Blackboard Beyond the Basics

Ruth Alsobrook-Hurich Yavapai College

Introduction
Move beyond the basic needs of Blackboard into a world of creativity and style. There are so many areas within Blackboard to help make your life easier and provide students with a user-friendly atmosphere. The simplicity of using these great tools can enhance the class and provide users with other resources which are available to them. Why not use a video to demonstrate how the wings of a hummingbird move? Why not use an image of an author when discussing their work? Why not use an audio sound clip of the pronunciation of a word when teaching language? Most videos, images, and audio, can be embedded via the html code carets. The image below shows a quick view of the process. You may be surprised at how many web sites make HTML code available to you!

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Blackboard Resources
SafeAssignment
SafeAssign helps prevent plagiarism by detecting unoriginal content in student papers. In addition to acting as a plagiarism deterrent, it also has features designed to aid in educating students about plagiarism and importance of proper attribution of any borrowed content. (Behind Blackboard http://wiki.safeassign.com/display/SAFE/About+SafeAssign) In other words, SafeAssign does not determine plagiarism, however, SafeAssign provides a guide on what is a match to information. Instructors should use this as a guideline. To Create a SafeAssignment: 1. 2. 3. Access the Content area for the SafeAssignment Create Assessment Select on SafeAssignment

4.

Complete the fields based on the following:

Field Name
Name Points Possible

Description
Create a title for the SafeAssignment. Enter the total possible points for the SafeAssignment. The value you input will be shared with the Grade Center Item created for this SafeAssignment. Enter instructions for the SafeAssignment Select whether or not the students are able to see the SafeAssignment Checking this will give you a number indicating the number of users who have viewed this assignment posting. Select the date and time ranges when students are able to interact with the SafeAssignment. You can, optionally, enter only a start or end date. Use this to allow students to validate their paper without submitting it to the institutional database. This is useful as an instructional tool so you can help students learn to attribute papers properly. Sets the papers to a high priority in the queue. Papers are checked against a database managed by Blackboard and are competing with all other institutes using SafeAssign for database time Use to allow students to view (or not view) the report generated when they submit their paper.

Instructions Make the assessment available Track Number of Views Availability Dates Drafts **

Urgent checking

Student viewable

5. 6.

If you would like an announcement to display, complete the Optional Announcement fields Click on Submit

NOTE: When copying a course, be sure to navigate to Control Panel > SafeAssign > SafeAssignments and Synchronize this course.

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Test Pools
Test Pools allow for questions to be stored in a container and used as often as requested. These Pools can also be exported and imported into additional courses. A test can then be created from a pool of questions can be added to the course. With One at a Time and Randomize Questions selected, the percentage of same questions appearing on several students tests is very low. For example: A test has 80 questions selected from the pools and added via Question Set. Ten questions are set to display. This means, from those 80 questions, Blackboard will randomly pull ten questions to display for a test. The same two questions appearing for two people using this process is reduced. Are the light bulbs appearing now?! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Select Control Panel > Course Tools > Tests, Surveys, and Pools Select Pools Select Build Pool Enter information Select Submit Add questions to the pool as you would for a test Once all questions have been added, click OK

To use the Questions from the Pool: Create a new Test (Build Test) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Add test information , select Submit Reuse Questions > Create Question Set Select the questions by checking the box Decide Number of Questions to Display Add Points per Question Select OK

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Grade Center
The Grade Center houses students grades. Columns can be created manually as well as through Assessments and Assignments within the Content area. More Information: https://blackboard.fresnostate.edu/documents/Bb9GradeCenter.pdf

Categories and Weighted Columns

To begin, create categories for the content to be weighted. Examples would be Exams, Discussion Board, Assignments, Lab, Etc. To create the categories: 1. 2. Navigate to the Control Panel Select Full Grade Center

3.

Select Manage > Categories

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4.

Select Create Category

5. 6.

Supply Category information Select Submit

Associate each column with a category: 1. 2. 3. 4. Select the dual dropdown arrows in the column Select Edit Column Information Associate column with category Select Submit

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After this process is complete, add a Weighted Column: 1. Select Create Calculated Column > Weighted Column

2. 3.

Provide column name Select Display of choice

1. 2. 3. 4.

Select category Click on the triangle to move to field on right Add weighted percentage (NOTE: Must equal 100This total will show once the last box is tabbed out of) Select Submit

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Grading Rubrics
Rubrics assist in explaining how each assignment, discussion board or assessment in Blackboard is graded. These Rubrics can help students see where their strengths and weaknesses are within a certain criteria.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Navigate to the Control Panel Select Course Tools Select Rubric Select Create Rubric

1.

Provide Name and Description

2.

Add Rubric information and Submit

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a) New rows and columns can be added b) Type can be changed to points or points range c) Categories can be edited via chevron

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Adding a Rubric to Grade Center Column 1. 2. 4. Navigate to the Control Panel Select Grade Center Select Edit Column Information within column

3. Select Full Grade Center

5. 6. 7.

Select Add Rubric Select the Rubric Submit

8. 9.

Choose student view Submit

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Video Resources
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) Big Think (http://www.bigthink.com) Fora.TV (http://www.fora.tv National Geographic (http://channel.nationalgeographic.com) Howcast (http://www.howcast.com/) BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) Associated Press (http://www.youtube.com/user/AssociatedPress) Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com) Online Video Guide (http://www.veoh.com) Google Video (http://video.google.com) Teacher Tube (http://www.teachertube.com) MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.com) Blip TV (http://www.blip.tv) Metacafe (http://www.metacafe.com/)

Image Resources
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. ToonDoo (http:www.toondoo.com) BitStrips (http://bitstrips.com/) Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) Clipart (http://www.free-clipart-pictures.net/) Tiny Pic (http://tinypic.com/) PhotoBucket (http://beta.photobucket.com/)

Audio Resources
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) AudioBoo (http://audioboo.fm/) SoundCloud (http://soundcloud.com/) Vocaroo (http://vocaroo.com/) Windows Sound Recorder (located on your computer under Programs > Sound Recorder) List of Cool Tools (http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Audio+Tools) Blog Talk Radio (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/) NPR (http://www.npr.org/)

Other Resources
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Voki (http://www.voki.com/) talking avatar Glogster EDU (http://edu.glogster.com/) poster creations Jing (http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html) screen capture Screencast-O-Matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/) screen capture auto uploads YouTube Free Code Source (http://www.freecodesource.com/flash-toys/myspace-games/index) games Physics Games (http://www.physicsgames.net/) games

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