A number of resources have been curated and created from the Faculty Professional Course: Essentials Guide: a direct link to those resources can be found here.  

• Design the course and activities with a focus on core learning outcomes and the total amount of time student should engage in learning [Refer to Federal Credit Hour Guidelines]
• Ensure that each core learning outcome is aligned to an appropriate assessment strategy. Information on crafting appropriate assessments can be found under Assessment Resources here.
• Facilitate communication of course requirements and student progress through use of the college’s learning management system.
  • Do not alter the standard navigation
  • Set up Gradebook and examine it in “student view” to make sure extra columns have been removed
  • Please ensure your Syllabus and Grade Center match- course copying can lead to inconsistencies between the two if you do not modify Grade Center to match syllabus changes.
  • One week prior to the start of a course ensure:
    • The Blackboard shell is open and visible to students
    • An updated syllabus is posted (in the Syllabus Tab). Please be sure syllabi from prior semesters are removed if you utilized the Course Copy function
    • A welcome message and introduction is posted in Announcements
• Ensure content is accessible. Please note that all video and real-time session recordings posted online must be closed captioned even if there are no students in the class requiring accommodations. For more information about these compliance guidelines refer to the Accessibility Section

Communication and Interactivity

• Respond to student inquiries within 48 hours for courses that are designated In-Person or Hybrid (in accordance with the Faculty Addendum in the Employee Handbook) 
• Respond to student inquiries within 24-36 hours for courses that are designated Online or Structured Remote in accordance with the Faculty Addendum in the Employee Handbook) 
• Faculty are expected to hold office hours as per the Faculty Addendum of the Employee Handbook. Faculty can choose to identify preset hours or make themselves available by appointment. A mixed approach is recommended.
• Establish and communicate a clear schedule for posting course assignments and due dates .
• Have a robust  teaching presence in the course multiple times throughout the week.  Examples of teaching presence can include:    
  • Be available during the scheduled course time .
  • Post announcements.
  • Participate in asynchronous sessions.    Respond to and interact in discussion boards.   
  • Provide timely student feedback and post grades in Grade Center  
  • Conduct individual and small group interactions.   
  • Create and post (and caption) lecture video clips.  
  • Conduct office hours (virtual/email/in-person) appropriate for the course format and student need .  
  • Create or use existing brief how-to videos for assignments.  
• Use FCC email, rather than personal e-mail accounts, to communicate with students.
• Faculty should not use personal web conferencing platforms or course shells.
• Please be mindful of technology issues, limited Internet access, and limited student experience with technology when creating assessments and assignments.    
• Send Navigate Alerts when students are struggling academically to support student learning and success.  Please read the linked guide carefully to learn about the different types of alerts, and the difference between ad-hoc alerts vs campaigns, and academic vs non-academic alerts.
• Create a culturally-responsive and inclusive learning environment and accommodate students with disabilities with Success Plans 
• As a best practice consider collecting ongoing student feedback as the course progresses (e.g., using a midterm course evaluation)
• It is strongly recommended that students change their Blackboard notification preferences to alert them when a new Announcement is posted in the course. When you create an Announcement, select the box to have the announcement emailed to your students. Remind students to check their myFCC email regularly.

• Develop assessments appropriate to remote structured learning, using multiple assessment types that align with course objectives and support academic integrity.  [Refer to the Faculty Essentials: Assessment Lib Guide] 
• On campus assessments can be scheduled for hybrid remote classes when a face-to-face exam is related to accreditation or licensing requirements, or where face to face interaction is integral to the assessment .
• Proctored course exams are generally unavailable in the Testing Center. Any exception to this, based on a student’s disability accommodations, will be specifically noted on a Student Success Plan (student accommodation plan). Standard accommodations of extra testing time can be offered remotely and do not require specific proctoring. See the Testing Center webpage for details about services and operations.
• Because attendance cannot be required, it is generally recommended that graded assessments not be a regular feature of SR sessions. When graded assessments (including participation points) are provided during a structured remote session, students not in attendance should be provided an opportunity to either make up work or be provided with a comparable alternative assessment without penalty. For concerns and guidance regarding alternative assessments due to class absence, consult your departmental leadership.

