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Category: Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #159: Changes to Blackboard Learn are Coming

there's more to learn

During the break between summer and fall semesters Blackboard will be upgraded to version 9.1 Q4 2015. This upgrade will also include several service pack upgrades to take us from our current Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP 13 version. Upgrading to the Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2015 release gives us a number of exciting new features as well as a few bug fixes. New features include:

1) Student Preview: With the new Student Preview, instructors can navigate their courses just as their students would. The Student Preview feature provides a new button that appears in the breadcrumb bar next to the course Themes and Edit Mode buttons and is shaped like an eye.

View short video: Student Preview [2:23]
View more information about Student Preview

Note: With the new Student Preview feature available, test students are no longer needed. The "Add Test Student" course tool will be removed and all test student accounts will be removed from Blackboard after the upgrade.

2) Date Management: Once a course has been copied, professors can update the dates of items in the course from one location.

View short video: Date Management [3:12]
View more information about Date Management

3) Groups Management: Now, you can easily see which students are in a group, which groups have been active, modify group membership and export group memberships among classes.

View short video: Groups Management [2:44]
View more information about Groups Management

4) Grade Center Improvements: There are a few new improvements to the Grade Center:

  • Grade Schemas allow an A+ to be more than 100%.
  • The "Options" page allows you to set the "Score Attempts Using" option. This is a workflow improvement that ensures you can easily find this setting for all tools that support multiple attempts.
  • Test total points adjustment: This enhancement address several related needs, all revolving around the total points possible for tests, and needing to adjust the total points possible.
View more information about Grade Center Improvements

5) My Grades: My Grades has an ordering and design update. The My Grades page provides students with a new default option for the order their grades are displayed in.

View more information about My Grades

6) Inline Grading: Inline Grading has been updated to include discussion boards, journals, wikis, and blogs.

View short video: Improved Inline Grading [2:02]
View more information about Inline Grading

7) Anonymous Grading: You can add another layer of fairness and impartiality to your grading by using the anonymous grading feature. The anonymous grading feature allows you to hide student's names while grading.

View more information about Anonymous Grading

8) Delegated Grading: When there are multiple instructors assigned to a course, you can delegate who grades which assignments, or delegate a specific person to grade everything for a specific set of students.

View more information about Delegated Grading

9) Significant Figures in Calculated Formula Test Questions: You can now select the number of decimal places or significant figures for generated correct answers.

View more information about Significant Figures in Calculated Formula Test Questions

10) SafeAssign Integration: SafeAssign is now integrated with the Assignment tool. SafeAssign originality reports are viewed in the Grade Center where you also have access to the Inline Grading feature.

View short video: Deeper SafeAssign Integration [3:44]
View more information about Deeper SafeAssign Integration

11) SafeAssign Originality Reports: SafeAssign reports have a redesigned format.

View more information about SafeAssign Originality Reports

12) Course Message Notifications: You can now be notified of new messages in the My Blackboard Updates area, the What's New Module, and in your email.

View more information about Course Message Notifications

13) Thread-to-Thread Navigation in Discussion Boards: Users are able to navigate to the next or previous thread in a discussion from the Thread Detail page without having to navigate back up to the Discussion Forum page.

14) Special Characters in Assignment Titles: When a user uploads a file and the filename contains special characters (such as / \ : ? * " < > |), the system will replace the special character with an underscore (_).

15) Microsoft Edge Browser Support: The Microsoft Edge (Windows 10) browser is now supported.

Want more information?

Get more information about the new features of Blackboard Learn 9.1 Service Pack 14 and April 2014 Release.
Sign up for a Blackboard workshop or stop by one of the drop-in sessions for one-on-one help.
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #158: Changes to Turnitin are Coming

Turnitin has released a major product upgrade that will soon be available with our Blackboard integration. The new version of the service, called Turnitin Feedback Studio, offers all the functionalities of Turnitin, but with a simplified, more intuitive interface.

Turnitin Feedback Studio logo

Turnitin Feedback Studio’s simplified, more intuitive user experience brings together the grading, feedback, and similarity checking services in one view. Additionally, the contextual marking approach of the iPad app allows educators to click anywhere on the paper and leave a comment, QuickMark Comment, or text comment at any time.

Turnitin Feedback Studio will make it faster and easier than ever to promote academic integrity, provide actionable feedback, and evaluate student learning.

Our version of Turnitin is scheduled to be upgraded to Turnitin Feedback Studio in between the summer and fall semesters. Once upgraded, you can expect to see a new interface when you open up a student’s paper in Turnitin. Your students will also experience this new and improved interface when viewing Similarity Reports and receiving feedback.

