Avenue Communication Tools

Welcome to the Avenue to Learn Communication Tools workshop. This is a blended workshop - meaning that before you attend the in-person session, you will have viewed the resources on this page, tried some of these tasks in a course shell and then attended our face-to-face working session where you will put what you've learned into practice. We strongly encourage you to bring materials that you might use for your course to the session, that way you will be able to use that time for developing your actual course. If you do not have all your materials prepared, that's fine, bring what you can to the session. The outcomes for this course are:

• You will be able to post a News item in your course.
• You will be able to create a Discussion forum and topic.
• You will be able to configure the Discussion tool to best suit your particular marking and reading style.
• You will be able to use the Online Rooms tool to create a Blackboard Collaborate session.

What?

When using Discussions, you first have to create a forum and then a topic for students to discuss.

Creating Discussion forums and topics: https://documentation.desire2learn.com/en/creating-discussion-forums-topics

Creating and replying to discussion threads: https://documentation.desire2learn.com/en/creating-replying-to-discussion-threads

Creating an online room: https://documentation.desire2learn.com/en/creating-blackboard-collaborate-room

Support resources for Blackboard Collaborate: http://miietl.mcmaster.ca/site/web-conferencing/

Task:

Create an online room in Avenue.

This tool is one of the most effective in communicating with your students as it is the first thing they see once they access your course. You can provide announcements, course updates and important information through the News tool.

How to create a news item: https://documentation.desire2learn.com/en/creating-news-item

Task:

Create a welcome message to your students and provide information about your first class in a news item.

For questions or concerns, Avenue support is available from Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at (905) 525-9140 ext. 22911 or email support.avenue@cll.mcmaster.ca.