Faculty Blackboard Grade Center Guidance

I. Overview
The Grade Center is a powerful tool, designed to help students and faculty effectively monitor academic performance. For students, it provides real-time access to grades, helping them understand how different assignments contribute to their overall course grade, identify areas needing improvement, and set and track academic goals. Instructors benefit from the ability to manage grades efficiently, offer timely feedback, and analyze student performance to tailor support as needed.

Research highlights the value of the Grade Center in enhancing learning. Studies show that regular grade feedback is linked to higher academic achievement, with self-regulation and consistent progress monitoring being key factors in student success. Overall, the Grade Center empowers students to take control of their learning while giving instructors the tools to support and improve student outcomes.

II. Best Practices for Using the Grade Center
Ensuring Grade Center Accuracy

• The Grade Center should accurately reflect the assessments listed in the course syllabus.
• All points, percentages, and assessment titles must align exactly with the language and calculations presented in the "What’s Getting Graded" section of the syllabus.
• Consistency between the syllabus and the Grade Center is essential to avoid confusion and ensure that students have a clear understanding of how their performance is being evaluated.
• Grades must be entered regularly as assignments are completed and assessed. This ongoing input keeps students informed about their current standing in the course, allowing them to seek support to ensure progress and use the feedback to improve future assignment submissions.
• Zeros should be promptly entered for any missed assignments. This practice ensures that the Grade Center accurately reflects each student’s performance, including areas where they may be falling behind, and prevents any false sense of achievement or standing in the course.

By maintaining an accurate and up-to-date Grade Center, both students and faculty can rely on it as a trustworthy tool for tracking academic progress.

The Importance of Accurate and Consistent Grading

Accuracy
An accurate and up-to-date Grade Center is critical for students to make informed decisions about their academic progress. Clear and current grades reduce confusion, allowing students to see where they excel and where improvement is needed. This insight helps students take proactive steps to enhance their performance in the course, whether by focusing on weaker areas or maintaining strong efforts where they are already performing well. A reliable Grade Center enables students to manage their learning effectively, set realistic goals, and adjust their strategies for academic success.

Fairness
Fairness is also essential and is tied to expectations matching outcomes (Hirsch, 2021). The Grade Center should accurately reflect the assignments listed in the syllabus and provide clear grading criteria, such as rubrics, which outline how to achieve different levels of success. This clarity helps prevent frustration and grade disputes, ensuring students understand expectations before submitting their work. Timely and quality feedback allows students to make necessary adjustments before future assignments, further supporting their path to academic success.

III. Grade Center Expectations for All Faculty

1. Availability: The Grade Center must be accessible to students at least one week before the start of the session. This advanced availability allows students to review grading criteria and assignment details ahead of time.
2. Alignment with the Syllabus:

• Assignment Titles: The titles of assignments listed in the Grade Center must exactly match those specified in the syllabus. This ensures clarity and prevents confusion about which assignments are being graded.
• Grading Scheme: The grading scheme used in the Grade Center, whether points or weighted, must be consistent with the grading calculations described in the “What’s Getting Graded” section of the syllabus. This alignment is crucial for accurate grade tracking and reporting.
• Point Values and Categories: Each graded event in the Grade Center should have a clear point value assigned and be categorized according to the relevant sections in the syllabus. This includes ensuring that all assignments and assessments are properly allocated to the appropriate categories and that the point values match those outlined in the syllabus.

IV. How to Effectively Use the Grade Center

Choosing ‘Your’ method

The Grade Center is flexible enough so that you can apply the grading method you already use to the columns and schemas within its interface, but it is important that you pick ONE method and apply it to every assignment in your course.

