An Instructor's Guide to Blackboard

Assessment

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. Blackboard provides a number of evaluations and assessments. There are two basic kinds: the Survey and the Quiz/Test.

Surveys record answers anonymously. They are typically used for course evaluations and opinion polls.

The Quiz/Test format allows the instructor to assign points to questions, to have the questions graded, and have the results for each student added into the Gradebook. The result can be a score, letter grade, or a pass-fail. It is possible to mix together different kinds of questions in a single assessment.

1. Test Manager

How to Create/Modify a Test:

• click on the Add Test link from the Test Manager page
• enter a name, description, instructions
• click Submit
• select a question type (choose from Multiple Choice, True/False, Fill in the Blank, Multiple Answer, Matching, Ordering, Essay) on the Test Canvas; see/modify the Creation Settings (if needed)
• click Go
• enter the Point Value for the question
• enter answers to choose from (if you are creating a Multiple Choice question) and select the correct answer by clicking on the box next to the question
• enter Response Feedback that the student will see if the answer is correct or incorrect
• click Submit
• repeat the process until you have added all of the necessary questions
• to modify a Test, click Modify next to the Test that needs to be modified

How to Make a Test Available:

after a test is created in Test Manager, it must be deployed in a content area go to the Assignments area (or any other area where you want to place your assessment)
click on the Add Test button from the list, select the test you want to add (or click Create if you have not created the test yet) click Submit and OK

• to modify general information about the test (name, instructions), click on the Modify the Test link
• to modify test options (availability, feedback,) click on the Modify the Test Options link

Note: Once a test is deployed, students are still not able to see it. You must make the test available/visible for the students.

• check the Yes box after Make the link available under Test Availability; also choose additional options (such as allowing multiple attempts, forcing completion the first time, setting a timer for the assessment, setting the feedback mode and test presentation)
• click Submit and OK

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2. Survey Manager
Surveys provide instructors with an assessment tool that is useful for polling purposes, evaluations, and random checks of knowledge. The Survey Manager is used to create, add, preview, modify, and remove Surveys.

To Add a Survey:

• click on Add Survey link under Survey Manager
• enter a name, description and instructions
• click Submit and OK
• from the dropdown box, select the type of question you would like to create
• type up the questions and the appropriate responses
• click OK once all questions are done

The survey is not deployed anywhere yet, so you must place it in a content area.

go to a content area (such as Course Documents, Assignments, etc.), and select Survey from the dropdown list; click GO

• choose the survey you have created earlier from the list
• click Submit and OK
• to make the survey available for the students, click on the Modify the Survey Options link and under Survey Availability, check the Yes box after Make the link available; change other settings or place restrictions
• click Submit and OK

To Modify a Survey:

• click on the Modify button across from the survey name
• make necessary changes
• click Submit and OK

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3. Pool Manager
Instructors have the ability to pull together questions from all of their existing assessments (and add new questions, if needed) into a Pool. Pools can be used to pull randomized questions for a test or to store questions for later use.

To Create a Pool of questions:

• click on the Add Pool button under Pool Manager
• type in the name, description and the instructions
• click Submit
• to add a new question, follow the same steps that you would take to add a Test question

to add questions from existing Assessments, choose the ‘From a Question Pool or an Assessment' option from the dropdown box click GO

• select the Tests and Pools from which you would like to get the questions; also, select the type of questions you would like to place in your new Pool
• click the Search button; (Blackboard will search for and put together all of the questions you have selected)
• select the actual questions to add to the Pool
• click Submit to finish
• to modify/remove the Pool you have created, click on the Modify / Remove button across from the Pool name

To Export a Pool of questions for future use:

• click on the Export button across from the Pool name
• save the .zip file to your computer (do not unzip)

To Import a Pool:

• click on the Import button under Pool Manager
• click Browse to locate a file to import
• click Submit and OK; you should now see the imported pool on the Pool Manager page

To deploy the assessment questions in a pool:

• choose the content area in which you want the pool to be placed
• click Add Test and Create
• type in the name, description and instructions
• click Submit
• from the Add dropdown box, choose ‘From a Question Pool or an Assessment'; click Go
• in the list, find the pool you have previously created; select the question types to be added
• click Search
• select the actual questions to add to the assessment
• click Submit to finish
• now click on Modify the Test Options to make the assessment available; change any settings/restrictions
• click Submit and OK

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4. Gradebook
Blackboard has a built-in Gradebook that allows an instructor to input grades for a variety of activities and allows students to check their grades online. Students only see their own scores. Instructors can weigh grades, export the Gradebook to a spreadsheet, and view statistics for each assessment or item.

