Workshops

The IDSC offers the following workshops for USNA faculty on Blackboard and other often used software packages. Please click here to see current workshop schedule for fall, 2013 and sign up for the workshops.

Blackboard Learn™ 9.1

Blackboard Learn™ 9.1 is the latest version of Blackboard which offers many new and improved features including drag and drop user interface, social learning tools (wikis, blogs, journals), SafeAssign anti-plagiarism tool, improved calendar, Blackboard Mobile, and a vastly improved Grade Center with flexible grading options and interactive rubrics.

Introduction to Blackboard Learn™ 9.1 – Course Management & Communication

This workshop provides an introduction to the course building and course communications tools in Blackboard Learn™ 9.1. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Become familiar with the new user interface of Blackboard 9.1
Manage and customize course menu
Create and manage course content (files, folders, links, learning modules, lesson plans, and Mashups, such as YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations, and Flickr photos.)
Communicate with students using discussion boards, virtual classrooms, chat rooms, emails, announcements, blogs, wikis, journals, etc.
Import and export a course
Manage users and groups

Introduction to Blackboard Learn™ 9.1 - Assessment & Grading

This workshop provides an introduction to the course assessment tools and the Grade Center in Blackboard Learn™ 9.1. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Create and manage assignments including SafeAssign assignments
Create and manage tests, surveys and pools
Create different types of quiz/survey questions
Understand and utilize interactive rubrics and different grading options: contextual grading, automatic grading, and inline assignment grading.
Use the new Grade Center to manage student grades

Introduction to Blackboard Learn™ 9.1 - Content System

This workshop provides an introduction to Content System in Blackboard Learn™ 9.1. The Content System provides an online repository for content storage equivalent to a web-based virtual hard drive. It also provides a platform for users to share content with others. This is especially useful for course coordinators. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Create and manage files and folders
Batch upload files, folders and zip files
Use versioning, tracking and commenting features
Modify file and folder permissions in order to share content
Create links from within a course to file/folders in the Content System

Introduction to PowerPoint 2010

PowerPoint is a powerful tool for creating or enhancing presentation. This workshop is geared toward novice PowerPoint users. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Create new PowerPoint presentations using different options
Work with different view options
Insert/Rearrange/Remove/hide slides
Insert/Edit text
Insert/Edit pictures
Insert/Edit diagrams and organization charts
Insert/Edit tables
Insert/Edit charts
Save and print presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint: Advanced Features

PowerPoint can be used to create simple text slides or rich multimedia presentations with animation, video, and sound. This workshop will focus on the many of its advanced features, such as animations. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Modify a color scheme
Change slide background
Create a slide master
Add headers and footers
Insert objects
Add movie clips and sound files
Add animation schemes
Customize animations
Add slide transitions
Package a presentation
Publish a presentation

PowerPoint Best Practices

This workshop is for people that already use PowerPoint to teach and lecture but want to move beyond the usual techniques. Find out how to avoid "Death by PowerPoint" by creating an effective presentation and engaging students in the learning process, Prerequisites: familiar with basic PowerPoint Tools. In this workshop, we will discuss:

General rule of thumb while creating a presentation
How to incorporate graphics, animations, videos, and sound to engage students
How to use PowerPoint to increase interactivity
Best practice to help you give an effective presentation

Introduction to Google Apps

This workshop provides an introduction to a list of Google Apps that are currently avaialble to USNA users including Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Talk, Contacts, Groups for Business, Sites and Video. After this workshops, you should be able to access and use these Google apps for daily work.

Introduction to Microsoft SharePoint Designer

Microsoft SharePoint Designer is a free program for designing, building, and customizing Web sites that runs on a SharePoint foundation and SharePoint server. You can create data-rich Web pages, build powerful workflow-enabled solutions, and design the look and feel of your site. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Open and create SharePoint sites
Create lists, libraries, and connections to data sources
Create custom views and forms
Create custom workflows
Design site pages, master pages and page layouts
Create templates

Teaching with Wikis and Blogs

A wiki is a Web site that allows a community of users to create and edit Web site content via a Web browser collaboratively. A blog is a Website with regular entries that are usually displayed reverse-chronologically. An entry can be a combination of text, audios, videos, graphics, hyperlinks, readers; comments, etc.

