Workshop Descriptions

Free Workshops for Faculty and Graduate Teaching Assistants

Questions? Please contact Howie Southworth, Instructional Development Specialist, at 202-994-2785 or howies@gwu.edu

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Blackboard workshops, New2U series, and Tech-Essential workshops are offered by the Instructional Technology Lab and take place in the Gelman Library basement, Room B06.

Blackboard workshops provide faculty hands-on experience with a variety of tools available in the Blackboard @ GW system (See descriptions below).

The New2U series of workshops are delivered in a presentation-based format and are designed for faculty members who are new to GW or new to a particular technical or teaching solution.

Tech-Essential workshops are delivered in a short, presentation-based format to familiarize faculty with new technologies available, or to highlight new or advanced features offered in software and hardware products faculty are already using.

Teaching Essential and Instructional Design worskhops are offered by the CITL.

Topics vary from semester-to-semester. Below is a sampling of the workshops we offer:

Blackboard Basics

Initial Blackboard knowledge and skills. The key Blackboard elements that will be covered in this session include:

How your students get into your Blackboard courses
Managing your Course Menu
Posting files and text to Content Areas
Adding hyperlinks to Content Areas

Organizing class materials into folders
Including assignments that students turn in online
Communicating through Blackboard
Creating a quiz

Blackboard Content System (BbCS) - Introduction

The BbCS adds to our current Blackboard Learning System (BbLS) with advanced course document management, reusable and collaborative content. (Workshop assumes prior knowledge of Blackboard Learning System.)

Advanced Blackboard: Testing and the Grade Center

An overview and detailed instruction on releasing & grading Tests, Quizzes, and Surveys in Blackboard.

Blackboard Grade Center overview Grade display options Adding graded items	Managing graded items Assignment and Quiz grading Download and upload from Excel
Test and Survey overview Creating a Test or Survey Auto-grade options	Using Question Pools Test settings How to minimize online cheating

What GTAs Need to Know About Blackboard

This session is intended to give Graduate Teaching Assistants critical Blackboard knowledge and skills to support faculty. The key Blackboard elements that will be covered in this session include: Course menu, Content Areas, Links, Folders, Assignments, Communications, and Assessment.

By the end of the session you should be able to:

Describe the basic features of Blackboard.
Differentiate between asynchronous and synchronous communication.
Populate a basic Blackboard Shell.
Recognize the Blackboard interface from both faculty and student perspectives.

The workshop format is as follows:

Two hrs: how-to training.
30 mins: hands-on self-paced practice (during this time you will be able to bring course materials to add content to your own or your instructor's courses).

What GTAs Need to Know About the Blackboard Grade Center

This session is intended for Graduate Teaching Assistants using the Blackboard Grade Center to support faculty.

Blackboard Grade Center overview
Grade display options
Adding graded items

Managing graded items
Assignment and Quiz grading
Download and upload from Excel

Teaching with Visuals and Animation

Build more interactivity into your classroom presentations by combining PowerPoint and graphic design principles.

Elluminate Live - Virtual Classroom

This session will teach you how to use the video and audio conferencing capabilities of this virtual classroom which can be scheduled through Blackboard.

Questions? Please contact Howie Southworth, Instructional Development Specialist, at 202-994-2785 or howies@gwu.edu

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