Three Blackboard Know-How Tips, Essay Example

The three most essential tips to successful completion of an online course are: fill out a calendar of assignments, stay in touch, and check your grades. It sounds too good and simple to be true, but in this case it isn’t.

My first suggestion- especially for students with more than one class- is to take the time to read the course syllabus (usually either under a “Syllabus” or “Course Documents” tab) and compile a list of assignments due and on which dates they are due. Do this before your first assignment is due! Either put his information into My Calendar, which can be found on the Welcome Page of Blackboard, or print it off and keep it somewhere safe and accessible. Update as necessary.

Next- I cannot stress this enough- whether required to or not, check your course e-mail account, Announcements, and Discussion Boards as often as possible- but at least twice weekly. Use these resources to ask and answer questions, organize a study group, set up a tutoring appointment, send your paper to the Writing Center for extra help, and/or to obtain whatever extra help is needed for you to get the job done. Do not be too shy to e-mail the Professor for his/ her acknowledgement that they received major assignments. Be professional, respectful, and brief if possible.

Check your grades. If you have time, then it is advisable to create a Microsoft Excel or Access document which states the course, the grading scale, and the assignments. Also input the weighted considerations (if applicable), i.e. if three tests comprise 30 percent of your grade multiply the average of the three tests by .3 (out of 1.0). Be aware that if a grade in your course gradebook is blue, bold, and underlined, then more information can be obtained by clicking on the grade. Make sure that pop-ups from Blackboard are not blocked, which often requires that your Security setting is on Medium.

If take these three tips to heart the challenges of less interpersonal interaction, limited Blackboard know-how, and/or technical difficulty will not catch you unprepared or limit your ability to thrive in your online courses.