Guiding Questions:

• How will I be calculating grades?
• Will I be grading based on a point total?
• Will I be showing students grades on assignments in points, percentages, or letter grades?

Examples:

Below are examples of two primary methods used for calculating grades. Each has a different set of implications for the way columns are constructed in Blackboard, as well as how you will display grades to students.

Points to Calculate Grades

The column name should be specific to the assignment and the points should match the syllabus.

Weighted Categories to Calculate Grades

The category or column percentage weights should match the category and weight listed in the syllabus.

V. Support Services Available Through Online Learning and Instructional Innovation

OLII offers Grade Center training, workshops, and open labs before every semester. Sessions are listed on the Employee Development Calendar. Instructors and departments can request individual training by submitting an IT Help Desk Ticket.

Blackboard Resources
Grading
Grade Center Columns 
Calculated Grades 

• Weighted Grades

References

Broadbent, J., & Poon, W. L. (2015). Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review. The Internet and Higher Education, 27, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.04.007
Schneider, M., & Preckel, F. (2017). Variables associated with achievement in higher education: A systematic review of meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 143(6), 565–600. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000098
Zeynep Tanes, Kimberly E. Arnold, Abigail Selzer King, Mary Ann Remnet. (2011). Using Signals for appropriate feedback: Perceptions and practices, Computers & Education, Volume 57, Issue 4, Pages 2414-2422, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.05.016.

Using weighted grades requires three steps.  Categories must be set up, the Weighted Total column is edited to use these categories to calculate the final grade in the course, and then the graded items in the course are assigned categories.

Repeat for each category

Note: If you have the option of using a running total or not.  A running total ignores columns in which no grades have been entered so that a student has a sense of their overall grade in the course throughout the term. This is the best setting to use.  Be sure to enter a 0 for any work that is not submitted rather than leaving the grade empty (null).  The Grade Center will exempt a null value in the calculated running total meaning that the missed work is not counted against the student.  You must enter a 0 for missed work to count as part of the overall course grade.  It’s a good idea to check the Grade Center at the end of each term to ensure that grades have been entered for each student/graded activity. 

Enter the percentage for each category in the Selected Columns box

This should match the course syllabus.

The total of entered percentages is displayed at the bottom of the box.



Note: In addition to setting the percentage for each category you also have the option to weigh items within a category equally or proportionally. Proportionally would take into account if an item is worth 25 points or 50 points, for example. So you can use points within a category but then use weights for the categories to calculate the overall grade if desired. 
You will also see the option to drop grades within a category if you would like to utilize this option.

1. Access the Full Grade Center
2. Hover your mouse over the Manage button
3. Click Categories
   
   


4. Blackboard has some default categories already set up 
   To add categories, click the Create Category button
   
   
5. Return to Full Grade Center after adding categories
6. Click the menu button (downward pointing arrow) for the Weighted Total column
7. Click Edit Column Information
   
   
8. Scroll down to the Select Columns area of the Edit Weighted Column page.
9. Click on a category to include
10. Click the right pointing arrow to add the category to the Selected Columns list
11. Click Submit
12. Return to Full Grade Center
13. Hover your mouse over the Manage button
14. Click Column Organization
    
    Use check boxes to select activities then click the Change Category to button at the bottom of the page to assign the desired category to each activity
    
    
    
    NOTE:  As you add graded items to the grade center, ensure that the proper Category is assigned. If an activity is added to the course and it is not in one of the Categories specified for the Weighted Total, the activity will not be included in the overall grade calculation.  The Column Organization page is a great place to go to check the category assigned to each column.  

Blackboard LMS allows you to administer and teach your courses online by providing students with access to course materials and the ability to interact with their peers / you through the LMS. Please review the Blackboard technology requirements and help resources.

