Blackboard wikis (websites which allow collaborative editing) are a convenient means for students to create websites as course projects. Amaryllis Rodriguez had students in her Italian courses create wikis in Blackboard focused on topics relevant to the course content. Students created a wiki (in Italian) advertising an Italian cruise line as well as a wiki about current environmental problems. Finally, the wiki tool was used for a group project in which students were asked to design an online newspaper modeled on existing Italian newspapers. Students were able to create these projects quickly using the easy tools built into Blackboard, and all students could see each others’ work and comment on it. The instructor also found it easy to grade and comment on the students’ work.

French instructor Robert Kilpatrick uses blogs in Blackboard to provide students with opportunities to practice writing French in an unstructured manner, different from the other types of more formal writing students are asked to do in the course. The Blackboard blog was chosen over a public blog to allow the students to write in a space which was private to the course, in deference to their still-developing skills with French. The blog exercises engaged students in the course, and improved their ability to spontaneously write in French compared to previous courses Kilpatrick has taught.

Sandra Valnes Quammen has students in her French classes watch video clips relevant to the course topic and then respond orally to question prompts to improve their French speaking skills. In the past, this course assignment was accomplished primarily using Audacity for audio recording and editing, followed by upload to Blackboard. This year, Valnes Quammen used Wimba Voice Tools (online audio recording built into Blackboard) instead, which streamlined this course assignment considerably.

In language learning, opportunities to practice in the target language are of primary importance. In Angela Porcarelli’s Italian courses, Wimba Voice Tools (audio recording built into Blackboard) are used to provide extra time outside the classroom for students to practice their Italian listening and speaking skills. Wimba allows the students to easily re-record their assignments before submitting to the instructor, until the student is comfortable with their response. By practicing with Wimba throughout the semester, students were more comfortable with their end-of-semester oral presentations, and produced higher-quality final assignments.

An essential part of Cary Moskovitz’s Writing 20 courses is collaborative writing, encouraging students to work together to improve their skills. Cary discusses in this video how he uses Blackboard’s Wiki feature for collaborative writing assignments. The tool allows students to work anywhere, produce documents in parts with multiple pages, and view a history of their work.

Vicki Russell expects students in her Writing 20 course to actively participate in discussions of readings and peer review of writing assignments. In this video, Vicki explains how she uses Discussion Boards and Wimba Voice Tools to help students give feedback in written and audio form to writing assignments.