BlackBoard Question of the Week

Q. I have a student who needs to take a Blackboard test earlier than I was planning on making the exam available to the class. Can you direct me as to how to open the exam up to that student specifically?

A. You can use the same test during different time periods for the student who needs to take the test early and the rest of the class.

1. You will need to create two groups: one for the student who needs to take the test early, and one for the rest of the students. You can find instructions for creating groups at http://luc.edu/blackboard/blackboard9/creating_student_groups.shtml .

2. Create the test and deploy it in a content area. If the test is timed make sure you indicate the allotted time and check the Auto-Submit ON radio button in the Test Options for the test to be automatically submitted when students reach the test time limit. Add an adaptive release rule that specifies the date range when the test should be available to the student who will take it early and, under Membership on the Adaptive Release page, select the group for the student who needs to take the test early – the rest of the class will not see the test at this point.

3. Once the student who needs to take the test early has completed the test, change the adaptive release rule so the date range is appropriate for the large group and, under Membership in Adaptive Release, select the large group of students and remove the student who needed to take the test early. The large group will now see the test on the date(s) you selected. You can find a Blackboard video on creating adaptive release rules at Create Multiple Rules for Content Item

Q. Is there  a way for me to run a paper that I have already received from a student through Turnitin?  My students are required to turn in several papers but they choose the weeks, with varying due dates – is there a way to set up a Turnitin assignment that would work for my assignment schedule?

 A. To check on a paper that you already have in digital form, you can set up a Turnitin assignment and then add to it an adaptive release rule where membership is limited to you, so students won’t see it.  Visit Turnitin Assignment for instructions on setting up the assignment, and Blackboard’s video tutorial on Adaptive Release  to learn how to set up an adaptive release rule.

If you would like to use Turnitin, but due dates will be different for each student, you could set up a series of assignments, organized by topic, with the due date for each one set as the last possible date for anyone to turn in the assignment (set the post date after due date).  Students could turn in any of the assignments at any time before that final due date.

Q. Is there a way for me to post my PowerPoint lectures on Blackboard in such a way that each time a student consults the Powerpoint, he or she must first check a box that speaks of copyright restrictions on material in the Powerpoint? 

A. You can add an adaptive release rule on the Powerpoint file that requires students to click on a button associated with the copyright restriction text before they can see the Powerpoint. But there isn’t a way to require them to click the button every time they want to view the Powerpoint, only the first time. Here are instructions for creating the adaptive release rule:

1. Upload the Powerpoint file to your course.
2. Add an item for Copyright Restrictions, typing the restrictions, or copying and pasting the restrictions in the text box. (Technically, you can attach a document at this point, but if you do, you will only get a link to the text and students may not click on the link to read it.)
3. Submit.
4. Click the Manage button for the Powerpoint, then select Adaptive Release.
5. On the Adaptive Release page, beside  4. Review status, click Browse and then click on the Copyright Restrictions item you added.
6. Click Submit, then click OK.

At first, when students log into your course, they will not see the Powerpoint. They will see the copyright restrictions in the content area where you posted that item, with a “Mark Reviewed” button to the right of the item.  When an individual student clicks the Mark Reviewed button, indicating that he or she has read the copyright restrictions, the Powerpoint will become visible for that student.

You can find out which students have reviewed the Copyright Restrictions item by going to Control Panel, then to Performance Dashboard, under the Assessment heading. There is a column for “Review Status” and it will have a number in it for each student who has clicked the Review Status button.

Q. I have a student in class who has a disability and as such, needs extra time to take tests on Blackboard.  Is it possible for me to make a test available for one student longer than the other students? If so, how do I do this?

A. If you want the student to take the test at the same time as the other students you must create a separate test (give this test a unique name – do not name it the same as your original test) and deploy it in the same content area as the original test. This will create two columns in your grade center which means that you will have to decide how you want to treat that extra column for the special needs student – one option is to take that column out of Grade Center calculations and then manually enter the score the student received into the original test column – the one containing all the other grades.

In addition to creating a separate test you should also create two groups of students: one group will be all your students who can take the regular test; the other group will consist of the student(s) who will take the longer test. Visit this link for instructions on how to create groups: Creating Student Groups.

Then you must create an adaptive release rule for both tests such that only the students in the appropriate group will see the test assigned to them. To set an adaptive release rule, find the test that you deployed in a content area and select Manage then Adaptive release.  Under Membership, choose which group will have access to the test you are managing.

This is the basic process for simultaneous testing. You could have the special needs students take the test at a different time — you would still need to create groups and rules but you would not have to create a separate test. You would simply make the test available at a different time for each group and then modify the amount of time for the test when it was time for your special needs group to take it.

Q. I am a leader of a Blackboard organization and I have enrolled persons who are full-time faculty, part-time faculty and graduate students.  I have set up groups so that I can send targeted e-mail messages.   Now I want to post content but somehow limit access to the content based upon group membership — can I do this? 

A. It is possible to limit access to content based on group membership using an adaptive release rule. Here’s how:

1. From the control panel, post a content item in any content area.
2. Select Manage next to the item.
3. Select Adaptive Release.
4. On the Adaptive Release page under Membership, select the group(s) you want to give access to.
5. Scroll down and click Submit.

 Now the content will appear for the group(s) you selected, but others will not see it.