Building Your Continuity of Learning Toolkit
There are a number of tools faculty can use for instruction and to maintain regular interaction and communication with students. We recommend using the tools that MCC students are already using and which are supported by the college. Foremost among recommended tools is the Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS). There is a Blackboard course shell already available for every course section. To access your course shell, login to MyMCC and click the Blackboard Icon on the left side of your screen under My Launchpad. If you have not used Blackboard before, here is a link to a series of guides to get started:
A particularly useful tool in Blackboard is Blackboard Collaborate, a web-based videoconferencing system that allows an entire class to communicate at the same time through audio and video. Blackboard Collaborate may be used by faculty who want to meet virtually at the same time/days their face-to-face class was scheduled.
MCC is providing regular webinars on using Blackboard Collaborate. Here is a link to a short introductory guides for Collaborate.
- How to access & set up Blackboard Collaborate
- Managing Your Bb Collaborate Session
- General Blackboard Collaborate Function Tutorials
- Faculty Tutorial on Bb Collaborate File Sharing & Screensharing (synchronous or asynchronous options)
Also, all MCC students, faculty, and staff have access to Microsoft OneDrive, an online file sharing tool which includes online versions of MS Office software (MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel). To access this tool, login into MyMCC and click the nine square icon in the upper left corner, then click on the icon that says “OneDrive.”
Along with technology tools, MCC librarians have developed several Library Guide (LibGuide) resources that curate material which faculty and students can use for class content. Login to MyMCC, go to the MCC Library Link, and see the Course & Subject Guides search function in the lower right side of the screen. In addition to MCC supported technology, there is a significant number of free-to-use web tools like Kahoot (online polling & quizzes) or Perusall a tool in which “students help each other learn by collectively annotating readings in threads, responding to each other’s comments, and interacting." More information about these tools can be found on the Technical Resources for Remote Teaching page.
In addition, the MCC Professional Development Blackboard shell has a list of tutorials on teaching remotely with technology. (To see a description of the tutorials available in this folder, click here). Any faculty member who does not see the MCC Professional Development Blackboard shell in their list of Blackboard courses, should email Peter Shea, director of the Office of Professional Development. He can grant access quickly. Peter’s MCC email is sheap@middlesex.mass.edu.
Other tools (not supported by the college) but which are frequently used by our faculty
are Kahoot a web tool for interactive group learning through real-time quizzes and polls (https://kahoot.com/) and Perusall, a web tool that allows students in a course to collectively annotate readings and
responding to each other’s comments. (https://perusall.com/)