In addition to the various tools ITS supports for creating assessments and engaging with your students, Blackboard has several built-in assessment features.

Assignments

Create an Assignment (Paper, Video Projects, etc.)

When you create an assignment, a gradebook item is created automatically.

After you post assignment grades, students can view their scores on their grades pages or in the activity stream. They can also access an assignment, their submissions, your feedback, rubrics, and their grades from the assignment link on the Course Content page.

1. Open your Blackboard course

2. Select the plus sign where you want to add an assignment. You can also expand or create a folder or learning module and add an assignment within that element.

3. Choose Create

4. Under Assessment, select Assignment

5. Enter the Name of the Assignment

6. Enter your assignment instructions and attach any relevant files.

7. Open the Settings Panel to set the assignment parameters:

   1. Details and Information

      1. Due Date (recommended)

      2. Prohibit Late Submissions (not recommended)

      3. Prohibit New Attempts after Due Date (attempts that were started before the due date can still be returned to and submitted)

      4. Allow Class Conversations (enables a feature where students can share questions or comments about the assignment without leaving the assignment page)

      5. Collect submissions offline (creates a grade book column but prevents students from submitting on Blackboard)

   2. Formative Tools

      1. Formative Assessment

      2. Display formative label to students

   3. Grading and Submissions

      1. Grade Category (Default is Assignment)

      2. Attempts Allowed

      3. Grade Using Points, Percentage, Letter Grades, or Complete/Incomplete

      4. Maximum Points

      5. Anonymous Grading (optional)

      6. Evaluation Options (for peer review or team-taught courses)

      7. Assessment Grade - Post assessment grades automatically. If disabled, you will need to post student grades after saving them before students will be able to see your grade and feedback.

   4. Additional Tools

      1. Time Limit.

      2. Use grading rubric. Rubrics can be created in Blackboard and attached to an assignment. For more information, Rubrics in Ultra Course View.

      3. Assigned Groups. Change the assignment from individual to a group assignment.

      4. Originality Report. Enabled SafeAssign. 

      5. Use SafeAssign to check for plagiarism. Note: For assignments with multiple attempts it is highly recommended to check Exclude submissions from the Institutional and Global References Databases

8. When ready, select Save to save your assignment settings.

9. Finally, set the availability. By default, all new content is hidden from students. You can select the dropdown to change to visible to students or set release conditions such as a specific date and time. We do not suggest enabling “Hide After” as this will also hide the grade book column and prevent students from submitting late even if they have a time limit accommodation.

10. Once all you have finished, close the assignment.

Offline Assignments

Offline assignments in Blackboard Ultra offer benefits beyond just collecting traditional submissions. Instructors can create assessments for offline work that appear on the Course Content page that don't require students to upload submissions. Instructions, rubrics, and goals can be conveyed to students, and maintain a comprehensive record of all coursework within Ultra. This eliminates the need to manually transcribe grades from physical assessments and allows for more structured grading and feedback.

When you create an assignment/assessment, you can choose to collect submissions offline in the settings panel. When students open this type of assignment/assessment, they're informed they can't submit work online. If you create groups to collect submissions offline, students can view their group members.

 Examples of offline work:

• Oral presentations

• Science fair projects

• Acting performances

• Artwork delivered in person

• Face-to-face team building exercises, panel discussions, and debates

What do students see?

Students can view the assessment alongside other content on the Course Content page and on their global and course grades pages. Students are informed they can't submit work online. They can access other information, such as the instructions and a rubric if you added one. Students can participate in the assessment's conversations if enabled.

Tests and Quizzes