About Blackboard Vista
Blackboard Vista is an online course environment that allows instructors to deliver course materials, communicate with students, and create learning activities. Vista can be used for distance education courses or to supply an online component for a traditional on-campus course. Vista's secure course site can be accessed with a web browser, which enables you to design or update your online course anywhere, any time, at your convenience.
Vista offers an easy way to make course content available to your students. Any materials that you hand out in the classroom, such as your syllabus, assignments, schedules, lecture notes, or articles, can be uploaded to Vista for students to view or print. You can also provide course hyperlinks to materials you want your students to use.
Vista's Grade Book lets you administer student grades online and distribute grades securely and privately, following FERPA regulations. You can easily import scantron exam results into the Grade Book.
Vista provides a variety of other tools for communication, collaboration, student assessment, record management, and student engagement. These include:
- Presentation tools: Syllabus, Learning Module, Media Library, Web Links
- Communication tools: Announcements, Chat, Whiteboard, Discussions, Mail
- Assessment tools: Assignment, Self-Test, Survey, Quiz
- Management tools: Grade Book, Group Manager, Activity Tracking
- Student Tools: Notes, My Grades, My Files, To-Do List
How can Vista enhance teaching and learning?
Vista provides both instructors and students with online access: they can do coursework when and where they choose. No specialized programming or HTML knowledge is required to design a Vista course or to utilize its content or tools. Vista provides convenient ways to deliver course content and a variety of tools for communication and collaboration, student feedback, and student activities.
Some possible uses of Vista to enhance learning and simplify course management include:
- Foster student interaction with Chat and Whiteboard
- Continue discussions outside of class with the Discussion board
- Extend office hours with Mail and Chat
- Distribute, receive, and grade assignments online
- Conduct tests and quizzes online and grade them automatically
- Distribute grades electronically
- Distribute content selectively to individuals or groups
- Manage the class schedule with Calendar
- Collaborate with other instructors or departments to generate reusable content
How do I get started?
You can request a Vista course by completing this online request form.
Contact, Training and Consultation Information
We offer one-on-one consultations, workshops and online training materials that you can read or download. For more information, visit the ITaP Training web site at http://www.itap.purdue.edu/training/.
The Instructional Development Center also offers instructional design and digital media development consultation. IDC staff have a wide range of experience and education and are available for one-on-one consulting. To set up an appointment with an IDC staff member, please fill out the Consultation Form or call IDC at 49-63257. |
