A couple of points from our experience:

We started off with the premise that Blackboard was there to improve
the teaching experience, rather than to replace existing methods.
This meant that Blackboard was no threat, but a tool that could used
if appropriate. In support of this, we encouraged people to use a
phased approach.

Knowing that to most of them this form of teaching was completely
foreign, we started by encouraging them to use the interactivity
features of Blackboard only, primarily the discussion groups. This
allowed them to get started with easy-to-understand concepts, and to
build up their skills in using the system. (We have found it to be
extremely desirable that the instructor knows more about how the
system works than the students!)

Once having built up a certain amount of confidence, they then began
to explore other areas, primarily the quizzes. A fair number have put
up documents to be downloaded after three years, but many continue to
use conventional methods to deliver course material, and use
Blackboard only for its interactivity.

One thing we have not focused on is putting up huge amounts of course
material online. Firstly, to make an attractive site requires a huge
amount of work and and quite a reasonable amount of skill. Most
instructors do not have the time or the skill, and there has not been
external support available for this sort of task.

Secondly, when material is put online, most students sit down at the
first opportunity and print it all out. They do this because they can
then write notes on it, they can read it on the train on the way to
uni, and it does not hurt their eyes as reading on a computer screen
often does.

Thirdly, many students do not have high quality Internet connections,
and downloading large amounts of material can be an extremely
frustrating process. This is particularly the case where the students
are located in Third World countries and telecommunications
facilities  leave a little to be desired.


One of the issues that concerned our instructors was that of
workload. They could see how many hours they spent on a course
already, and envisaged having to spend even more hours using
Blackboard, to say nothing of the time they would have to spend
learning how to use it.

An essential part of our training from the start was how to manage
this workload. It also explained how using Blackboard could actually
reduce the normal workload.

As an example, each non-Blackboard instructor at typically receives
very many individual inquiries each week. Each one of these requires
an individual response, even though many of them may be asking the
same question. With Blackboard, we suggest that they get students to
post all their queries into a discussion group. Further we suggest
that they encourage other students to answer those queries if they
know the answer. This way, the query is usually answered very
quickly. It also means that the instructor it does not have to be
there monitoring things 24 hours a day, but only needs to make sure
that everyone realises that he/she is there by posting occasionally.
This may be to correct an incorrect answer, or just to compliment one
of the answers.


One other thing that has been useful in encouraging people to use
Blackboard is to tell them about things that they can do using
Blackboard that they cannot do using conventional methods. For
example, one instructor has students write an essay and post it into
the discussion forums. The next exercise is for each student to pick
one of the essays, critique it, and post the critique in the forum.
There are, of course, some rules applying to the critique, such as
that for each negative point there must be at least one positive
point, to avoid totally destructive responses. However, the benefit
is that the students get to see a number of different approaches to
the same question, and have to really think about it to formulate the
response.

Another is to run a role-playing simulation, where no one knows who
the individuals are. I believe this was pioneered by Mark Freeman
from the University of Technology Sydney. If I remember correctly,
the course was related to managing the economy. The way this worked
was that students were given an envelope which contained a username
and password representing each of the main players in managing the
economy, eg, prime minister, leader of the opposition, treasurer,
etc. Press releases were posted in a discussion forum, and each of
these players responded in a manner similar to the way the real
person would respond.

Regards

David
--
David Morrison, Systems Specialist
Flexible Learning Administrator and Blackboard Project Manager
Communication and Information Services, University Services
The University of Newcastle, Australia
E-mail [log in to unmask]
Ph +61 2 49215397   Fax +61 2 49217087