Want more information?

Try out an interactive demo
Review the Feedback Studio Instructor Guide
Review the Feedback Studio Student Guide
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #157: VoiceThread

VoiceThread is powerful learning tool that extends the classroom by allowing users to have conversations or discussions around audio and visual media without scheduling a specific time to meet. VoiceThread humanizes interactions in an online environment. VoiceThread can be used to enhance student engagement and online presence.

VoiceThread conversations in the cloud

VoiceThread adds a more personal element to the online experience when utilizing the features of commenting via voice. By hearing and seeing the instructor and classmates during a VoiceThread, a familiarity develops that feeds deeper participation. Utilizing VoiceThreads can give you and your students a "voice."

With VoiceThread, instructors and students can create, share, and comment on media (e.g., images, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, documents, PDFs) using a microphone, webcam, text, phone, and audio-file upload.

Additionally, VoiceThread is integrated into our Blackboard system which gives us Single Sign-On authentication and Grade Center integration.

Voicethread is currently available at no cost to Xavier faculty and students.

Want more information?

Explore VoiceThread at XU
Sample VoiceThreads:
• Photographs That Changed the World
• Visual Thinking
• VoiceThread Digital Library
How to Humanize Your Online Class with VoiceThread (free ebook)
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #156: End of Semester Tasks

As we approach the end of the semester there are a few things you can do in Blackboard to wrap up for the semester.

Download your gradebook

Student access to courses is removed two weeks after the end of a semester. During this process all grade book records are deleted. You should download your gradebook to your local computer after you submit your final grades.

Create a master copy of your course

Courses remain on the Blackboard system for three semesters before they are removed. You can request a Master Course Shell that you can use to develop and maintain your course materials. Master Course Shells will not be removed from the Blackboard system.

Hide old courses from view

When you login to Blackboard you will see your courses for previous semesters listed along with the courses you are currently teaching on the Xavier University and Courses tabs. If you do not want to see older courses in the list, you can hide them from view.

Follow these steps to do it.

Instructions are available in previous Bb tips for downloading your grade book, requesting master course shells, and hiding old courses from view.

Want more information?

Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Dr. Amanda Helm’s Self-Graded Checklists

checklist

Our Educational Technology Community (ETC) had a special guest presentation this past Friday. Dr. Amanda Helm, Assistant Professor in the Division of Business, demonstrated to our virtual participants how she uses Self-Graded Checklists in Blackboard, along with the adaptive release feature, to help students "grade" their work before they submit it.

Dr. Helm posts a quiz she has developed based on the instructions and rubrics she gives to students for each assignment.  The students must complete this quiz before they are able to officially submit their assignment.  When the student answers the quiz questions, they receive automatic feedback in order to improve their work before submitting, as well as an estimation of the letter grade they can expect to receive.

A variety of quiz questions are asked, depending on the project.  They may be as simple as "How long is your single-spaced typed paper?" and "How many sources did you cite?" or more complex in nature, asking content questions which are dependent on the assignment.

To learn more, here is the guest link to the virtual presentation.  It's recommended that you choose to watch the mp4 version:

https://blackboard.xula.edu/webapps/bb-collaborate-BBLEARN/recording/launchGuest?uid=9769e94d-9f6c-4c37-a3a2-ada950fbbcdb

Dr. Helm reports that her students are submitting better quality work by taking this 5 minute assessment before they can officially post their assignments.  She also says that the students have told her that they make adjustments to their work after receiving the quiz results and that her students don't mind taking the 5 minute quiz before being able to submit their work.

Thank you Dr. Helm for sharing this great idea with us!

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #155: Keeping Students on Track

Students are more likely to be successful in a course when they attend regularly and keep up with their coursework. Instructors can use Blackboard to help students stay on track.

person walking on jogging track with the caption stay on track

Review Status, Performance Dashboard, and the Retention Center are features in Blackboard that collectively enable instructors to access student progress.

Review Status allows instructors to give students the ability to mark an item as "reviewed." When Review Status is enabled, there are benefits for instructors and students. The instructor can check to see who has reviewed the item, while students can use the feature to keep track of which content they have reviewed. This is especially useful when students review content in a non-linear fashion.

The Performance Dashboard is used to monitor student progress throughout the course and help keep them on track. A summary of access and progress for each student appears in a table format. Instructors can see the last time a student has accessed the course, which items they have reviewed, and how much they are participating in discussion boards.

