Blackboard and course materials

I have already uploaded the module handbook for Tsars and Commissars, my new course for this year on Russian and Soviet foreign policy, and made the Blackboard site available to students. A few students had asked directly for a copy of the handbook some time earlier (at least one was rather persistent in their request), with a view to obtaining books and doing some background reading. Quite a number have also accessed it via Blackboard according to the tracking function, which is encouraging and would indicate that making material available in advance is something that students want (currently their are still ten days until the course starts).

Of course, the next question has to be - have all the students that have accessed the handbook now done some background reading? I can only hope that they have and that I will have a group of students who are enthusiastic, have done some reading, and are keen to engage with the module.

I’ve also uploaded some supplementary bibliographic material, as to have included everything would have made the module handbook rather unwieldy, some of which has been drawn from courses I have taught in the past. Some students have already looked at these, and it would seem that more bibliographic information rather than less is useful. I was however keen that these should be seen as supplements - I do not expect students to read much of what is on them, but they do need to be aware of what is available since not all of them possess good literature search skills, particularly for paper based works (it has been alleged that if it’s not in JSTOR they don’t read it).

I’m looking forward to this course and seeing how well Blackboard and the allowance it has made for me to offer students more will support my teaching and their learning.