Using Blackboard.com Software to Reach Beyond the Classroom: Intermediate

Using Blackboard.com Software to Reach Beyond the Classroom: Intermediate NESA Conference 2007 Presenter: Barbara Dent Educational Technology Training Specialist Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology 6560 Braddock Road Alexandria, Virginia 22312 Barbara.Dent@fcps.edu

Course Communication: How will you and your students talk in the course? Asynchronous: o Digital Drop Box o Email o Calendar Synchronous: o Collaboration Tools Virtual Classroom Lightweight Chat Session Archives Creating Assessments: How will you assess what your students have learned? Types of assessment o Test o Survey Types of questions o Calculated Formula o Calculated Numeric o Either/Or o Essay o File Response o Fill in Multiple Blanks o Fill in the Blank o Hot Spot o Jumbled Sentence o Matching o Multiple Answer Create the assessment o Add questions o Make the assessment available to students Pool manager o Create pool o Add questions o Create assessment o Import/Export pool o Multiple Choice o Opinion Scale/Likert o Ordering o Quiz Bowl o Short Answer o True-False o Random Block o From a Question Pool or Assessment o Upload Questions Presenter: Barbara Dent 1

Grading of Assessments: How will you keep track of student performance? Online gradebook o Manage Gradebook o Item Options o View Grades o Gradebook Views o Course Statistics Performance Dashboard Resources on Blackboard Presenter: Barbara Dent 2

Course Communication: How will you and your students talk in the course? Asynchronous: In an asynchronous communication, the "sender" and "receiver" do not have to be in the same place at the same time. Extending a classroom discussion beyond the class period, having students turn in work in digital format, and sending updated or emergency information to your class are all examples of asynchronous communication. o Digital Drop Box The Digital Drop Box allows a student to turn in files to the instructor and allows the instructor to retrieve and return those files to the student. It also allows the instructor to upload files for a particular student. For example, an instructor can electronically distribute a handout to a student, or a student can turn in a term paper, without a physical exchange of papers. Information that needs to be accessed by all students should be posted in a Course Content Area, such as Course Documents. Access to the Digital Drop Box differs from an instructor and student. To access the Digital Drop Box as an instructor: 1. Open the Control Panel. 2. Click Digital Drop Box in the Course Tools area. 3. To send a file, click Send File. 4. Select the student(s) to whom you wish to send the file from the Select Users drop-down menu. Presenter: Barbara Dent 3

5. Use the "Select file" box to choose an already-uploaded file OR... 6. Click the Browse button to search for the file to be uploaded. Note: files can be uploaded individually only. 7. Enter a title for the file as you want it listed in the Digital Drop Box. 8. Enter any comments desired in the comments box (optional). 9. Click Submit to upload the file. 10. Click OK on the "receipt" page. To access the Digital Drop Box as a student: 11. Click the Tools button in the course. 12. Click Course Tools > Digital Drop Box. 13. Click Send File in order to select a file and send to the instructor. Note: Adding a file to the Digital Drop Box does not send it to any users. This must be done with the Send File function. If uploading a file to send directly to students, it is best to use Send File which allows upload and send to student(s) at the same time. The file will remain in your Digital Drop Box for future use. Once you receive a file from a student, you may just want to view the file. You can just click on the Link Name to launch the file. However, you may want to save a copy of the file to your local computer. For example, if you wanted to add comments to the digital version of a student's essay, you might save a copy of the essay locally, edit it to add your comments, and then return the edited file to the student. 14. Right-click on the file name in your Digital Drop Box. 15. Choose Save Target As or Save Link As from the pop-up menu. 16. Save the file to a location on your local computer. Presenter: Barbara Dent 4

17. Using Microsoft Word, open the document from the location you just saved it to. 18. Correct and/or add comments to the document. 19. Save the document with a different file name. (I add an underscore and my initials to the student's file name: _bd) 20. Add that file to your Digital Drop Box in the same manner as before. 21. Send the file back to the student in the same manner as before, making sure to select the student from the list of users. You will occasionally need to remove files from your Drop Box to avoid clutter. Simply click the Remove button to the right of the file to remove it. Files can only be removed individually from the Digital Drop Box - there is no mechanism to remove multiple files at once. 22. Click OK to return to the Control Panel. o Email "Send E-Mail" in Blackboard is the same as any other email system: the exchange of electronic messages between people. Instructors can send email to the individuals who participate in their courses, but they cannot send to others via the Internet. 23. Click the Communication button and select Send E-mail. 24. Select the recipient type - E-mail can be sent to all: users, groups, teaching assistants, or instructors within a course. E-mail can also be sent to select users or select groups within a course. (The instructor can restrict the course e-mail options in Control Panel > Course Options > Manage Course Menu > click on Modify button to Communications Area > Enable/Disable Tools.) Presenter: Barbara Dent 5

