12 Days of Learning: Assignments

Atomic Learning has created the 12 Days of Learning, a series of articles designed to kick off resolutions to keep learning in the new year. We thought this was a great idea and have decided borrow (shamelessly steal) it and do our own. For Day 3 of our series, learn how to collect, grade and return student assignments in myLesley.

Tired of searching through your email to find the assignments your students sent? Can’t find where you filed the graded version of their final paper? The Assignment tool in myLesley will allow your students to submit their coursework to a digital dropbox-style space. You can then view, provide feedback and return the graded assignment. myLesley will keep a record in the course of when the student submitted the file, your annotations and feedback, the grade and when you returned the graded assignment to them. Your students can access their feedback at any time by returning to the myLesley course site.

Learn more about how to use this powerful tool by viewing the tutorials below. assessments menu

Create an assignment 

Grade an assignment

 

12 Days of Learning: View and Sort Discussion Threads

Atomic Learning has created the 12 Days of Learning, a series of articles designed to kick off resolutions to keep learning in the new year. We thought this was a great idea and have decided borrow (shamelessly steal) it and do our own. For Day 2, we will look at how to sort and view discussion threads in myLesley.


The Discussion Board in myLesley (Blackboard) is one of the most used tools. It’s a great way to replicate or continue the classroom discussion online, but do you really know all the tricks to easily navigate, view and sort posts? View this short
Atomic Learning video to learn how and increase you myLesley Discussion Board skills. Enter your myLesley username and password when prompted to view.

discussion thread

OneNote: Note Taking Made Easy

Are you looking for an easy way to take notes on the go? Do you want to access your notes across all of your devices? Do you want to share and collaborate on notes? Yes? Let me introduce you to OneNote.

Microsoft OneNote product logo

What is OneNote?
OneNote is Microsoft’s digital notebook, allowing you to create and access your notes across all of your devices: PC, Mac, phone, tablet, and web.

Welcome to OneNote

Image from Microsoft

OneNote allows you to:

  • Create notes, to do lists, manage projects, and more.
  • Organize your notes with six levels of organization: notebooks, sections, subsections pages, and two levels of subpages.
  • Share and collaborate in real time.
  • Add multimedia items (audio, video, images, etc.) anywhere within a note.
  • Insert new or existing Microsoft Office content into your notes.
  • Clip any web page to OneNote and view it later, whether you are online or offline.
  • Set up Email to OneNote to allow you to send an email directly to OneNote, automatically creating a new note.
  • Create or edit notes offline and sync your notebook when you’re back online.

Wait, didn’t you already post about a note taking app?
Yes, Evernote is another useful tool for taking notes. You can find out more about Evernote in our previous post: Taking Notes Across your Devices

Should I use OneNote or Evernote?
As with most things, it comes down to personal preference. A few good breakdowns of the tools and side-by-side comparisons can be found here:

I’d like to try OneNote. How do I get started?
To get started with OneNote Online, log into your Office 365 account (http://lesley.edu/email), click the Apps button, and select OneNote Online.

access OneNote

To get started with OneNote on your computer, phone, or tablet, download the software for your device(s):

You will need to log in with your Office 365 Account using your Lesley email address and password.

For more information on using OneNote, see:

Taking Notes Across Your Devices

Started taking notes on your computer and now you’re sitting on the bus and want to review them? Standing in line to get your coffee and have a brilliant idea? Want to jot it down or add to already existing notes? Don’t have internet access, but need to jot something down? Tired of having to copy notes from your phone to your computer and back again.

Is the answer to all of those questions a loud YES!?!?!

evernote logo

Allow me to introduce you to Evernote.

What is Evernote?

Evernote is both a digital notebook and digital file cabinet. Take notes while in a meeting or draft documents just as you might in Microsoft Word. Create a to do list or checklist for a project or chore. Attach and annotate a PDF document. Use your microphone to record a quick audio note. Take a picture with your phone or upload an image from your computer. Clip a web page from the internet. Tag items with keywords and group them all together in a notebook to easily find later.

evernote layout

image from www.dadislearning.com/

Why is Evernote Awesome?

Evernote’s true power is in its ability to work across devices. Have access to all your notes regardless of where you are. Create a note on your computer using Evernote’s desktop application and then move to your iPad during your meeting. Jot down or audio record that quick brainstorm your phone while riding the bus home. Your notes will sync to your account and move with you to whatever device you are on.

Don’t have internet access, but need to take notes and don’t want to have to remember to copy them to Evernote later. No problem. Evernote will upload it to your account the next time you connect to the internet with that device. You can even share notes with colleagues.

Evernote lets you decide where you work and on what type of device: laptop or desktop computer, iOS or Android. There’s no special file formats or exporting to deal with. Just take notes and organize them. Simple.

How do I get started?

To get started with Evernote, go to https://evernote.com/ to create your account.

Then download the software for the devices you own:

Review video tutorials for Evernote to learn more at Lesley’s Atomic Learning portal. Sign in with your myLesley username and password when prompted.

Track Student Performance for Early Outreach

Once upon a time, Blackboard had an Early Warning System to alert you about students who might need outreach or additional assistance. It was a good idea, but it was clunky, awkward to navigate and hidden away. Therefore, no one used it.

The Early Warning System has now grown up and evolved into the much easier to use Retention Center.
retention center alert

The Retention Center allows you get an at-a-glance view of how your students are doing. Alerts tell you if students haven’t logged in to the course recently, aren’t participating in course activities, have missed due dates or have grades below a certain threshold. You can easily navigate through multiple courses to get an overview or click for more details on a specific course.

You can choose to monitor at-risk students and contact them directly from the Retention Center. The Retention Center will keep track of your notification emails and any private notes about the student such as special accommodations for disabilities, additional assistance provided or extenuating circumstances. You can also set up custom alerts or edit the existing default alerts for a course. Only instructors and teaching assistants can see Retention Center information in myLesley.

Retention Center main page

Start using the Retention Center now! There is no setup required.

You can access the Retention Center in two ways: the My Blackboard menu in the top right corner of your window or from the Evaluation area of your course’s Control Panel.

Screen Shot 2015-10-06 at 3.16.45 PM

To learn more about how to use the Retention Center and its robust features, check out the Using the Retention Center tutorial.