This workshop will introduce two educational technology tools that are adopted by more and more educators nowadays - wikis and blogs. In this workshop, we will learn how to create wikis and blogs and explore how to use these tools to facilitate collaborative learning. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Create and maintain a blog
Create a wiki and edit wiki pages
Understand how to use wikis and blogs to facilitate collaborative learning

Introduction to Adobe Acrobat

This workshop focuses on the basic features of Adobe Acrobat. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Become familiar with Adobe Acrobat interface
Create PDF files
Edit PDF files
Markup PDF files
Insert hyperlinks
Insert movies and sounds

Introduction to Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a powerful image/photo editing software. It allows you to create and edit digital images, and retouch photos. This workshop will introduce you to some basic tools of Photoshop. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Become familiar with the Photoshop interface
Understand different types of images and different file formats
Use basic tools to create and edit digital images

Editing Digital Photos with Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop allows you to create and edit high quality digital images/photos. This workshop is geared toward faculty members who are unfamiliar with Photoshop but want to start using it for image/photo editing. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Import images/photos into Photoshop from a scanner or digital camera, or download them from the Web
Become familiar with the Photoshop work area
Edit photos (crop and resize photos, adjust colors, contrast and brightness, retouching photos, add special effects, etc.)
Save images/photos for the Web and for print

Introduction to Adobe InDesign

Adobe Indesign is a powerful desktop publishing software to create and layout periodical publications, posters, and print media. This workshop provides an introduction to the basic features of Adobe Indesign. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Become familiar with the InDesign work area
Create and set up a document
Create/edit master pages
Insert text and graphics
Working with different tools
Printing and packaging files

Using Technology to Improve Feedback to Student Writing Projects

As an instructor, you often need to review student writing projects and provide feedback to them. Instead of printing out those writing projects and manually adding your feedback, you can easily use Microsoft Word to provide feedback to students electronically. Through this hands-on workshop, you will find out how a technology tool, such as Word, can make the process of providing feedback to student writing projects more efficient and less laborious. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Use reviewing tools to add comments and track changes
Use a tablet pen to add ink annotations to a document
Use color coding to indicate specific problems
Create different versions of a document
Understand file naming conventions
Choose different view and printing options
Participate in a review that has multiple reviewers

Getting Familiar with Microsoft Word 2010

This workshop will help you get used to the user interface and introduce new and enhanced features of Word 2010. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Find, use, and customize different tools on the new ribbon toolbar
Learn and use new and enhanced features of Word 2010, such as enhanced reviewing, commenting and comparison feature, live preview, building blocks, SmartArt, blog integration, enhanced themes and styles, mini toolbars, contextual spell checker, translation tool tip option, automated generation of citations and bibliographies, etc.

Introduction to Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that can be used to store, organize and manipulate data. This on-demand workshop provides an introduction to Microsoft Excel. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Become familiar with the interface of Microsoft Excel
Enter, import and manage data in Excel
Use some basic features in Excel including formulas, calculations, graphing tools and pivot tables

Introduction to Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a database management software. This workshop provides an introduction to Microsoft Access. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Become familiar with the interface of Microsoft Access
Create and manage a database
Use some basic features of Microsoft Access including tables, queries, forms, and reports

Introduction to Video Editing

This one-on-one workshop will introduce you to some basic video editing techniques using Pinnacle Studio. After this workshop, you should be able to:

Import and edit video clips
Add menus, titles, credits and transitions
Add special effects

Export videos

Back to top

This is an official U.S. Navy Web Site Last Updated: 2013/09/27 1121