25. In the Compose Message window, enter the subject for the e-mail and the body of the message in the appropriate fields. By default, a copy of your message will be sent to you. 26. You can choose to add attachments. 27. Click Submit to send the e-mail. 28. Click OK on the "receipt" page to continue. o Calendar The Calendar function allows the instructor to inform students of important events in the coming days and weeks. 29. Open the Control Panel. 30. Click Course Calendar in the Course Tools section of the Control Panel. 31. Click the Add Event button. 32. Key in an Event title. This title identifies the item on the calendar itself. 33. Enter an Event description, up to 4,000 characters. 34. Select an Event Time. The date can be past, present, or future. Events must be at least 5 minutes long. 35. Click OK. The event will appear on the calendar for all users to see. Click on an event to open it and view the event details. Presenter: Barbara Dent 6

Synchronous: Collaboration Tools Synchronous communication occurs at the same time or "live." In Blackboard, this is done through text-based Internet chat, and whiteboard applications. While its tools require participants to be working together at the same time, they do not need to be together in the same place. When you develop an activity that requires the Collaboration Tools, consider the following: o Be sure that all students have Java enabled browsers since the Collaboration Tools are Java applications. The Java 2 Run Time Environment 1.3.1_04 or higher is required. This plug-in may be downloaded from the page that appears when a user joins a Collaboration Session, or it may be found at http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/index.html. o Since multiple users must participate at the same time, be sure to notify your students about the scheduled session(s) to ensure attendance. o If there are too many users at one time, consider grouping students into several smaller groups to facilitate the conversations. The Collaboration Session page is used to manage both Collaboration Tools: Virtual Classroom and Lightweight Chat. From this page you can access all the Collaboration Sessions for the course, including those already archived as well as future sessions. 36. Open the Control Panel. 37. Click Collaboration in the Course Tools area to access the Collaboration Sessions page: Presenter: Barbara Dent 7

By default, each course has a Lecture Hall (Virtual Classroom) and Office Hours (Lightweight Chat). From this page, you can create a new Collaboration Session, select the type of session to display from the Filter, join a session, modify or remove a session. 38. If you would like to create a special session, click the Create Collaboration Session button. Enter a name for your session, set the start and end dates (optional), make the session available, and select the collaboration tool (Virtual Classroom or Chat) in the Session page. 39. Click Submit when done, then OK. Your new session will now appear as an additional listing on the Collaboration Sessions page for your students to access. Presenter: Barbara Dent 8

o Virtual classroom The Virtual Classroom is a Collaboration Tool that allows instructors and students to participate in real time lessons and discussions and also view archives of previous Collaboration sessions. Within the Virtual Classroom, users can access the Web and engage in question and answer sessions. 40. Open the Control Panel. 41. Click Collaboration in the Course Tools area. 42. Click Join to join the particular session. The Java-based Virtual Classroom server runs within the Blackboard server application. Therefore, it may take a few minutes to load and start the Virtual classroom java applet. The main area contains the following: Section Menu Bar Record Menu Classroom Toolbox Chat Function Allows instructor to manage student participation, monitor breakout sessions, and end the session. Allows instructor to record and store the session for future use in the archives. Includes tools for searching for Web sites, asking and answering questions, utilizing the Whiteboard, and accessing the Course Map. Allows participants to compose messages, ask questions, and activate private messages. Menu Bar Record Menu Classroom Toolbox Chat Presenter: Barbara Dent 9

There are two roles available to users, Passive and Active. All participants assume a passive role as the default at the beginning of a session. The instructor can change the role to active by selecting a user name in the participant list and clicking on the Student icon at the bottom of the Chat section: The Student icon will appear in the Role column next to those students who are active. The student s role can be changed at any time during a Collaboration Session. If students who have a passive role would like active rights, they can raise their hand by clicking the hand icon. When the instructor clicks the hand icon next to a student s name, the student is granted an active role. Menu Bar You manage the session controls, breakout options and end a session through the Menu Bar. View: chooses an option for viewing Personal Messages. Show in-line views private messages within the chat area; Show in separate frame views private messages in a separate window. Controls: selects the level of access Passive and Active users have during a session. Clear: clears the display on your personal chat window or the chat window of all users. End: ends the Virtual Classroom Session. Click OK to end the session and expel all users. Presenter: Barbara Dent 10

