Presentation given at the 2013 Creating Futures Through Technology Conference in Biloxi, Mississippi.

1. Increased Engagement and
Communication Through the
Use of ConnectYard
Cindy Handley, Assistant Professor
Department of Medical Laboratory Science
Amy Thornton, Project Manager
Eagle Learning Online & Learning Enhancement Center

2. Snapshot of USM
 Dual campuses
◦ Hattiesburg
◦ Gulf Coast
◦ 7 Colleges
 SACS Accredited
 Approximately 900 faculty
 Approximately 16,000 students across all campuses
 Offering online courses since 1998
◦ Over 30,000 enrollments in online courses (spring 2013)
◦ 43 hybrid/fully online programs
 Blackboard LMS - ConnectYard integrated

3. What is ConnectYard?
A communications platform that improves
the student experience through increased
engagement!

4. What is ConnectYard? (continued)

5. Why ConnectYard?
We recognize the importance of
socialization in online instruction
Knowledge of important role that social
media plays in students’ lives
Desire to improve communication and
increase participation in online courses
Mission is to enhance learning and the
overall student experience
Campus email is not effective

6. Interesting social media stats:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-honigman/100-fascinating-
social-me_b_2185281.html
 http://press.linkedin.com/about

7. Hurdles Associated with Pilot
Implementation
Marketing
Faculty and Student
Buy-in
◦ Fear that Professors
will have access to FB
pages
◦ Faculty concerned
with added workload

8. ConnectYard Pilot Implementation
Faculty/Student Buy-In
◦ Easy to use
◦ Building Block Integration
◦ Bridge to Social Media
Position ConnectYard
◦ Integral part to each course
◦ Stress privacy protection
Encourage Students to Personalize
Notifications
Stress Use to Quantify Class Participation

9. Promotion and Awareness
 Feature at Innovation in
Online Learning Luncheons
for faculty
 Includein Faculty
Professional Development
 Standardtool on Bb Learn
course template
 Increaseintra-departmental
use for demonstration and
modeling
 Press Release
 Campus Rollout

10. Potential Uses of ConnectYard
 Enhance hybrid courses & supplementals
 Communication/interaction tool between
learning teams
 Back channeling during course and web
presentations
 Intra-department interaction & communication
 Campus Notifications
 Student Services
◦ Tutoring, Event Notifications, First Year Experience &
Diversity Initiatives
 Marketing & Recruitment

11. Best Practice 1: Be Present at the
Course Site
“Liberal use of a faculty's use of communication
tools such as announcements, discussion board
announcements
postings, and forums communicate to the students
postings
that the faculty member cares about who they are,
cares about their questions and concerns, and is
generally ‘present’ to do the mentoring and
present
challenging that teaching is all about.”
Judith V. Boettcher, Ph.D.
http://www.designingforlearning.info/services/writing/ecoach/tenbest.html

12. Best Practice 2: Create a
supportive online course
community
“A good strategy for developing a
supportive online course community is to
design a course with a balanced set of
dialogues. This means designing a course
so that the three dialogues of faculty to
student, student to student and student
student
to resource are about equal.”
Judith V. Boettcher, Ph.D.
http://www.designingforlearning.info/services/writing/ecoach/tenbest.html

13. ConnectYard Key Function
Personalize Channels
◦ Personal Preferences
◦ Protect Privacy
One-Way & Two-Way
Bb Integration
◦ Discussion Boards
◦ Announcements
Participation
Points
Granular Administration

14. Student Feedback
"It was convenient to receive notifications regarding the
activity on Blackboard.”
----------
“It allowed me to be better informed of what was
happening within the class with regard to blackboard.”
----------
Key benefit of ConnectYard, “…to receive instant
notification of any updates or announcements as they
pertained to my class.”
----------
"IT WAS A GREAT TOOL."

15. Student Feedback
”I would say that it was nice to receive instant
notification of any updates or announcements as they
pertained to my class. The only issue that I had was
that on any text message I received I was unable to
view the entire message. I had to log onto my
account or view the message through Blackboard in
order to read them.”
----------

16. QUESTIONS?
COMMENTS

17. Thank You!
 Cindy Handley
 Cynthia.handley@usm.edu
 Amy Thornton
 Amy.thornton@usm.edu