As the Calcasieu Parish School Board navigates distance education among coronavirus closures, Blackboard, the district’s learning management system, has become an integral piece of the puzzle. Families may be used to accessing the site prior to the virus when it served as their teacher’s website but it now serves to facilitate learning experiences and collaboration in cyber-space.

“We chose this tool to go district-wide during the pandemic because we’ve had at least 75 percent of staff trained and familiar with it,” Kim LeBlanc, chief technology officer, said. Since March 13, the department has hosted 75 additional webinars on the service and trained 6,000 participants.

Blackboard was also an easy choice because it served as central hub for learning without having to navigate many different sites, she said.

“Let’s keep the pathway the same without any stopping points. We don’t want them jumping to 100 places, but instead they have one central location to work from.”

Now, in addition to posting announcements and messages, teachers can hold face-to-face meetings with classes and be available for office hours for at home learners.

“Maybe it’s just to touch base, remediation or review, teachers can do that in this space,” Pam Nicholson, technology coordinator, said.

Blackboard also allows for recording and chat transcripts that allow students to go back watch the session later in case of absence or the need to review.

Since the beginning of school closures, the site has had an average of 80,000 page views per day with a variety of uses including special education services, speech therapy and even band auditions.

“It really serves a great purpose,” LeBlanc said. “It allows the teacher to see the kids face to face, which we know is an important piece of learning.”

Age is not a limiting factor in student’s abilities to access the technology, LeBlanc said, as evidence by even a pre-k teacher’s use of the service.

“Your first thought is ‘How can pre-k and kindergarteners log in?’ But they can and with that keyboarding skill you’re teaching letter recognition. You can only imagine what advantage you’re giving those younger learners at such an early age.”

To access Blackboard, students or parents should visit www.cpsb.org, navigate to their school, click faculty and locate their teacher’s name to be directed to their site. If a student does not know their login, email info@cpsb.org for credentials.