The CUNY Academic Commons
This course website, found on the CUNY Academic Commons is the central hub for this class. Everything that you need to be successful is here. In fact, there’s a lot of material here, and it may be a bit overwhelming at first. While I will be tracking your completion of materials in Blackboard, your main stop for this class each week should be directly through the course website rather than accessing the site through Blackboard.
You’ve probably all heard your instructors say, “It’s on the syllabus…” In this case, it’s all on the course site! (Syllabus, too!)
Each class week has a module due by the end of Sunday. The modules include readings, videos, vocal exercises, and other activities. The pages of the module are designed to be gone through in order, and you’ll find that they stretch across a number of linked pages to guide you step by step through the materials. The last step of each module will be a final discussion prompt.
Sometimes things change – I regularly update materials across the site and post announcements, but don’t be afraid to email me if something is missing or isn’t working.
What is the CUNY Academic Commons?
The CUNY Academic Commons is a web-based platform available to all members of the CUNY community.
CUNY Academic Commons Mission Statement:
For more: see the page on Wikipedia for a general introduction to the CUNY Academic Commons.
The Academic Commons of The City University of New York is designed to support faculty initiatives and build community through the use(s) of technology in teaching and learning. The free exchange of knowledge among colleagues across the university is central to better educating the student body and expanding professional development opportunities for faculty research and teaching. Creating networks and support systems that are enabled by easy access to quality digital resources will nurture faculty development through sharing replicable materials and best practices. The Academic Commons is expected to grow in a flexible manner, taking into account the changing dynamics of political, social, cultural, and technological environments affecting the university. This evolving community will help prepare The City University of New York for the current and future educational challenges it faces.
Why are we using the Commons?
This course site allows for all kinds of different course materials and media to be kept in one central location. It’s also a publicly available web page that can be used as an Open Educational Resource (see below). This differs from keeping all the course material in Blackboard (or soon Brightspace), where everything happens behind a login, and it is harder for students to share materials with one another. On the Commons, most of the materials and content are meant to be publicly available. You might say that it helps to put some element of the public into our public speaking (though your speeches will only be for members of this course in a password-protected portion of the site.)
The CUNY Academic Commons is built on a WordPress system. You may have heard of WordPress before. It’s an open-source platform that powers a vast segment of the overall internet.
Learning the basics of using WordPress gives you a skill you can take with you anywhere. You can make your own web presence, practice website design, and someday have an extra helpful job skill.
Learning new technology takes some time. It’s ok if you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Why not BlackBoard?
As an open-source tool, Commons (and WordPress generally) encourages the creation of new content and makes it accessible. The goal of the Commons is to build communities and networks of research and learning. Just as you are learning skills in oral communication, you are also learning skills in communication more broadly. The setup of this course site and the technologies we are using together aim to build a more strongly connected learning environment.
Blackboard is a “learning management system.” Its strengths are in communication and tracking between professor and student, less student-to-student, or collaborative working. I will be using Blackboard to track your completion of assignments and modules. When I offer feedback on your speeches, it will often be directly where you post them on this site, just as your fellow students will be doing. Some assignment links may take you back to Blackboard to submit a written piece.
Brooklyn College will join the rest of CUNY in transitioning to Brightspace, a new learning management system starting in the spring or fall and Blackboard will be phased out.
As a participant in this class, you will be creating content and responding to each other on an open platform.
Wait. What about privacy?
The majority of this site is an Open-Education Resource. That means that the materials on the site are in the public domain or licensed under a variety of different open licenses. (You’ll learn more about this as we go on!) Sometimes, there will be links to materials that are only available to you as a Brooklyn College student (via the library, for example), and you will need to log in to that portion of the site with a password that I will provide on the first day of class (you’ll be able to refer back to it in Blackboard at any time).
You are welcome to add comments, discuss, and ask questions on each page of a module as it contributes to greater engagement and community. These comments are public. However, the overall site is set not to be indexed by search engines such as Google, but is available to anyone with the link.
The bulk of your work, including your primary required discussion responses to modules and the posts you will make of your speeches and other materials – will always be behind a password-protected portion of the site. The results of any “check-in points,” polls, or other direct form submissions are private or anonymized.
You have individual control over whether or not you make your video content public or unlisted if you are hosting through YouTube (the most efficient method – discussed later).
This also means that you can remove it from there when you wish. (If you want any comments or other work removed from the course website after the class is over, I will be happy to do so.)
The next part of this module is a tutorial to set you up with an account on the Academic Commons that will enable you to contribute materials. Remember, this next step requires access to a Brooklyn College (or other CUNY) email address. If you do not have this yet, be sure to get it as soon as possible so that you can complete this task. You can still go back to the module overview or click through the next part of the overview until you get to our second shared technology: Hypothes.is.
