Building a Test

Various options are available for building quizzes and tests to be delivered to students via a Blackboard course.  If your publisher provides a test bank (either Blackboard-compatible or as a zipped file of Word documents), TLC staff can help you import those into a Blackboard course.  We can also assist with converting your own Word documents to Blackboard pools.  Learn more about these options on our Test Question Processing document.


If test banks are not available from a publisher or you do not already have electronic or printed versions of tests, you can also create a test one-question-at-a-time within Blackboard.  Additionally, use the options below to edit tests imported into Blackboard from a publisher.  

Build Test

1. Visit the Course Tools area under the Blackboard Control Panel  
2. select Tests, Surveys, and Pools  
3. select Tests 
4. click the Build Test button
5. enter a name for the test (description and instructions are optional)
6. click Submit

There are three buttons available on the action bar of the Test Canvas page, allowing instructors to either build tests one-question-at-a-time or add existing questions from pools or tests already in the course:

Create Question
There are seventeen question types that can be used within Blackboard.  Objective questions, such as multiple choice, matching, and true/false, can be automatically graded by Blackboard.  Subjective questions, such as short answer and essay, will need to be graded by the instructor.  There are also options like file response questions, which allow the student to upload an attachment - it is a good idea to have students prepare some things in advance and upload them, rather than taking a lot of test time to complete a more lengthy response.  Learn more at Blackboard Help's official Question Types page.  Many of the pages provide examples for each question type, as well as video tutorials.

Reuse Question
This is the option most commonly used, as it involves options to select questions from pools, tests, or a combination of both, to build a new test.  We don't recommend choosing Question Set (the first option), but instructors can either select Random Block or Find Questions.  Random Block allows you to pull numerous questions from a pool and assign a given number of questions to each student so that they are all receiving a different set of questions (for example, you can take 100 questions from a pool and randomly assign 20 or 25 to each student).  Find Questions allows you to select specific questions from various pools or tests to build a new test.  Learn more at Blackboard Help's Reuse Questions page.

Upload Questions
Microsoft Excel or .txt files can be specially formatted and uploaded to Blackboard to create a test.  Learn more at Blackboard Help's Upload Questions page.

Building a test makes it available to you as an instructor and allows you to edit it at any time, but the test will not be visible to students until you deploy it.  Visit us again next week for an overview of deploying tests within Blackboard and the various options involved.

Rubrics

Rubrics are excellent assessment tools for any type of assignment or project.  Not only do they communicate clear expectations to students, but they also assist instructors when it comes time for evaluating student work.  "Rubrics can help ensure consistent and impartial grading. . . Students can use the rubric to organize their efforts to meet the requirements of an assignment, and [instructors] can use them to explain evaluations to students."  (taken from Blackboard Help's Rubrics page)

Learn more about creating Rubrics for Blackboard submissions . . . 

Anything within Blackboard that has points associated with it (assignments, discussion board, journals, blogs, etc.) can have a rubric linked to it.  By default, rubrics are not visible to students, but these settings can be easily changed.  When you allow students to view rubrics, they can preview the rubric before submitting an assignment and can view the scored rubric once you grade the submission to find out how many points they received for each portion of the assignment or project.  

Learn more about using Rubrics to grade Blackboard submissions . . . 

Instructors can customize any of the criteria and levels of achievement for any rubric.  Rubrics scores can be set based on points/percentages, as well as a range of either one.  A single rubric within a Blackboard course can be assigned to multiple assignments/projects, or each assignment/project can have its own rubric.  Rubrics can be created as part of the assignment creation process or can be created within the Course Tools > Rubrics area of the Blackboard Control Panel and later added to any assignment/project.

Visit Blackboard Help's official Rubrics page to learn more about creating, editing, and managing rubrics.  

There are some great online tools for building rubrics that can be helpful if you're looking for ideas for descriptions for each criteria.  You can gain ideas from these rubrics to use as you build your own within Blackboard.  Visit either of the following sites for rubric information and ideas (be sure to read and follow the terms of use / usage policy for each one):

• Rubistar
• Rubric Maker

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For additional assistance with Blackboard Assignments, including inline grading and rubrics, contact the TLC at tlc@icc.edu or (309) 694-8908, or visit us in room 240A on the East Peoria campus.

Next week our Blackboard Users' Group will meet in the TLC on Wednesday, February 3 at 12noon or Thursday, February 4 at 3pm - participants may attend either session.

Our February blog series will focus on Tests & Pools and will include topics about building and deploying tests, as well as viewing test results and access logs.

Inline Grading

Inline Grading is a Blackboard feature that allows instructors to comment directly on student submissions within the Blackboard environment, eliminating the need to download the assignments, comment on them, and then re-upload them to Blackboard.  Check out Blackboard TV's overview the Inline Grading features below:

In order for instructors to use the Inline Grading feature, students must upload files in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF formats.  This feature will not work with files uploaded in other word-processing formats.  Students who use a program other than word to type an assignment should save as PDF before uploading the assignment to Blackboard.