Breakouts: selects users to participate in a separate session, while also participating in the main session. Just select the checkboxes for the students who will participate in the breakout session and they will get notification that a new window will open. Students in a breakout session are still active in the main session. Record Menu Virtual Classroom sessions can be recorded and archived by using the Record Menu. 43. Click the Start button to begin recording a session. You will be prompted to name the archive with a customized name or you can accept the default name. 44. Click Submit. 45. Click Pause to pause a recording or Stop to end the recording of the session. A time/date stamp will be included at the end of the archive. Classroom Tool Box The Classroom Tool Box allows the instructor to use the Whiteboard, access Web sites (Group Browser), answer questions from the users, or view the Course Map while in session. To access any tool, just click on the tool and the appropriate window will open immediately below the Classroom Tool Box. o Whiteboard The Whiteboard acts as a blackboard: you can draw images, type text, write equations and manipulate those items using the Whiteboard Tool bar. 46. Once your Virtual Classroom session is open and you have begun the Record process (optional), select the Whiteboard in the Classroom Toolbox to view the tools available for the Whiteboard. 47. Click the appropriate tool button to begin using it: select item, draw a straight line, draw free hand, input an equation, draw a square, draw a circle, enter text. 48. Choose your fill and pen colors as well as Font, Font Size and Line Width. Presenter: Barbara Dent 11

Note: To enter text, click on the text tool (T), then click in the Whiteboard area. A Whiteboard Text Input box appears. Type the text in the box and click Insert. There are additional tools to be found on the Whiteboard Tool bar, located just above the Whiteboard. Before clicking a button on the Tool bar the item(s) must be selected using the Arrow tool. Now you can cut, copy, paste and perform other functions common to word-processing programs. If you are recording the session, you can also take a snapshot of the Whiteboard to include in your session archive. o Group Browser Your entire class can browse the Web during your Virtual Classroom session. URLs viewed will be recorded in the archive if one is created. 49. Select Group Browser in the classroom Toolbox. 50. Enter the URL in the Enter Address field. 51. Select Display to Class from the drop-down menu. The Web site will appear in the Whiteboard area for all students to see. Presenter: Barbara Dent 12

52. To return to the Whiteboard, click the Whiteboard under Classroom Tools and select the Controls tab. 53. Select a page to view on the Whiteboard and click Display. o Course Map The Course Map allows users to browse the Course Contents while they are in a Virtual Classroom session. This is a great way to review Assessments the instructor and students can view the questions and answers they submitted, as long as the Assessment was posted in a Content Area. 54. Select the Course Map in the Classroom Toolbox. 55. Click the Content Area in the Course Map you want to show your students. 56. Select Display to Class in the drop-down menu. If you select Preview in New Window, the new window is visible only to the instructor. 57. As you can see in the following screenshot, the Content Area you selected is visible to the students in the Whiteboard: Presenter: Barbara Dent 13

o Ask Question / Question Inbox Students can ask questions at any time during a Virtual Classroom session. The instructor can then view and respond to the questions using the Question Inbox. Instructors may also use the Ask Question feature, but students must have access rights to the Question Inbox in order to view the instructor s questions. Remember, those rights are given through the Session Controls in the Menu Bar. 58. Select Ask Question in the Classroom Toolbox. 59. Enter your question in the Ask Question box. 60. Click on the Send button to send the question to the instructor. Presenter: Barbara Dent 14

61. To answer questions from your students, click on the Question Inbox in the Classroom Tool. 62. Select the student name from the list and click on the Respond to Question icon to get the pop-up response window. If there have been a series of questions by a student, check the box Show unanswered only to view only those questions that have not been answered. 63. In the Respond to Question window, enter your response in the lower section of the window. If you want the response to go only to the student who asked it, check the Private box. 64. Click Send. 65. To end a Virtual Classroom session, click on the End button in the Menu Bar; then OK. o Lightweight Chat The Lightweight Chat is part of the Virtual Classroom, but it can also be accessed separately without the other Virtual Classroom tools. The Chat allows users to interact with each other and the instructor by means of a text-based chat region. Presenter: Barbara Dent 15