The Retention Center is a tool that allows instructors to monitor student performance. Instructors can utilize the Retention Center to identify students who are struggling and help them take immediate action for improvement. Instructors can begin using the default rules in the Retention Center immediately—no additional setup is required. However, instructors can edit the default rules and/or set their own criteria or rules to monitor student performance.

Want more information?

Tracking student performance (PDF)
Enabling Review Status
Using the Performance Dashboard
Using the Retention Center
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #154: Bb Grader

Hand holding iPad mini with Bb Grader app screen showing on the screen

The Bb Grader app provides instructors with a mobile solution to grade Blackboard assignments. With Bb Grader, instructors can use their iPads to review, provide feedback, and ultimately grade submitted assignments from within the app. Instructors can view a detailed list of all assignment submissions and can sort submissions based on a category of information.

Key features in the Bb Grader app:

  • Inline viewing of student submissions for PDF, Word, Powerpoint, PNG, and JPEG files
  • Gesture-based interactions for grading and feedback
  • Support for audio and video-based feedback
  • Course and assignment level views
  • Integration with multiple attempts, group assignments, rubrics, and anonymous grading

Note: For unsupported file types, instructors may download the file, view the file on their device (if supported by the device), and still provide grade information via the Bb Grader app.

The Bb Grader app is not intended to replace all grading workflows within Blackboard; rather, it’s meant to complement it with the enhancement of key features that translate best to a mobile device.

Bb Grader requires iOS 7 + and is compatible with iPad Air, iPad mini, and iPad 2, 3, or 4.

Want more information?

Bb Grader App
See Bb Grader in action (video [2:42])
Bb Grader Features Guide (PDF)
Download Bb Grader app
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #153: Simplify Assignment Collection

Use the Assignment Tool to help you set and manage deadlines, unclutter your inbox, and save trees.

email inbox showing there are 99999 unread messages

The Assignment Tool is an efficient way to manage and collect your student's individual and group assignments digitally. Blackboard's Assignment Tool allows instructors to create a secure location for students to submit class assignments.

Instructors use the Grade Center to monitor the submission process, to view and/or download submitted work, to compose and send confidential feedback to students and to grade the assignment. Instructors can download all of a particular assignment’s student submitted files in a single zip file. In the download zip file, each student submitted file will be renamed automatically to include the assignment’s name, the student’s username, as well as the filename the student originally submitted.

A number of options are available when creating an assignment using the Assignment Tool:

  • Assignment Files - allows instructors to attach supplemental information
  • Assignment Availability - allows instructors to create assignments in advance
  • Assignment Submissions (attempts) – allows for multiple or unlimited submissions
  • Date and Time Restrictions - allows instructors to decide when students can access the assignment
  • Individual or Group Assignments – allows instructors to choose who has access to assignment
  • Tracking Statistics - track the number of views and by whom

Want more information?

Getting Started with Assignments (PDF)
Working with Assignments
How to submit assignments (video [2:28])
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #152: Quick Links

The Quick Links tool allows users to quickly locate any heading or section within any page in Blackboard and jump directly to the link.

Blackboard Quick Links pop-up window

Quick Links work by pulling all headers and important web page landmarks into an easily accessible screen. This accessibility feature improves Blackboard's navigation experience for all users, but especially sighted keyboard only users.

Follow these steps to do it.

To access Quick Links:

  1. Click on the Quick Links icon located on the top left near the Home tab (or press the SHIFT + ALT + L keys on the keyboard).
  2. A pop-up window that displays the landmark and navigation links on the page will open. Any available keyboard shortcuts for the page are also displayed.
  3. Press the TAB key to move between the links.
  4. Press the Enter key to go to the highlighted link.

Want more information?

About Quick Links
Quick Links video [01:24]
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #151: Grade Center – External Grade

An external grade is the grade a student would see in the Blackboard Report Card module, which is a tool we do not currently use.

One column in the Grade Center must be set as the external grade column. The Total column is the external grade by default. If you set another column as the external grade and change your mind, you can simply reset the Total column as the external grade by choosing “Set as External Grade” in the dropdown menu within the column header. Alternatively, you can set any other column to be the external grade.

set as External Grade example

When you view the dropdown menu within the column header for a column that is set to be the external grade, you will not see the "Show/Hide to Users" option. To hide an External Grade column from the students' view, you should edit the column information and choose "No" for the "Show this Column to Students" option.

Note: Any column that is set as the External Grade cannot be deleted. If you want to delete the column that is set as the External Grade column, you will have to set another column to be the external grade first. Once you do this you will be able to delete the column.

Want more information?

About External Grades
Working with the Grade Center
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.