Joint Digital

I'm just finishing up teaching my second graduate course this semester.  I love teaching for multiple reasons.  The biggest reason is that I'm exposed to so many other ideas and questions from my participants.  We spend a lot of time talking about group work.  To me, group work is a quintessential component of an effective online course.  Many of the course management systems (CMS) facilitate this type of learning.  Based on my own opinion, and the opinions of many of my participants, these CMSs don't go far enough.

I thought I would do a little self directed research to try and locate some collaboration options that could be used for free and were outside the grips of any course management system.  I found a really good resource.  For this article, I'm going to focus on another Web 2.0 application called crocodoc.

Crocodoc allows a user to load and markup HTML, Word, PowerPoint, PDF, PNG, and JPEG file formats.  You don't even need to have an account with crocodoc to use their services.  Simply load one, or many of the supported files previously mentioned to the Web site, and you are ready to go.  Crocodoc will create a Web page for each document that you upload.  If you don't sign up for an account, it is up to you to keep track of the unique URLS where each document is located.  As the site points out, this can simply be done by bookmarking each URL.

Signing up for a free account will give you the ability to have a profile page of your own.  This page will keep track of each document that you have uploaded to the site.  You are able to manage each of your documents at a very high level from this page as well.  You have the option of deleting the file, or changing the name of the file.  The profile page will also tell you when the file(s) were added and when they were last edited.  Finally, this page allows you to upload more documents for review.

Once a document has been loaded into crocodoc, it is easily shared with any number of reviews.  You have the ability to share the location of this document via an email, or via a link that can be copied and pasted into an email, CMS, or any other Web based application that will allow you to post a link.

The review interface is simple, clean, and very intuitive.  This is a very lightweight tool with some heavy-hitting benefits for zero cost!  As a reviewer, you have access to post-it-note, highlight, drawing, text, and strikeout tools.  As you use each of these tools, a receipt is generated on the right-hand side of the screen.  If you can remember to enter your name at the top of this receipt area, each change that you propose will be attributed to your name.  Every one in the review group will see who proposed what.

When the review process is finished, a .PDF file that contains all the proposed changes can be downloaded from the site.  You are also able to download the original file that was posted in its original format.  You will always be able to see where you started and where you currently stand with a document in a review process.

The only thing missing from this application is the ability to accept changes and have them automatically applied.  Someone still needs to be responsible for manually making all the proposed edits.

There is also a premium account that does cost money, but it allows you to upload larger files as well as high-end password protection for your documents.  This application is not complete, but it is a wonderful tool to help facilitate collaboration in any virtual learning environment.

There isn't a week that goes by that I'm not asked if there is any easier way to create exams and quizzes in Blackboard.  The simple and short answer is yes.  I'm well aware of the many publishers that exist that offer all kinds of content cartridges that can very easily be loaded into a blackboard course.  This solution is definitely easy.  It's fast too.  However, there are still many faculty that are more comfortable creating their own exams.  Whatever their reasons might be, there are ways to speed up the process.  As with most of the articles and tutorials on this site, this solution is free and available as a Web-based application.

The typical process for creating an exam manually in Blackboard requires that the instructor enter the text for each question and then do likewise for all possible answer choices.  Once all the text for a question and its accompanying answers are entered, the correct answer must be indicated by clicking on the corresponding radio button.  It may not sound like a ton of work, but it is very time consuming.  Many of the instructors I meet with think they have improved this system by authoring their exams in Microsoft Word, then move the exam to Blackboard by copying and pasting each question and potential answer.  This does speed up the exam creation time, but the amount of time I then spend with instructors fixing all the formatting issues that arise from copying and pasting all that extra Microsoft XML code eats up any time gained by this process in the first place.  If this is the route you prefer to take, I won't try to stop you.  However, if you are going to set up your exams this way, try doing a save as and save the file as a .txt file.  This will scrub the XML formatting from your text and your copy and paste operation will move much more smoothly--especially when you are concerned about how your text looks when presented in Blackboard.

The alternative I suggest comes in the form of a Web site hosted by the College of Southern Idaho.  The address for this site is: http://www.csi.edu/blackboard/bbquiz/ This Web site hosts a script that will take specifically formatted text and create a .zip file that is ready to be imported to Blackboard's Pool Manger.  All you need to do is import the file, set up the instance of the exam in the test manager, and then deploy the exam in the appropriate location in your course.

If you do a Google search, you can find any number of similar exam generator solutions on the Web.  I like this one for several reasons.  First, it allows faculty to use a word processor to create their exams.  This way, they have a "soft" copy of the exam that they can use as a backup, or they could print the exam (with a few modifications) and have a hard copy of the exam to give in a face-to-face environment.  If you don't care about backup copies of your exam, the Web site allows the user to work directly in the application to enter text and format the questions prior to creating the .zip file.  Next, I like how incredibly simple it is to use.  As long as your questions are formatted properly, and your correct answers are marked, the whole process from script to deployment takes very little time.  There is a "Documentation" link that shows the user how to create each type of question that the script is capable of creating.  The documentation also gives an example of each question, so if the instructions aren't clear, the user can view the example and be on their way.  Finally, the script is free!  As humans, we have found ways to make money off of so many things in life that are good.  I have to say thanks to the College of Southern Idaho for maintaining and allowing all who come to their site to make use of such a time saving tool!

Please look in the tutorials section of this Web site for a video tutorial on how to use this wonderful tool.