66. Open the Control Panel. 67. Click Collaboration in the Course Tools area. 68. Click Join next to one of the Collaboration Sessions that is designated as Lightweight Chat under the Tools column. The Chat window will open: Both the Menu Bar and Record Menu are the same as in the Virtual Classroom. You still use the Controls to give access rights to your students. Chat participants are listed in the left section of the window. When students log in to the Chat area, they will not see the same Menu Bar: Presenter: Barbara Dent 16

69. To view user information, select a participant in the Participant list and click User Info down below. From this window you can change the student from Active to Passive, as well as expel him/her from the session. 70. To enter a message for the class, type the message in the Compose field. 71. Click Send. Messages will appear in the chat space above the Compose field. 72. If you wish to send a private message to an individual student, first select the participant from the Participant List and then click Private Message. The Compose Private Message pop-up window will appear: Note: Private messages are not recorded or archived. Also, users can send private messages to each other only if the instructor enables this tool in the Session Controls. Presenter: Barbara Dent 17

73. To end a Lightweight Chat session, click on the End button in the Menu Bar; then OK. o Session Archives Session Archives allow instructors and students to review the discussions and questions raised during a Collaboration Session (Virtual Classroom or Lightweight Chat). The instructor had to record the session before a session can be archived. Sessions are archived by date. 74. Open the Control Panel. 75. Click Collaboration in the Course Tools area. 76. Click Archives next to a session. 77. Another window will appear with a listing of archives available. To search for an Archive, use the Search feature. To open an Archive, click on the Archive name and the archived discussion will appear. Presenter: Barbara Dent 18

Note: The instructor must make an Archive available for students to view it. The availability to students can be changed at any time by clicking on the Manage button next to an Archive. Here you can modify the archive s name, and set the availability to students. Now that you have seen all the collaborative features of Blackboard, you will be able to apply some of the features into your own course. Have fun! Creating Assessments: How will you assess what your students have learned? An assessment is a series of questions an instructor presents to students. The purpose of the assessment can be to evaluate concepts, provide drill and practice exercises, perform opinion polls or administer course evaluations. Types of assessment o Test In the test option, you can assign point values to each question. Students take the test online and the test is automatically graded (except for short answer/ essay questions). Results are recorded under each student entry in the Gradebook. o Survey The survey option creates assessments that record answers anonymously. Use this when you want to perform opinion polls or course evaluations. Survey results are non-graded and anonymous. Types of questions Tests and surveys may consist of the following types of questions: o Calculated Formula: contains a formula, the variables of which can be set to change for each user. The variable range is created by specifying a minimum value and a maximum value for each variable. Answer sets are randomly generated. The correct answer can be a specific value or a range of values. Partial credit may be granted for answers falling in a range. o Calculated Numeric: resembles a fill-in-the-blank question. The user enters a number to complete a statement. The correct answer can be a specific number or within a range of numbers. o Either/Or: Users are presented with a statement and asked to respond using a selection of pre-defined two-choice answers, such as: Yes/No, Agree/Disagree, Right/Wrong Presenter: Barbara Dent 19

o Essay: These questions require the instructor to provide students with a question or statement, and students enter an answer into a text field. Blackboard s software does not grade essay questions automatically as it does for every other question type. An instructor must enter the Grade Assessment page and assign points to each essay question. Once this has been completed a final grade can be assigned to the assessment. o File Response: Users upload a file from the local drive. This type of question is graded manually. o Fill in Multiple Blanks: This question type builds on fill-in-the-blank questions with multiple fill in the blank responses that can be inserted into a sentence or paragraph. Separate sets of answers are defined for each blank. o Fill in the Blank: Fill in the Blank answers are evaluated based on an exact text match. Accordingly, it is important to keep the answers simple and limited to as few words as possible. Provide answers that allow for common spelling errors, abbreviations, or partial answers. o Hot Spot: Users indicate the answer by marking a specific point on an image. A range of pixel coordinates is used to define the correct answer. Hot Spot refers to the area of an image that, when selected, yields a correct answer. o Jumbled Sentence: Users are shown a sentence with a few parts of the sentence as variables. The user selects the proper answer for each variable from drop-down lists to assemble the sentence. Only one set of answers is used for all of the drop-down lists. o Matching: Questions provide two columns for students to match appropriately. These questions are good for items that belong in pairs, such as indicating which word goes with each definition. Partial credit is given if a student answers part of the question correctly. o Multiple Answer: Allows students to choose more than one answer to a question. Partial credit is not given for partially correct answers, but the instructor can manually change the number of points a student receives on the Grade Assessment page. o Multiple choice: students indicate the correct answer by selecting a radio button. The number of answer choices you can create is limited to 20. o Opinion Scale/Likert: Question type based on a rating scale designed to measure attitudes or reactions. Users indicate the multiple choice answer that represents their attitude or reaction. When the instructor creates an opinion scale question, six answer fields are prepopulated with the following answers: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree, Not Applicable Presenter: Barbara Dent 20

