Most of my online notes for students consists of text plus images and occasionally other information such as PDFs, etc. I've been in the habit of adding these to Blackboard as compressed Zip archives, but I've just discovered that it's no longer possible to upload a Zip archive to a course area in Blackboard. Instead, folders must be created in the Blackboard Content Collection (filestore), content uploaded, unzipped, and then added to course sites. This cumbersome workflow is a non-starter for me. I almost always wind up updating my notes on Blackboard frequently during courses and can't be doing with something as awkward as this and all the problems with versioning it is likely to cause, so I need an alternative to the time honoured Zip. Which poses some interesting possibilities:- I could simple remove all the extra content from my online notes and start teaching in a minimalist stylee. Bad idea, that my pedagogic approach should be driven by broken technologies.
- I could carry on using the approach I've always used, but upload a single html file with external links to all the extras which would be hosted elsewhere. That's fragile and liable to break, and I'm pretty sure it contravenes Space Corps Directive 196156.
- I could bundle everything up as a PDF file. While I'm sure this would be popular with students who would be able to file all my notes away without ever having to read them, I'd spend the rest of my life hating myself for using a print format online.
- Or, going back to the first point, I could simply chuck up a list of links online and rely on face to face lectures and help sessions for information transfer, i.e. back off on the whole online notes thing.
What's your advice?
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