We all know that first impressions are crucial. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink tells us that we all make “instantaneous impressions and conclusions” anytime we are confronted with a new situation. Your students are making just such an impression the minute they click into your course.
How do you greet them? Do you have a nice welcoming announcement? Have you set up your navigational sidebar to be clear and user friendly, removing any buttons that you aren’t using? Do you have a course banner to give your opening screen some eye appeal?
We want to see your Course Banner. We want to celebrate the great welcome that you are giving your students the moment they enter your online course environment. Send a copy of your course banner to me (ksbaldwin@alaska.edu) within the next two weeks (deadline Friday, September 19) and I’ll post them.
There will be a winner and prizes! This is just the start of a new Faculty Learning Corner feature — Course Challenges. We hope you’ll share some of your creations with us and have some fun with this and other upcoming course challenges.
To assist you with this challenge here are some tutorials for you:
How to Create a Banner Using PPT
Upload your Banner to Blackboard
How to Colorize Your Navigational Buttons, Add a Banner to Your Bb Course
Image credit: iStockPhoto: jgroup