o Ordering: Requires that student put answers in the correct order. Partial credit is given if a student answers part of the question correctly. o Quiz Bowl: The user is shown the answer and responds by entering the correct question into a text box. An answer must include a phrase and a question word, such as who, what, or where, to be marked as correct. Partial credit may be given if the question word is not included in the answer. o Short Answer: similar to essay questions. The length of the answer can be limited to a specified number of rows in the text box. o True-False: True and False answer options are by default limited to the words True and False. o Random Block: Random Blocks allow the instructor to use a random selection of questions from another Test or Pools already created. This option is not available for Surveys. o From a Question Pool or Assessment: Instructor may select individual questions from Pools or Assessments already created to add to a new test. o Upload Questions: Instructor may import text files containing questions into an Assessment. Create the assessment Instructors can create an assessment from the Test Manager (located in the Control Panel), as well as the Test button located at the top of any Content Area (i.e., Course Documents, Course Information) accessed from the Control Panel. 78. From the Control Panel, choose Test Manager from the Assessment area. 79. Click Add Test button to access the Test Info page: Presenter: Barbara Dent 21

80. In the Name field, enter a name for the test. 81. In the Description field, enter in an appropriate description for the test. Description items can include a sentence about what kind of assessment it is, an indication of what kind of questions are located in the assessment, and the approximate time it should take students to complete the assessment. 82. Enter the instructions for the assessment and click Submit. 83. You will now see the Test Canvas page, or the center of the test creation process. Click on the Creation Settings button. Presenter: Barbara Dent 22

84. In the Test Creation Settings window, check your desired options and click Submit, then OK. If you know the point value of your questions, you can set the default value in this window. The default value must be entered before you add questions to the test. You still have the option of manually changing the value after you have finished creating the test. o Add questions 85. Select the type of question from the drop-down list on the Test Canvas and click the GO button. 86. In the question window, do the following: enter the test question enter the point value (if you did not set the default in the Creation Settings) attach a file or URL (if you selected this option in the Creation Settings) enter answers to choose from and select the correct answer enter a correct response that the student will see if the answer is correct (optional) enter an incorrect response that the student will see if the answer is incorrect (optional) Note: A section dealing with Categories allows the instructor to create categories for questions to help organize them for future use, i.e., History, Geography, American Presidents, Civil War. Click Categorize, then select Category Manager to Add a category or select from a drop-down list. Categories can be modified or removed. The Presenter: Barbara Dent 23

Categorize Question options are only available if Add categories and keywords to questions is selected in the Creation Settings. click Submit Repeat the steps to #86 above for each question you add to your test. The question window will be different for each type of question selected. If you would like to use the Upload Questions option by importing a text file already containing questions into an Assessment you need to identify the file containing the questions to import: The questions in the uploaded text file must match a specific file structure. Each field in the file is separated by a tab, as in this example: Here is the structure for each question type: Multiple Choice MC tab question text (tab answer text tab correct or incorrect ) Text within ( ) may be repeated for each of the answers that are part of the Multiple Choice question. The maximum number of answers is 20. Multiple Answer MA tab question text (tab answer text tab correct or incorrect ) Text within ( ) may be repeated for each of the answers that are part of the Multiple Answer question. The maximum number of answers is 20. Presenter: Barbara Dent 24

True/False TF tab question text tab true or false Essay ESS tab question text tab [rubric text] Text within [ ] is optional. The instructor may choose to add a sample essay question or leave this blank. Ordering ORD tab question text (tab answer text) Text within ( ) may be repeated for each of the answers that are part of the Ordering question. The maximum number of answers is 20. The order entered in the file is the correct order. The system will randomly order the answers. Matching MAT tab question text (tab answer text tab matching text) Text within ( ) may be repeated for each of the answers that are part of the Matching question. The maximum number of answers is 20. The system will randomly order the answers and their question. When uploading a matching question, there must be a one-to-one relationship between questions and answers. If not, correct answers may be marked incorrect if more than one answer has the same value. Fill in the Blank FIB tab question text (tab answer text) Text within ( ) may be repeated for each of the answers that are part of the Fill in the Blank question. The maximum number of answers is 20. File Response FIL tab question Numeric Response NUM tab question tab answer tab [optional]tolerance Short Response SR tab question tab [sample answer text] Opinion/Likert Scale OP tab question Presenter: Barbara Dent 25

