Education Technology

Online Sessions taught through Blackboard®

All distance learning programs will initially start with an on-campus session, followed by distance learning modules using Blackboard system. The Program uses the World Wide Web as the primary mode of communication. This technology allows students and faculty to communicate with one another asynchronously through personal computers equipped with Internet access. Thus, courses can be accessed anywhere via a local Internet provider or online service.

The Fellowship Program has its own separate "electronic classroom" which serves as the primary channel to conduct online sessions and discuss assignments and projects. This electronic classroom is also used to distribute announcements, hold meetings, and facilitate informal communication among faculty and students.

Blackboard is very easy to use.  Fellows and Faculty using Blackboard do not need knowledge of programming or web page development. Blackboard consists of course documents, discussion boards, virtual classrooms, e-mail facilities and other helpful information such as faculty and fellow information. The help table is very useful for those with questions

Faculty post the Session Syllabus, readings, assignments and such in Course Documents. The file can include documents created on the computer (plain text, word processing files, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.), images, citations, links to other web sites, etc.

The discussion boards are where much of the interaction between students and instructors takes place. Participating in a discussion board is similar to sending e-mail, but all participants can view every message. Messages are submitted through standard web forms. Reading messages is as simple as clicking on the desired message. Blackboard provides facilities for fellows and faculty to send e-mail to everyone in the group or to selected members only.

Despite the heavy emphasis on computer communications, only basic familiarity with the use of personal computers is necessary. Training on the Program's communications and other software is done during the initial on-campus session.

Although Blackboard can be accessed from anywhere home, office, hotel, etc., we strongly recommend that you have a computer at home.

All students admitted to the On-Line Program must have access to a modern personal computer. Detailed specifications for new and existing computers are available on the Student Computer Initiative specifications page (link opens in a new window). In addition, students must have a regular Internet connection throughout the course of the program. The Microsoft Office suite (including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) is also required. For more information about this and other software, visit the Student Computer Initiative website (link opens in a new window). Additional software may be required during the course of the program, which will be made available to you under appropriate licensing arrangements. Please note that under some rare circumstances, required software may run only under Windows, which will require Mac users to have a copy of Virtual PC (available from the Online@VCU).