Inline grading allows you as the instructor to comment on certain words, sentences, paragraphs, or entire areas of a student submission.  You can highlight certain passages, place markers at certain points within the text, or draw boxes around areas within the document and then provide comments in the margin.  You can also strike out certain words and provide text comments directly on the paper as well.  Additionally, both instructors and students can download an annotated version of the paper with all instructor comments included.

For a more detailed overview of how the Inline Grading features work, check out the following video from Case Western Reserve University:

Additional Video Resources:

• Blackboard Learn Quick Hit Video: Improved Inline Grading
• Grading a Blackboard Assignment: Inline Grading
• Blackboard Tutorial: Inline Grading | lynda.com

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Visit us again next week when we cover using Rubrics with Blackboard Assignments.

Creating Assignments

Why create and have students submit assignments in Blackboard, rather than collecting them during class?  There are several advantages:

• Maintain an electronic record of student submissions that can be accessed at any time, rather than collecting, maintaining, and returning actual papers.
• Make it easy to track any late assignments by viewing the date/time stamp for any submission.
• Have columns automatically generated within your Blackboard Grade Center whenever you create an assignment (or anything else that has points associated with it).
• Automatically generate calendar items/reminders within Blackboard, allowing students to track upcoming deadlines and due dates.
• Check student assignments for plagiarism using the Safe Assign option available when creating an assignment.
• Use Inline Grading features to comment directly on student assignments, rather than having to download, comment, and re-upload submissions (continue to follow this month's blog to learn more about Inline Grading).
• Use Blackboard Rubrics within the Grade Center to score and provide feedback on student submissions (continue to follow this month's blog to learn more about Rubrics).  
• Maintain a record of student assignment submissions as part of the course archive once the course has ended.

Assignments can be created within any content area of a Blackboard course by selecting the Assignments option under the Assessments menu; learn more at the official Blackboard Help page Creating Assignments.  The only requirements are the assignment name and points possible, but there are several other options available as part of the assignment-creation process.

Assignment Files - Use this area to upload any files associated with the assignment, similar to the way you would upload an attachment within an email.  Remember . . . unless you need students to make changes to a file (such as a Word or PowerPoint file), always convert and upload files to Blackboard as PDFs.

Due Dates - A due date will display to students when they open an assignment.  It will also add the assignment to the Blackboard calendar view, where students can click on the calendar item to go directly to that assignment.  When you grade a student assignment, you will be notified if the assignment was submitted after the due date/time.

Grading - Under the Submission Details option, we recommend allowing students two attempts for each assignment, rather than keeping the single attempt default setting.  Let students know that you will grade their last attempt and will ignore the first one if they submit two; this avoids the need to clear assignments and then communicate with students about resubmitting.  Learn more about Multiple Assignment Attempts.

Within the same area, instructors can check any of the boxes in the Plagiarism Tools area.  Checking a paper using SafeAssign will check a student's paper against several databases and can be used as a great teaching tool as well.  Learn more about Using SafeAssign in Assignments, and check out the Quick Hit video below:

Collaboration Tools - Best Practices

As we wrap up our month of blog posts on collaborative tools within Blackboard, we would like to focus on some of the best practices for implementing these tools, as outlined within the official Blackboard Help pages (linked within each title below), as well as sharing some additional resources that offer ideas for effectively using these collaborative tools within your courses.

Best Practice: Interactive Tools in Action - Visit this link for lists of suggestions for using each of the collaborative tools, as well as ideas for using the tools in combination.
Effective use of interactive and collaborative tools is essential for developing a successful online community.  While "students report that their satisfaction with online courses relates to instructor presence, and the collaboration and sense of community they experience" (goo.gl/MwySFF), these tools can serve effectively within traditional face-to-face courses as well.  Choosing the right interactive tools, based on course goals, can help to effectively build community by encouraging interaction and development of ideas.  

Best Practice: Grading Reflective Writing
There is much debate over whether instructors should grade reflective writing.  Some give points for completion, rather than assigning a grade to students' ideas.  Instead of assigning a score, they provide feedback to students' ideas in the form of comments.  This helps students to value the writing process, rather than focusing on details for the sake of earning points.  For those who choose to assign grades, it can be very helpful to include a rubric within the tool, and use this as a guide for evaluating the content.  

Best Practice: Commenting on Reflective Writing
"Good job" doesn't provide helpful feedback for students.  Instead, it is important for instructors to focus on providing specific and meaningful comments that will "encourage students to write more, examine their own writing and learning, and feel comfortable when sharing their thoughts and opinions" (goo.gl/hYDvfE).  It is also essential to focus on the big idea and provide positive comments regarding the student contributions.  Since the Blackboard tools allow students to comment back, this allows for dialogue and opportunities to continually encourage students with their writing.

Additional Resources

• Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions
  University of Oregon, Teaching Effectiveness Program
• Online Discussions
  Cornell University, Center for Teaching Excellence
• Improving the Use of Discussion Boards
  Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Teaching with Technology Collaboratively
• Effective Discussion Prompts for Online Discussion Boards
   Check out Galina Culpechina's video (linked above and embedded to the right) for tips on asking effective questions, sample question starters, and alternatives to the question-and-answer format.