Multiple Fill-in-the-Blank FIB_PLUS tab question tab variable 1 tab answer 1 text tab answer 2 text tab variable 2 tab answer 3 text tab answer 4 text The format consists of a list of variable-answers where each variableanswer is composed of the variable name and a list of correct answers for that variable. Jumbled Sentence JUMBLED_SENTENCE tab question tab choice 1 tab variable 1 tab choice 2 tab tab choice 3 tab variable 2 The format consists of a list of choices-answers where each choiceanswer consists of the choice followed by the list of variables for which that choice is the correct answer. An empty field indicates the end of a choice answer. A choice immediately followed by an empty field indicates that that choice is not the correct answer for any variable. Quiz Bowl QUIZ-BOWL tab question tab question word 1 tab question word 2 tab phrase 1 tab phrase 2 The format consists of a list of valid question words followed by an empty field and a list of valid answer phrases. Note: When questions are imported, their point value is the default setting from Creation Settings. Otherwise, the point value is 0 and must be changed by the instructor. 87. When you are finished creating your test, click OK. Your test is finished and is listed in the Test Manager. Once a Test is created, it is not available to students until it is added to a Content Area. o Make the assessment available to students 88. From the Control Panel, open the content area where you want the Test to appear and click on the Test button. Presenter: Barbara Dent 26

89. Select the test you want to make available from the list and click Submit. 90. Click OK in the receipt window. 91. In the Modify Test window that appears, click on Modify the Test options. 92. In the Test Options window, elect the Availability, Feedback and Presentation options for the test. Here you can customize your options to include a time limit, the use of a password to access the test, randomized questions for each student, etc. Most importantly, be sure to make the test link available for your students; otherwise, they will not be able to see it. If you choose to have an announcement generated, Blackboard generates an announcement for your quiz in the location of your choice. Your students only need to click the link to access the test. Presenter: Barbara Dent 27

Presenter: Barbara Dent 28

93. Click Submit when done, then OK. The test link will appear in the Content Area you specified. Note: Once you have made a test available to your students, only textual changes should be made through the Modify function. Otherwise, if you modify an assessment after students have submitted it, the students will view the new, modified assessment, not the original assessment they took. Surveys are created through the Control Panel > Assessment > Survey Manager, in the same way that tests are created through the Test Manager. Survey questions do not include point values or feedback, and they cannot be categorized or include Random Blocks of questions. Once the instructor adds the Survey to a Course Content area and makes it available to the students, the instructor can view the survey results on the Assessment Attempt Details page of the survey by clicking on the survey title in the Gradebook. This page will show how students responded to questions on the survey by percentage. Pool Manager The Pool Manager enables the instructor to store questions for repeated use. Pools contain questions that must be included in a test. Pool questions cannot be presented to students unless they are included in a test. These questions initially do not have point values; instead, point values are assigned after questions are added to a test. New questions can be added to Pools at any time. Pools are course-specific, but pools from other courses can be imported through the Pool Manager. o Create Pool 94. Open the Control Panel. 95. Click Pool Manager in the Assessment area. 96. Click the Add Pool button. 97. The Pool Manager functions the same way as the Test Manager: enter the name, description and instructions on the Pool Info page. 98. Click Submit. 99. Make your selections in the Pool Creation Settings and Submit. Presenter: Barbara Dent 29

o Add questions 100. Choose to add a new question on the Pool Canvas, or select an assessment already created from which to take questions, and click GO. 101. If you select From a Question Pool or Assessment, the Search Pools and Assessments page appears. Select a Test from which to select the questions, and identify your preferred Question type. If you would like to search by Categories, click the Advanced tab to view the categories. 102. Click Search. 103. You will now see a listing of all the questions meeting your search criteria. Check each question you want to include in the Pool; then click Submit. Presenter: Barbara Dent 30

The questions now appear in the Pool. Additional questions may be entered at any time to add to the Pool. o Create assessment Now that the questions are in a Pool, individual tests can be created that draw questions from the Pool. 104. From the Control Panel, click on Test Manager from the Assessment area. 105. Click the Add Test button and enter the information on the Test Info page. Click Submit. 106. On the Test Canvas, select From a Question Pool or Assessment in the Add Question: drop-down list and click GO. 107. Select the Pool from the list, choose your preferred Question type and click Search. Presenter: Barbara Dent 31

