put them into separate virtual rooms for activities or discussion. Remember that the instructor can enter and observe or interact with the groups.

from Blackboard Collaborate's Feature Showcase.

References and Resources Used
Blackboard Inc. "You're Just One Step Away from Your Free Trial of Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing." //Blackboard Collaborate//. Blackboard Inc., 2012. Web. 07 July 2012. <[]>.

Bonk, Curtis J. "Sharing...the Journey Prequel to the Summer 2011 Paperback Edition of "The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education." Indiana University, 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 3 July 2012.

Bonk, Curtis J. "The Perfect E-Storm Emerging Technology, Enormous Learner Demand, Enhanced Pedagogy, and Erased Budgets." //Report on Borderless Higher Education//. Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, June 2004. Web. 01 July 2012. <[]>.

Dawson, Christopher. "Blackboard Collaborate Formally Launched at BBWorld 2011." //ZDNet//. N.p., 11 July 2011. Web. 13 July 2012. <[]>.

Golightly, Jennifer. "From On-Ground to Online: Moving Senior Faculty to the Distance Learning Classroom (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu." //EDUCAUSE Review Online//. EDUCAUSE, 11 June 2012. Web. 8 July 2012. <[]>.

Hargadon, Steve. "2012 Social Learning Summit Recordings." //Classroom 2.0//. Classroom 2.0, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 July 2012. <[]>.

ISTE. "Welcome to 1 Tool At a Time: Build Your Toolbelt." //1 Tool at a Time: Build Your Toolbelt//. ISTE SIGMS & ISTE SIGILT, 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 06 July 2012. .

Moore, Tammy. "Blackboard Collaborate Mobile." //Blackboard Collaborate Mobile -//. WeCollaborate.com, 29 June 2012. Web. 14 July 2012. <[]>.

Blackboard Collaborate Moodle Integration for Web Conferencing On-Demand Learning: Web Conferencing from Blackboard We Collaborate! an independent users' community
 * Resources for learning to use Blackboard Collaborate**

Hargadon, Steve. "2012 Social Learning Summit Recordings." //Classroom 2.0//. Classroom 2.0, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 July 2012. <[]>.
 * See Blackboard Collaborate in action**