• Blackboard - Copy a Course
• Blackboard - Export Course
• Blackboard - Archive Course
• Blackboard - Adding Publisher Content
• Blackboard - Creating a Discussion Board
• Blackboard - Add Assessment Availability Exceptions
• Blackboard - Create Deploy and Grade Test
• Blackboard - Build Tests from Test Banks or Pools
• Blackboard - Export and Import Test
• Blackboard - Adding Publisher Tests and Pools
• Blackboard - View Collaborate Recording
• Blackboard - Download a Collaborate Recording
• Blackboard - Captioning a Collaborate Session with Stream
• Blackboard - Adding a Video
• Blackboard - Updates for 2021

FCC Alert - Sign up for the College emergency and closing alerts: FCC Alerts.

Blackboard Mobile App allows students and faculty to access their course materials, view announcements, participate in discussions, submit assignments, check grades, and interact with their educational content on-the-go..

FCC Office 365 has a range of tools available for instructors and students for teaching, learning, and collaborations including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and Stream.

• Using Microsoft OneDrive
• Using Remote Desktop

FCC Supports the use of video conferencing using Blackboard Collaborate and ZOOM.  Blackboard Collaborate and ZOOM are suggested for instructional synchronous sessions.

Video Conferencing tools help you to:

• Record your lecture and post it for students to view later.
• Set up student groups for online collaborations.
• Meet with students individually for office hour sessions

A series of guides and video tutorials to help you use Blackboard Collaborate more effectively:

• Getting Started with Collaborate
• Collaborate Session Best Practices
• Sharing screens, files, and other content during a session
• Using Breakout Groups
• Using the Whiteboard- Bb Help
• Using the Whiteboard (Video Tutorial by Dina Yagodich)
• Using Polling during a Collaborate Session
• Taking Attendance in Collaborate Sessions

A guide to use of ZOOM for synchronous sessions can be found at the links below:

• Zoom Instruction Tutorial
• Guide for Synchronous Instruction Via Zoom

IT has document cameras in about 70 classrooms on main campus and at Monroe. They are in most buildings with the exception of Linganore. The document cameras have built in microphones and can be used to record video and audio files or be used as a web camera for Zoom or Collaborate. If you are interested in using document cameras for this function or if you need one in a room that might not already be equipped with one, please let IT know through a help desk ticket. Requestors should go to servicedesk.frederick.edu and click on +New Request at the top, right of the page and scroll down to Classroom camera help. Please submit at least 24 hours in advance

Formative Assessments and Review Tools

YuJa
An educational video platform that allows faculty (and students!) to upload, record, edit, caption, store, and share video content directly from their Blackboard courses. Students can respond to embedded questions while their responses and scores are recorded in the Blackboard Grade Center. Faculty can access video analytics that include both usage and instructional insights.

Formative
A tool for embedding questions directly into the documents you distribute electronically to your students.  Get more information here.

Socrative   A classroom app for student engagement and on-the-fly assessments.  Find answers and advice about using Socrative here.

Kahoot

Quizizz

Quizlet
Everything you need to know and a comparison of review tools can be found here: Kahoot!, Quizizz, Quizlet Live. Which Should I Use?

Lesson Creation and Resources

TED-Ed
Browse hundreds of TED-Ed Animations and TED Talks - designed to spark the curiosity of your learners. You'll also find thousands of other video-based lessons organized by the subjects you teach.

FCC is committed to ensuring access to all courses and course-related materials in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and amendments that covers technology, online training, and websites.

In April 2024, the Department of Justice revised the Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities, title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act establishing specific requirements, including technical standards for all programs and activities offered by State and local government entities through the web and mobile applications.

The Department adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA as the accepted technical standard for all web content. FCC will use the standards set forth in WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to achieve ADA compliance. UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that gives all individuals ‐ all learning styles and all ability levels ‐ equal opportunities to learn.

