Email organization

Hi all!

Now that we have central emails with D2L you may feel like your inbox is quite a busy location. Do not let this area get you stressed out......the best way to keep your self organized and happy to enter into your email is to stay on top of your emails and use file folders.

If you have not started to organize your emails in folders yet I would highly suggest it. I read, respond, and then file each email as I get it. I have the following sorts of files:

Class Files (one for each class)

Health Science File

CCCS File

D2L File

Student Training tips

Teacher Training tips

Personal

I find that if a question ever arises I can easily access the information I need by having it filed. There is also the piece of mind you get from looking at an empty inbox!

I hope you find this helpful.

Thank you,

Jennifer Harr, RN, MSN

How to send Group Emails using BCC option

How to send Group Emails using BCC option

Hi everyone!

I try to send my students emails once a week. I use the BCC option so that the students feel that my message is just to them and I am being FERPA safe. (Not to mention it makes my life easier....I am always looking for shortcuts. :))

Here is how I use BCC in the grade book:

When I post their weekly discussion grades in the grade book I then will then take the following steps while I am in the grade book ....

1)Click on the names of all the students that got the full week's points.

2)Click on the email ICON and their names will then populate in the TO slot.

3) Copy and past those names into the BCC.

4) Then erase all of the names from the TO slot.

4) Then I type in jenny.grade into the TO slot.

5) This email them will be delivered to the student with only their name in the address bar. They will assume you just sent this message to them and perhaps you had sent the same message to several students.

An example message I may send would be the following:

"Way to GO! You received the full 15 points for you discussion participation this week. Thank you for your valued contributions to our online classroom!"

I also do this with any students who have not participated or submitted any type of work. With BCC you maintain their privacy but can contact several students at one time.

I hope you find this tip helpful and if you need me to make a short video of it please just let m know!

Thank you,

Jennifer Harr, RN, MSN

Organzing grading of discussion questions

Organizing grading of discussion questions

If you are like me you have your students posting and responding to peers all of the time. I used to struggle with a way to stay organized on grading and responding to postings. I did not want to have to leave the DQ area and then go to the grading area. To stay on top of it I print out an excel of all of my students and set up the grading rubric right in the excel. That way I can just stay in the discussion area and just mark the students grade on my printed out excel grade book. On days the grades are due I just go into the grade book and I put in the grades. (Another use I have for this grade book is that I also can put in little notes on the student so that I always have access to that information without digging. If you have a short term memory like mine this proves a great place to put down vacations, issues, and requests from students.) To make the excel grade book...you can download your student information directly

Bottom line: I love technology but when it comes to grading discussion questions I tend to use the old fashioned handwritten grade book. I hope you find this helpful! :) If you want some tips on how to format your grade book or working with Excel let me know. I will can post tips on Excel here as well!

Thank you,

Jennifer Harr, RN, MSN