Teaching Online Is No Solo Activity: Faculty Support Priority for U of A

The beginning of a college semester is a busy time, no doubt. A technology challenge can put an instructor behind, which puts students behind. But, when a faculty member at the University of Arkansas has a technical question, help is available from several sources.

Kelly Westeen has worked at the U of A for more than 20 years, most recently in the role of faculty support coordinator for the Global Campus. Global Campus provides services for academic colleges that offer online degree programs and certificates. The U of A offers more than 100 programs delivered online.

All U of A instructors, whether they teach online courses or in-person, on-campus courses, use the Blackboard Ultra learning management system. The campus upgraded from Blackboard to Blackboard Ultra last year.

Learning Curve

Rodica Lisnic, a teaching assistant professor in sociology and criminology, has met with Westeen several times to inquire about features in Blackboard Ultra.

“There is a learning curve when it comes to a new (learning management system), and Kelly has the knowledge and patience to answer my questions,” said Lisnic, who teaches in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Westeen works from an office at the Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence on campus, rather than at the Global Campus offices on the downtown Fayetteville square. Her location makes consultations with faculty members convenient for those who want an in-person meeting.

Westeen works with faculty in whatever format is most helpful for them:

• Emails to the TIPS website at tips@uark.edu. TIPS stands for Teaching Innovation and Pedagogical Support, a website created as a partnership between Global Campus, the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center and Information Technology Services.
• In-person or online consultations that can be arranged through the TIPS website or stopping by CORD 301 and 302.
• Monthly training sessions offered at the Teaching and Faculty Support Center, CORD 318, as well as virtual training.
• Customized training for academic departments.

Troubleshooting

Angela Seawood Williams said Westeen’s extensive knowledge of Blackboard Ultra and its features allows her to troubleshoot most any issue an instructor may have. Williams is a teaching assistant professor in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, where she works in the Student Success Center.

“She recently helped me refine my approach to tracking my students’ participation points,” Williams said of Westeen. “She helped me add a column in my Blackboard grade book that allows me to monitor student engagement quickly and efficiently as they complete activities in my class. This streamlined process will also ensure that I can provide timely and accurate feedback to my students, greatly enhancing their learning experience. I am truly grateful for her expertise and willingness to assist at any time.”

Teaching Experience

In addition to assisting faculty members, Westeen has taught University Perspectives courses multiple times over the years. University Perspectives is an orientation course offered to freshmen in on-campus degree programs that incorporates information about university resources with critical thinking exercises, she said.

She empathizes with instructors who get frustrated when learning a new technology.

“I can share that I also teach, and I’m being subjected to changes, too,” Westeen said. “I acknowledge the frustration. Their feelings are completely valid. I tell them, ‘Let’s sit here. I will walk you through this and make it easier on you.’ I remind them, it may change the way you do things, but in the end it benefits students. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re here for, and it makes the learning environment much more streamlined for them.”

Patterns Emerge

Instructors make most inquiries at the beginning of a semester.

“They have questions about their course launch and setting up their gradebook,” Westeen said. “We help them make sure students can see things on their courses the way they want them to see them in Blackboard.”

Lisnic said Westeen helped her set up the attendance tool and formula in Blackboard, which she said looks complicated.

“However, with Kelly’s support, I learned how to use it better and used the tool to take the attendance the next day in my class,” Lisnic said.

Requests for help tend to change as the semester progresses, Westeen said.

“Then, there are a lot of exam-type questions at midterm pertaining to assessments, tests, security, and exam-proctoring tools like Respondus Monitor,” she said. “There are gradebook questions at the end of the semester. Are the grades being calculated correctly? We definitely see patterns.”

Technology Assists

Lately, instructors want to learn more about using artificial intelligence in the classroom, Westeen said.

“Blackboard has new, embedded AI features to streamline their courses, and we offer pedagogical insight if you want to steer students away from using AI or create assignments to mitigate the use of AI,” she said. “If you want students to use AI in a conscientious and responsible way, we can show you how to do that, how to teach students to use AI ethically. People are both anxious and excited about the possibilities of that.”

Westeen gave Lisnic a quick and thorough overview of the Turnitin software, which detects plagiarism, either using online sources or AI, in students’ assignments.

“I assumed I might need an entire session on Turnitin because it sounded complicated,” Lisnic said. “Kelly helped me save time by explaining how to use this feature in a matter of five minutes.”

Continual Learning

Westeen keeps her knowledge and skills up to date through training offered by Microsoft, Blackboard, Respondus and Anthology, as well as community boards associated with these products.

“Those are the kind of things I’m always seeking out,” she said. “I’m a big believer in continuous learning. It excites me and gives me new perspectives as a trainer.”

Her most common advice: Use the sandbox feature of Blackboard Ultra to try things out where you don’t have to be scared of breaking something. She also asks instructors to share student feedback with her and other staff of the Global Campus.

“Are students struggling with something?” she asked. “We want to hear that. There may be a way we can tweak things or provide additional training or resources. If a tool is broken, we can try to get it fixed.”

Getting Started

Nick Flint, an instructor of finance in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, is in his second semester teaching at the collegiate level. He reached out to Westeen both in person and virtually a few times seeking support to get up to speed with Blackboard Ultra. She was immensely helpful for a beginner, he said. 

“I struggled in the fall with taking attendance and tried it a few different ways, including the ‘automated’ clickers solution,” Flint said. “None of the solutions fit my needs, especially having 280 students. So, a few weeks ago I booked another session with Kelly to brainstorm some alternate solutions for the spring semester that did not require manual intervention, as I now have 350 students.”

He also wanted something that would be simple for the students, Flint said.

“Wow, she came up with the idea of using a participation assignment and walked me through the logistics,” he said. “While I will have to set up 25 assignments at the beginning, the process from there is all automatic. And, I can set it up once and then copy it into my other sections. I did a dry run with students, and it works like a charm.”

Webinar Topics

Westeen gave several presentations during the annual BOLT conference (Better Online Learning Together) in October covering multiple features of Blackboard Ultra.

Video quizzes:

• Kaltura, a video creation tool, integrates seamlessly with the Blackboard Ultra learning management system, Westeen said. Instructors can also record on Zoom and upload recordings into Kaltura.
• Questions can be embedded at any point in a video. Instructors can choose what kind of questions to ask and set parameters such as whether to allow multiple attempts, to show scores, to display answers, allow students to skip questions or otherwise advance the video.
• Westeen can demonstrate for instructors how to create quizzes in videos. Using a quiz embedded in a video may boost student engagement, helping them to pay better attention, she said.

Course hyper-personalization:

• Your profile in Blackboard can be personalized in several ways, including adding a photo, how to pronounce your name and your job title, Westeen suggested to instructors. It helps students get to know your name and face and humanizes you, she said.
• Global Campus created a tool instructors can use to make a banner for the top of their courses. Text such as course name and number and your name can be added, and instructors can choose fonts, colors, logos and other images they want. Global Campus staff can also assist with the process.
• Module icons can also be personalized in Blackboard using images and descriptions.
• You can record an introduction video in Kaltura and upload it into announcements in your course or a welcome message. Adding audio and video clips to assignments also puts a personal touch in your feedback, letting students hear your tone of voice. You can require students to respond to each other’s work or discussion posts with video.

Recordings of BOLT sessions can be viewed online.

“Regardless, if you are meeting in an in-person environment or an online environment, the more we can do there to make students feel comfortable and connected to us, I think, the better,” Westeen said.