Closed Captions and Transcripts:  Course videos must have time‐synced closed captions to be ADA compliant. This includes any video recording used in the course from the recording of a Real-Time Virtual session to professional recordings of content. Closed captioning provides a critical link to individual who are deaf or hard of hearing. For individuals whose native language is not English, captions improve comprehension and fluency. Having the option of using closed captions also helps people who may not have audio available to them on their device or who are in a setting that is noise restrictive.  Transcripts for all videos, while not required, are encouraged. Additionally, transcripts for videos do not replace the need for time synced closed captions.

Note:  For audio-only files, a transcript is required, and it is recommended that they be provided in PDF format for ease of use.

Auto-captioning no longer meets the standards outlined in the Department of Justice’s ruling. Faculty are asked to review captioning for accuracy. More careful attention is needed when a deaf/hard of hearing student is a regular caption user.

For instructional videos, FCC supports YuJa for video creation and delivery. YuJa creates a better baseline for auto-captions than YouTube and Zoom and allows for simple corrections to errors in the captions. Many professional development sessions are available for the use of YuJa. Please see the Employee Development calendar for detailed information.
 

TIPS TO IMPROVE THE CLOSED CAPTIONING EXPERIENCE

When recording:

• Control the audio: For a cleaner caption, control the audio during the meeting.  Have students use the “raise hand” feature or type in the chat that they have a question or comment. Have all students on mute during the recording unless called on.
• Record shorter videos: For multiple lecture hours – record an hour at a time so you have a shorter video upload.  The upload time may be improved.

Practice: If captioning is a new skill for you we recommend you practice with a short recording (not during class) - 5 mins or less to get the captioning process down.

Prior to recording a synchronous session we ask that faculty read the FERPA guidelines to all students.  If you are recording using ZOOM, the FERPA statement will appear in a window that must be acknowledged by all students before proceeding.

The FCC FERPA statement reads as follows:All student records are protected by the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). Portions of this course may be audio-visually recorded so students who cannot attend a particular session or who wish to review material can access the full content. Students who participate orally, visually, or via chat agree to be recorded. The content of this recording may not be shared with anyone who is not registered in this class without written permission, as it is an educational record.

Posting Recorded Videos of Synchronous Sessions and FERPA Compliance
The simple rule of thumb is that videos links can only be accessible to the students actively enrolled in the class if they contain identifiable student video image and audio capture or name in chat. The following are the methods available to you to make a video link only accessible to students in your class:

1. Complete the recording and closed captioning in ZOOM. The link you post is password protected and is only available only to those with the link/ password.
2. Complete the recording in Blackboard Collaborate and close caption in YouTube to create and “unlisted” link.  The link is only available to those with the link.
3. Complete the recording in Blackboard Collaborate and close caption in Microsoft Stream but you must set permissions so that only the active class roster can access via the link.  If your class roster changes due to adds/drops, you must reset these permissions.

Ally: The Ally tool is part of all Blackboard courses. The tool icon next to documents in your courses provides alternative formats for your students to access depending on their preferred learning style.

FCC’s Web Accessibility Guide provides additional information and resources.

Additional resources related to accessibility, Universal Design practices, and technology standards:

• University of Washington's DO IT
• 20 Tips for Teaching an Accessible Online Course Accessible
• For guidance for section 508 standards
• 7 Core Skills for making courses accessible

Disability Access Services (DAS)) at FCCassists and supports eligible students with disabilities. Please contact DAS in advance if you have questions regarding how to best accommodate students with disabilities while ensuring continuity of teaching and learning.

Accommodation Plans will be sent via email by students or the DAS office. Additional instructions pertaining to Deaf students utilizing Interpreting Services will be emailed as student enrollment is known to the DAS office. A comprehensive faculty guide related to ZOOM use is available for SR and HYB classes in which Deaf students are enrolled (insert link to Zoom Guide created by Interpreting Services here).

To promote access, ensure course materials and accessible videos are available to students as long as is possible based on the platform being used. Establishing this availability timeframe and notifying all students of this is strongly encouraged.