108. Select the desired questions from the list by checking the box(es) in front of the questions. Click Submit. 109. The questions are now part of the Test you just created. Once again, the instructor must add the Test to a Content Area and make it available to the students before the students will be able to take the Test. o Import/Export Pool Pools of questions can be exported and imported. Teachers can swap question pools easily, thereby cutting down on the time and effort needed to create multiple test questions. 110. To export a Pool, open the Pool Manager in the Control Panel. 111. Click the Export button next to a Pool you wish to export. 112. You will be prompted to save the file. Save the file to a location of your preference. The exported Pool will be packaged in a.zip file. 113. To import a Pool, open the Pool Manager in the Control Panel. 114. Click the Import button. 115. Browse to the location of the.zip file. Click Submit. 116. Click OK on the Import Pool Complete page. The new Pool will be listed in the Pool Manager. Presenter: Barbara Dent 32

Grading of Assessments: How will you keep track of student performance? Online Gradebook Students will be able to view their grades on Blackboard on each assessment after they have submitted their responses. In addition, students will only be able to view their own grades from Student Tools. An instructor can only view grades from within the Control Panel. o Manage Gradebook 117. Click the Control Panel button. 118. Under Assessment, click Gradebook. The Gradebook opens to the View Spreadsheet page. Only assessments and Assignments that are available through a Content Area are viewed and graded in the Gradebook. From the View Spreadsheet page, the instructor can manage all aspects of the Gradebook: o Add a gradebook item that is not a Blackboard Test/Assignment o Manage items: re-order items that appear in Gradebook, as well as modify/remove items. Tests, Surveys, or Assignments created in Blackboard must be removed from the area where they were created, i.e., Test Manager. Presenter: Barbara Dent 33

o Change the Gradebook display settings: set the values for grades, change the way student information and grades are displayed. In the case of the Gradebook Settings > Manage Gradebook Categories option, the instructor can add a new category to those already created in Blackboard. Categories provided by Blackboard cannot be modified or removed. Added category In the case of Gradebook Settings > Manage Display Options, the instructor can add a grade display, i.e., Pass/Fail. The Letter option is the only Display Option already created in Blackboard that can be modified. Presenter: Barbara Dent 34

119. To create a new grade display from the Manage Display Options page, click the Add Display Option button. In this example, we are going to create a new grade display for Pass/Fail. 120. Enter the name for the new grade display. 121. Enter the numeric values of the range for each grade. 122. Enter the symbol the instructor will use to manually enter grades. Note: this symbol is case sensitive. 123. Enter a numeric value for each manually-graded symbol. This number will be used in calculating the Gradebook grade. 124. If you need to add/remove a row for symbols and values, click the appropriate button. 125. Click Submit when done. o Weight grades by category or item o Download/upload grades for use in a spreadsheet program or as a comma-delimited file. The downloaded file is named gradebook.csv by default. Changes made to the downloaded file in Excel, for example, can then be uploaded back into the Blackboard Gradebook. Existing grades are not automatically written over the instructor must designate the files and students to import to the destination file. o Sort gradebook items Presenter: Barbara Dent 35

o Item Options Instructors can modify Gradebook items and view item statistics from the Item Options page. Item descriptions and availability can be modified, students grades for an item can be viewed, as well as stats about a certain item. 126. Open the Control Panel. 127. Select Gradebook from the Assessment area. 128. Select a Gradebook item by clicking on the item name. The Item Options page will open for the selected Gradebook item. Note: The Item Option page will differ from one item to another, i.e., assignment, test, survey. The following is an example of an Assignments item: The Item Grade List will open a list of students and their grades for this assignment. The Item Detail outlines several item statistics, such as class average and standard deviation. The item name and description can be modified in Item Information. Item Download allows the instructor to download the assignments submitted by students in order to save them to the hard drive and grade them. The file name automatically includes the user name of the student who submitted the file. Presenter: Barbara Dent 36

When a student submits an assignment it appears in the Gradebook for the instructor to access and grade it. The Item File Clean Up enables the instructor to delete student files as well as files the instructor has included with feedback or notes. Multiple files may be selected from the list by clicking the <Control> key. Options for other items may include: Assessment Attempt Details If the item is a survey, this option allows the instructor to view the results of the survey. If the item is an assessment, the statistics will include the average score, average number of points a student received for each question, and the percentage of correct and incorrect answers on a question by questions basis. o View Grades An instructor can modify an individual student s grade on the My Grades page, as well as add comments for the student. To access a student assignment for teacher input: 129. Open the Control Panel. 130. Select Gradebook from the Assessment area. 131. For this first example, select an assignment grade on the spreadsheet. 132. To change the grade, enter a new grade in the Grade field. When an exclamation mark appears in the Grade field, that indicates that the assignment needs to be graded by the instructor. 133. Click the View button to open the Grade Assignment page. Here the instructor can view the assignment, enter/modify a grade, submit comments for the student and upload files. Presenter: Barbara Dent 37