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For additional assistance with Blackboard collaboration tools, contact the TLC at tlc@icc.edu or (309) 694-8908, or visit us in room 240A on the East Peoria campus.

Next week our Blackboard Users' Group will meet in the TLC on Wednesday, December 2 at 12noon or Thursday, December 3 at 3pm - participants may attend either session.

There will be no ICC Blackboard blog series during the month of December.  Our January blog series will focus on assignments and will include topics about inline grading, SafeAssign, and rubrics.

Blogs, Journals, & Wikis

Blogs, Journals, and Wikis are collaboration tools similar to Discussion Boards, but each has some variation, as well as a different interface.  There are various ways to incorporate any of these tools into your Blackboard courses:

1. Add a Tool Link to the course navigation menu (Discussion Boards are there by
   default, and others can be added)
2. Add a Tool Link within any content area (these can link either to the full tool or only to one particular instance of the tool)
3. Make any of the collaboration tools available within course groups

BLOGS
A blog, or "web log," is an online forum for sharing information with others.  Blog entries are typically more lengthy than discussion board entries, and blogs are typically updated frequently.  Most blogs include a commenting feature, allowing opportunities for interaction.  Blogs are an effective way for sharing ideas, information, and even artifacts of sorts (via the attachment feature).  Within Blackboard there are three types of blogs: course blogs, where the instructor sets the topic, and all students can add entries and comment on entries; individual blogs, where each student adds entries to their own blog, and other students can view and comment on the entries; and group blogs, where group members can post entries, and other students can view and comment on the entries.  For more information visit Blackboard Help's Blogs page.

JOURNALS
Journals are very similar to blogs.  The primary difference is that, within Blackboard, Journals are set to be private by default, meaning they are only visible to the instructor - not to any other students within the course (unless the instructor chooses to change these default settings).  Journals could be particularly useful as a self-reflective tool for students, where they could reflect on the course, course-related materials, the learning process, or their own progress within the course.  They could also be useful tools for the writing process, as instructors could guide students and provide suggestions on drafts of a written project.  Both instructors and students could engage in conversation via comments to a journal entry.  Students can make multiple entries for a single journal topic, and journals can either be graded or used only for communication purposes.  For more information visit Blackboard Help's Journals page.

WIKIS
Wikis are yet another collaborative tool available within Blackboard.  The primary difference between Wikis and the other collaborative tools is that any course member can add content to and edit a Wiki, making it a truly collaborative experience, where information gradually built upon.  It is also possible to track changes and additions and to revert to an earlier version, if necessary.  Wikis are an effective means for serving as a repository of information compiled by course members.  For more information visit Blackboard Help's Wikis page.  For ideas about using Wikis, visit Best Practices: Wikis in Action.

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The ICC Teaching and Learning Center staff is available to help you build and incorporate any of these tools into your Blackboard courses.  Stay tuned for next week's blog post, where we'll share some ideas and tips for best practices when using discussion boards, blogs, journals, and wikis.

Discussion Boards

Discussion Boards are a commonly-used Blackboard feature that can serve various purposes (list taken from Blackboard Help - Discussions):

• An online meeting place for social interaction among peers
• An additional medium for collaboration and the exchange of ideas
• A medium to pose questions about homework assignments, readings, and course content
• A way to demonstrate the understanding or application of course material
• A record of discussion that members can review at a later point
• A graded activity that demonstrates understanding or application of course material

View Blackboard Learn's video (below) for a comprehensive overview of how discussions work:

The possibilities for incorporating discussion boards into a course, be it online or face-to-face, are numerous.  Instructors could create a number of forums that present questions, and students could answer by creating new threads within the forum and interacting with one another within these threads.  Questions could be related to content from the textbook, current events/issues related to course content, or extensions of in-class discussions.  Instructors could also create a number of threads in relation to a forum topic (restricting students from creating new threads), and students could choose to respond to one or two threads of choice or respond to threads according to group assignments from the instructor.  Visit Blackboard Help's official page, About Forums and Threads, for additional information.

We typically recommend including a general questions forum that could be called something like "Ask the Instructor."  Encourage students to use this forum to ask general questions about the course or assignments (not personal questions about issues like grades), rather than emailing questions to you.  You might even consider allowing students to post anonymously to this forum, as some may be more likely to ask questions if their name is not connected to it.

Blackboard Help's Set Up Discussions page also provides several helpful tips for developing effective discussions, including defining participation requirements, crafting effective questions, encouraging new ideas, and moderating forums.  There are several options available in terms of setting how much control you allow students to have within the forum.  This help page also discusses options for making discussion forums and threads available to students via either the navigation menu or tool links within course areas - it would be helpful to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each option.  TLC staff is available to help you explore options and determine which method will work best in each of your course settings.

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Visit Blackboard Help's official page on Discussions for additional information, ideas, and links to supplemental topics related to Blackboard discussions.

In the next couple of weeks we'll focus on other collaborative Blackboard tools like Blogs, Journals, and Wikis, as well as best practices for using any of the tools individually or in combination.