Blackboard uses icons in the Gradebook to indicate the status of a particular assessment for a student. The Gradebook also displays scores, percentages, text (such as Pass/Fail), or letter grades for assessments that were successfully completed and submitted. Clicking these icons/scores provides additional information about a student's responses and allows instructors to correct grades and clear attempts (so that students can re-take tests/quizzes, if needed).

Gradebook Icons:

	No Information. A dash shows that the student has not begun to take the assessment and no grade has been assigned. Clicking on this icon will allow you to manually enter a grade for this student.
	Needs Grading. An exclamation point icon indicates that the assessment has been attempted, but requires the attention of an Instructor, TA, or Grader before a grade can be calculated and displayed. This usually means one of two things has occurred: The assessment has been completed by the student, but includes essay questions that need to be evaluated and graded by the Instructor, TA, or Grader. Click the icon to view the student's response and add the appropriate points for the each essay question, the exclamation point will be automatically replaced with the grade. The student exceeded the pre-set time limit for the assessment. Click the icon and apply the appropriate value for the assessment.
	In Progress. A padlock indicates that a student has begun the assessment, but has not yet clicked Submit. The padlock icon will also appear if the student experienced network or browser failure when taking the assessment and was unable to complete the assessment. If this is the case, you may click the padlock icon and click Clear Attempt to reset the student's attempt. If the student starts the assessment, but does not submit the assessment within three days, the padlock icon will change to the question mark icon (see below).
	Grading Error. A question mark alerts the instructor that the student began to take the assessment more than three days ago, but the attempt was never successfully submitted. The student may have experienced network or browser failure while taking the assessment, and was unable to return to the assessment to continue. Note: If you wish to allow a student to re-take an assessment, click on the icon and use the Clear Attempt. This will erase the student's score from the Gradebookand allow the student to begin the test again.
	Completed. Student has completed the assessment.
	Unavailable Item. The item is not available.

Weighting assessments:

• click on the Weight Grades button on the top bar
• choose a category or item and type in the weight
• click Submit

Note: The total of all weights must equal 100%.

Downloading grades:

• click on the Download Grades button on the top bar
• select the delimiter type for the downloaded file
• click Submit and Download to save on your computer

Note: You might have to right-click (control-click on Mac) on the Download button and choose Save Target As...

Uploading grades:
Once grades have been downloaded from Blackboard, they can be modified in Excel and uploaded to Blackboard.

• click on the Upload Grades button on the top bar
• browse for the .csv file and click Submit
• choose the columns to be imported; click Submit
• click Submit again and OK

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5. Gradebook views
Instructors have two options: they can view grades by the Gradebook item or by the students' names. If you choose View Grades by Item, you will see all of your gradebook items and details about the items, such as category, weight points possible, and date. If you choose View Grades by Student, you will see a list of the students enrolled in your course. By clicking on each student, you have the ability to access his or her grade list, detail and information.

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6. Course Statistics
The Course Statistics can be used to help you effectively manage your course. Instructors can see which students are accessing their course site, and which are not, as well as how often they are doing so. Instructors can determine whether using the Blackboard Course Site they have set up has a connection to student achievement.

You can view the following course statistics: Total Number of Accesses per Area; Number of Accesses over Time; Student Accesses per Hour of the Day; Student Accesses per Day of the Week; Total Accesses by Student.

Instructors have the ability to adjust filters to look at a specific time period, specific student or list of students. If you do not choose specific students from the list, the statistics will include everyone who has visited your course site, including those that are not enrolled in your course. If you want the statistics to include just those enrolled, you must select them all using the Selected Studentsfeature.

It is also possible to view statistics for an individual course item. But you would first have to set Tracking.

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Tracking
As class sizes grow, it gets increasingly difficult to monitor student progress and identify learners who may be lagging behind or having trouble mastering the content of your course. This tip should help you monitor student progress.

To turn on tracking for an individual course item:

• go to the Content Area that holds the file, which you would like to track
• click to Add a new Item, or choose to Modify an existing item
• in the options area, choose to Track number of views; this will allow you to see statistics on how many times this item has been accessed
• click Submit and OK

Note: Tracking can only be set for individual items, not folders.

To check tracking for a particular item:

• go to the Content Area that holds the file, for which you have already set tracking
• click on the Tracking button across from the file name
• set Time Period restrictions (if you want to view the statistics for a specific period of time)
• choose All Students or Selected Students (select the students you would like to track)
• click Submit to view the data
• click OK to return

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