134. Click the Clear Attempt button to delete the student s assignment and allow the student to re-submit the assignment. 135. Click Submit when done. The grade for the assignment is updated in the Gradebook. To access a student assessment for teacher input: 136. Open the Control Panel. 137. Select Gradebook from the Assessment area. 138. For this second example, select an assessment grade on the spreadsheet. 139. To change the grade, enter a new grade in the Grade field on the Modify Grade page. Again, if an exclamation mark appears in the Grade field, that indicates that the assessment needs to be graded by the instructor. Click on the (!) link. This will open that assessment for that student. 140. Click the Clear Attempt button to delete the student s assessment and allow the student to re-take the assessment. Presenter: Barbara Dent 38

141. Read the questions needing your input and enter a point value for each question. The instructor can also change the number of points a student is awarded for a question. Presenter: Barbara Dent 39

142. Click on Submit when done. The student s score will be updated in the Gradebook. 143. If you would like to view the statistics for a specific assessment, click on the assessment item in the Gradebook. 144. Click Assessment Attempt Details from the Item Options page. This is also the procedure for viewing the results of surveys. However, results to individual student attempts on surveys are not available. o Gradebook Views The Gradebook Views page in the Assessment Area includes links that show the users in the Gradebook or the items in the Gradebook. This is a tool for quick searching in the Gradebook. View Grades by Item page shows a list of all the items in the Gradebook. Gradebook details about each item are accessed through this page. View Grades by User page shows a list of all the users in the Gradebook. Gradebook details about each user are accessed through this page. 145. Open the Control Panel. 146. Click on Gradebook Views in the Assessment area. Presenter: Barbara Dent 40

147. Click on View Grades by Item, and then OK. Items can be sorted by column by clicking the arrow at the top of each column. Use the Filter Items by Category drop-down list if you want to see only a certain category of grades. If you want to see details of an individual item, click the name of the item in the list and you will be taken to the Item Options page. 148. Return to the Gradebook Views and click View Grades by User. To see the details of a particular student, click the student name in the list. The User Options page will open. Presenter: Barbara Dent 41

149. Click User Grade List to see a listing of all the grades for that student. 150. Click Submit when done. o Course Statistics The instructor can use the Course Statistics area to generate reports on the course usage and activity. He/She can view a specific student s usage to determine if the student is actively using the course. 151. Open the Control Panel. 152. Click Course Statistics in the Assessment area. 153. Select one of the reports from the drop-down menu. 154. Select your Start and End Dates for the report. Presenter: Barbara Dent 42

155. Select your user(s). 156. Click Submit. Here is an example of a Course Statistics report: Performance Dashboard The Performance Dashboard tool provides a window into all types of user activity in a course or organization. All users enrolled in the course are listed, with pertinent information about that user s progress and activity in the course. 157. To access the Performance Dashboard, go to the Control Panel and click Assessment > Performance Dashboard. Presenter: Barbara Dent 43

Congratulations! You are well on your way to creating challenging assessments and developing surveys that will provide you with valuable feedback for your course. Resources on Blackboard Blackboard Support To get assistance within the NESA Blackboard site, if you click on the Help? button in the upper right-hand corner of your window you will be have access to Blackboard s support. Manual and Tutorials An instructor s manual is available from the Control Panel > Help > Manual, as well as tutorials from Control Panel > Help > Quick tutorials. Online Tutorials Many universities using Blackboard have tutorials and documentation posted on their websites that can also help you. Here are just a few: http://www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/tutorials/ http://blackboardinfo.newark.rutgers.edu/tutorials.html http://www.princeton.edu/as/bb_animated_tutor.shtml http://otel.uis.edu/bbtutorial/ http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/blackboard/ http://atcprod.scranton.edu/tutorial.html http://www.cvtc.edu/tutorials/blackboard.htm http://www.blackboard.com/products/quicktutorials http://www.clt.odu.edu/bb/index.php?src=tutorials http://www.ocdsb.edu.on.ca/teacher_res/elearning/bb_tutorials.htm Presenter: Barbara Dent 44