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.

Tests and Quizzes

Accommodations

In Blackboard Ultra, you can now add accommodations for students using the Course Roster and the accommodations are automatically applied to all assessments. Accommodations can include adjusting time limits, exempting students from time limits, and exempting students from due dates.

Open the roster, find the student, and select the more option (…) menu to add their accommodation. More information can be found on Blackboard’s Help page: Roster

Create a Test

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 Test

5. Enter the Name of the Test

6. Select the plus sign to add details to the assignment:

   1. Add Text to enter instructions for the assignment

   2. Add Questions to create new questions or select from an existing Question Pool

   3. Auto-Generate Questions to use Blackboard’s AI Design Assistant to generate assessment questions.

      1. Adjust the parameters and select the questions you want to add to your assignment and discard those that don't fit your needs. Edit the questions as needed to refine their clarity, accuracy, and relevance to your specific course context.

   4. Add a local file or Add File from Cloud Storage to upload any attachments related to the test.

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

   1. Details and Information

      1. Due Date (recommended time 11:59PM on due date)

      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 (disables student’s ability to submit online)

   2. Presentation Options

      1. Display One Question at a Time

      2. Prohibit Backtracking (this option becomes available if one question at a time is selected)

      3. Randomize Questions

      4. Randomize Answers

      5. Randomize Pages (this option becomes available if Page Breaks were added to the exam)

   3. Grading and Submissions

      1. Grade Category (Default is Test)

      2. Attempts Allowed (Default is 1)

      3. Grade Using Points, Percentage, or Letter Grades (this is how the grades will display to students)

      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, students will not see their grades until you choose to post them.

   4. Assessment Results

      1. Customize what results students are able to see and when these results will become available to them.

   5. Assessment Security

      1. Access Code (not recommended)

      2. Respondus Lockdown Browser Dashboard

         1. Do NOT check “Lock students into Respondus Lockdown Browser until they submit.” If you do use this, set a password to allow students to exit.

   6. Additional Tools

      1. Time Limit

      2. Use grading rubric. Rubrics can be created in Blackboard and attached to any assessment. 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. 

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

8. 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.
   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.

9. Once all you have finished, close the exam.

Generate Question Banks from Course Content:

You can select the auto-generate test bank from any course content area and Blackboard’s Design Assistant will analyze the content and generate a series of questions.

Open

Open

1. Select Auto-generate question bank wherever you see the option in your course.

2. Adjust the parameters and select the questions you want to add to your test and discard those that don't fit your needs.

   1. Description: Provide a clear and concise description of the topic or concept the questions should address. The more specific you are, the more relevant the generated questions will be.

   2. Complexity: Adjust the complexity level of the questions based on the intended student audience. Higher complexity levels cater to more advanced learners.

   3. Number of Questions: Specify the desired number of questions to be generated.

   4. Question Type: Choose from a variety of question types, including:

      1. Essay

      2. Fill in the blank

      3. Matching

      4. Multiple choice

      5. True/False

      6. "Inspire me!" (suggests a mix of question types)

The questions will be saved to a question bank which can be used in any assignment or test.

Export/Import a Test from One Course to Another

Instructors can copy individual content, including an exam, from one course to another as long as they have instructor access to both courses. To learn more, see Export, Import, or Copy Blackboard Ultra Courses

Instructors who wish to share their exam with another instructor should contact academiccomputing@fairfield.edu with the their course ID and exam name, and the course ID the test will be imported into it.

Require Respondus LockDown Browser for Your Exam

Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Blackboard. When students take an online assessment that uses LockDown Browser they are unable to print, copy, go to another URL, or access other applications. When an assessment is started, students are locked into it until they submit for grading. It is available across Windows, Mac and iOS platform.
Instructor Resources

To ensure students are successful the first time they take a test using Respondus LockDown Browser, we encourage you to provide a practice test with unlimited attempts. You can create your own, or use the practice test on Study Skills and Ultra Navigation that we have created to sample each question type. To use our file:

1. Download the file

2. In your course, option the More Options (...) menu in the top right of the the Course Content Page and select Import Content

3. Select Import Test and select the .zip file

4. The test will be added to an Underplayed Tests folder at the bottom of your course. You can move it out of the folder and make it available to students.

Open

Discussion Board and Journals

In addition to supported tools such as Harmonize and Padlet, Blackboard has a built-in discussion and journal tools to create an online community and spark deep conversations amongst your students.

You can now leverage the AI Design Assistant to write prompts for journals and discussions!

• Open-Ended Prompt Ideas: the AI Design Assistant can suggest interesting prompts for discussions or journals based on the current module's topic and learning objectives. These prompts can stimulate critical thinking, collaboration, and reflection.

• Case Study Generation: To spice up your discussions, the AI Design Assistant can generate specific case studies related to the course material. Students can analyze these cases and apply their knowledge in a practical context.

• Reflective Prompts: For journal entries, the AI Design Assistant can suggest thought-provoking prompts that encourage students to reflect on their learning and personal connections to the material.

More information can be found on Blackboard Ultra Course View Discussions.

AI Conversation

The AI Conversation was released September, 2024 as a new Socrative questioning exercise. The instructor write the initial prompt for students to reflect on and answer, and the AI persona (defined by the instructor) asks follow up questions to help students explore their thoughts on the topic.

There are two elements to the activity:

• AI Conversation 

  • This lets students think critically about the topic that the instructor designs.

• Reflection question 

  • This asks the student to share their thoughts on the activity. The reflection question also lets the student flag any bias or errors from the AI as part of Anthology/Blackboard’s Trustworthy AI Approach. Reflection helps students understand the responsible use of AI services. 

Instructors have the following configuration options: 

• A topic for the AI Conversation 

• An AI persona including a name, avatar (can be uploaded or generated), and personality trait 

• Complexity level of responses 

• Edit the reflection question, guiding the student on how best to reflect on this activity 

On submission, the instructor can review the AI conversation transcript and the student's reflection. The AI Conversation is a formative assessment by default, but you’re not restricted to this option.

Rubrics

Rubrics can help ensure consistent and impartial grading and help students focus on your expectations. They can be created within the assessments settings or through the Gradebook settings. Students can see the rubrics tied to an assessment before they begin and again when the grades are submitted.

Blackboard’s AI Design Assistant can be used to generate rubrics for your assessments with criteria and levels relevant to the chosen assignment or discussion prompt. You can use to design your rubrics or as a starting off point, adjusting the rubric to meet your goals.

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