Students love instructor feedback and want to know how they are performing in their courses. With the start of the new academic year quickly approaching, why not try something new in your courses?
The Grade Center is the instructor’s central hub for keeping track of student assignments to grade, reviewing submitted assessments, and tracking student performance. Whenever a graded items, such as an assignment or assessments, is created in a Bb course, the system will automatically create a column in the Grade Center.
Save time and paper by requiring students to submit assignments through Blackboard. Then use the Inline Grading tool to embed feedback. Describe expectations and standardize the evaluation process with Rubrics.
Instructors can customize many Grade Center features, such as grading schemas (points/percentages converted to letter grades), categories (labs, projects), color coding (e.g., red to indicate at risk) and other important column information. The Grade Center also works well with many other areas of Blackboard including the Retention Center.
please visit our Blackboard FAQ page
open an RT ticket for any technical issues
view the schedule of training workshops at the DoIT group page
Qwickly is new tool deployed to faculty in Blackboard during the summer. It was designed to dramatically simplify the workflow of common tasks frequently performed by faculty.
One great example is the Make Course Available Tool. Consider the current multi-step workflow to make a course available in Blackboard:
Blackboard course shells for FA2015 were created on July 15, 2015.
Bb shells are available for all courses (designated as lecture, lab, field or discussion) listed in the UMBC Schedule of Classes (SOC), provided that there is an instructor of record listed. As new course sections and/or instructors are added to the SOC, corresponding Bb shells are automatically generated overnight. If you need a shell for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request.
Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same course will find those enrollments merged into one Bb course shell. These sections can be split upon request an RT ticket. Student enrollment in Bb mirrors the official registration in SA and updates hourly. However, courses are not accessible to students by default until the instructor makes them available.
If you are an instructor, and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please see your departmental scheduling coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your Bb course shell will be created automatically.
]]>Please join us in-person or virtually for our Assessing Learnings in Blackboard workshop on Tuesday, June 30 from 12noon-12:50 PM.
To learn more about using Assessments & Test Exceptions in Blackboard:visit our Assessments & Test Exceptions FAQ page
open an RT ticket for any technical issues
view the schedule of training workshops on the DoIT group page
contact the Instructional Technology Team with any questions or concerns
Josh Enszer, a lecturer in the Chemical, Biochemical & Environmental Engineering department, has used homegrown achievements in his courses for the past three years as part of his research into gamification and student attitudes. The new Achievements tool in Blackboard, which was deployed to UMBC in January 2015, streamlined Enszer’s efforts and provided new opportunities for efficiency while continuing to increase student engagement in a core course for Engineering majors.
Blackboard Achievements support an internal badging system that is designed and controlled by the instructor. Rewarding students for a job well done is a powerful motivator, according to Blackboard, and instructors can find many opportunities to recognize students for their efforts using the Achievements tool.
Using Achievements, Enszer noticed different behaviors. While a few students admitted that they came to office hours just to earn the badge, more students were stopping by. Including a badge for finding an error in a course document meant students might read more closely. And turning in every assignment? Students earned the meme-tasic Submit ALL the Things! badge. Gamifying the course where points were earned, not lost, with Achievements as reward mechanism ultimately produced positive outcomes by focusing on accomplishments and successes, which increased morale.
None of the Achievements Enszer created result in extra points toward a grade. “One rule I’ve always followed is [that] achievements don’t impact grades,” he says. Some Achievements could be earned for doing well in the course, such as earning a high grade on the mid-term exam, but student engagement and motivation are really the focus.
Enszer also likes the “Easter Egg” aspect of Blackboard Achievements. Some rewards are hidden in the course, which makes it fun when a student discovers one by completing a particular task, while others are clearly identified. “Everyone knows the ‘come visit office hours’ achievement is attainable,” he says. Blackboard also tells Enszer which students have earned specific achievements.
The Achievements tool offers a lot of potential to an instructor, but Enszer recommends instructors getting started to begin with something simple, such as setting one where students submit a specific assignment. Many Achievements, he notes, are “set and forget” since they can be linked to the grade center and automatically unlock as students submit tests or instructors enter grades. Some achievements can be manually awarded to individual students.
When developing new projects for the course, he builds in new possibilities for achievements, which is a catalyst for creativity and professional revitalization. Gamification also helps him keep in touch with students. Upperclassmen even recommend ideas for new badges. Having previously coded many achievements by hand, Enszer notes the usefulness of the Blackboard Achievements tool. “I love the Achievements tool,” he says. “It does so much work for me that I had to do myself.”
For more information about Achievements and gamification: