SWEL/SWAC Services will be closed on August 15 from 8:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m. due to a staff PD day.

Please book your appointment ahead of time as needed. 

Here are the highlights of this month’s new and improved features in Blackboard Ultra. For more details, please follow the links below:

Content Designer: Enhanced Documents

Content design is a critical element of learner experience. The new release includes features that offer flexibility for instructors, making it easy to create engaging content. Comprehensive new layout options have been added. The content also works seamlessly with a mouse, trackpad, and keyboard. These new features help instructors create robust and engaging course content, enhancing student learning. The user interface on the Document editing page has been redesigned. Instructors can populate content by selecting a block from the list. The list is also available from the block panel on the left by clicking the + sign.

You can design rows and columns within the Document to create structures as shown below. You can drag and move the content blocks to position and resize them easily.

Improved navigation between students in Flexible Grading

To provide convenience and efficiency, new navigations are added to move between previous and next students in the Student tab in Flexible Grading.

Status information removed from the gradebook download file

When the gradebook is downloaded, the status information with the grade in brackets is shown for 1) grades that are not yet posted and 2) grades with a second attempt in progress. For example, “Ready to Post (75)” or “In Progress (75)”. While such status information may be useful, it causes inconvenience when performing analytical calculations. The new release removes these status messages, keeping only the numeric value. The “Needs Grading” status will remain the same. This improves the usability of the downloaded file for statistical analysis and calculation.

Anonymous student responses for Forms

Many instructors have requested anonymous response support for Forms since its initial release in Blackboard Ultra. Anonymous responses promote honesty and more direct input by making students feel safe.

Here are changes from the previous version of Forms.

1. It now defaults to anonymous submissions in Forms Settings menu.
2. It now also defaults to have the set due date, prohibit late submissions, and complete/incomplete as grading schema.
3. You can not edit or override the points earned.
4. Anonymous Forms cannot be administered to groups.
5. Anonymous Forms cannot enable class conversations.
6. Anonymous Forms do not capture student progress and statistics; student activity, exceptions, exemptions and accommodations are not supported either.
7. Modifications to the questions are not submitted after the submissions are made, or the due date has passed.

You can view the submissions from the gradable items tab in the Gradebook. You can not see which students submitted if the Form is anonymous.

Improvements to creating assignments

This release addresses many usability issues with Assignments, making it easier to manage and remove confusion for both instructors and students.

1. Assignment settings had the same options as those in Tests, including irrelevant options, which often confused instructors. The new release removed all irrelevant options, making the process of editing configurations more efficient for instructors.
2. Sometimes, students mistakenly make blank submissions, which confused both students and instructors. Starting with this release, blank submissions are no longer possible. However, it is still allowed for Assignments created prior to this release.
3. To view the instructions for an assignment, students previously had to press the "Start Attempt" button. This button's name caused students to hesitate to click, leading to a flood of messages to instructors asking for assessment details. The button is now renamed "View Instructions," resulting in a better experience for both students and instructors.

Multiple rules for release conditions

This release includes the addition of multiple release conditions for content items. This feature adds flexibility and convenience for instructors by enabling multiple conditions for different sets of students.

The summary of an added release condition is inserted on the left, making it easy to track which conditions have already been entered.

Ability to ‘Follow’ Discussions for Enhanced Engagement Assessment

Discussions promote communication and create a learning community. However, missing new posts or replies can delay or lose opportunities to interact. The new feature allows notifications to appear in the activity stream, allowing students to react in a timely manner. The available settings for this feature are: activity on my response, activity on responses I have replied to, responses from instructors, responses for followed discussions, and replies to followed discussions.

Send a message to a group from Group Spaces

When groups are created for assignments, it's crucial that members communicate promptly and effectively. To promote more interactions among members, the new release includes a feature to send messages to a group from group spaces. This enhances the use of group spaces for better interactions.  

The full list of August updates is available on the Blackboard Help Center website.

The full article is also posted on BB Hub: New and Improved Features in Blackboard Ultra – August 2024 Update

Need additional support? The IL Support Centre is here to help!

Here are the highlights of faculty questions from July. These are not necessarily the most frequently asked questions, but helpful for all faculty members.

Question (Panopto link): I need help adding a Panopto video link to Blackboard. How can I do this?

Answer: We have a step-by-step guide on how to embed videos in Blackboard. For more information on using Panopto, please visit Humber Panopto. You can also use Microsoft Stream as a video platform and share its link. Learn how to share videos on Microsoft Stream.

Question (Student email): I need to send an email message to a student. Where can I find email addresses of my students?

Answer: Sending a message to one or more students can be done directly from Blackboard’s Messages. To learn about sending course messages, visit Sending Course Messages in Blackboard Ultra – Faculty Blackboard (humber.ca). By selecting “Send an email copy to recipients”, the message is also sent to the student’s email address. By selecting “Allow replies to this message,” students can reply to you. Alternatively, you can find them at myhumber.ca under the courses you are currently teaching.

Question (Test bank): I need to reuse the Test Bank from my old course. How can I reuse only the Test Bank without copying the entire course?

Answer: You can copy a specific item from your other courses. Please see Copying a Blackboard Ultra Course – Faculty Blackboard (humber.ca) for more information. When copying an item from another course, make sure to verify that any referenced items are also copied. If not, copy those items separately. You may also use Respondus software to export and import test banks. Please see Downloading and Installing Respondus Software – Faculty Blackboard (humber.ca) for more details. If your test questions only include multiple choice, multiple answer, true/false, essay, matching, fill-in-the-blank, fill-in-multiple-blanks, and numeric response, without graphics or automatic feedback, you can create them in a file and upload it. This way, you can keep the file and upload it to future courses. To learn more, visit Upload Questions (blackboard.com). Similarly, you can use an external tool to create and generate a file or content package to import into your course. For more information, read Creating Question Banks Using the Oklahoma Test Generator – Faculty Blackboard (humber.ca).

Question (Overall Grade weight distribution): How can I distribute assignment percentages within the same category in a way that is not “proportional” or “equal” in Overall Grade calculation? I have five assignments, and I want them to be 5%, 5%, 25%, 25%, and 40% for the Assignment category.

Answer: You can achieve this in several ways.

Method 1: Moving items out of the category group is the simplest way to achieve this. By clicking the unlink icon on the right of each item, you can separate the item from the category group. The item is still associated with the category; it is only removed from the calculation group in Overall Grade, so that you can assign the custom percentage.

However, you must be careful about the percentage adjustment. For example, if your original plan was to give the entire Assignment category 50% of the final grade, then 5% within the Assignment category would translate to 2.5% (50% of 5%) when you remove it from the category group.

Method 2: Creating a separate Calculation column is perhaps the most intuitive way to achieve this. You can create a new Calculation column in the Grade Center. To avoid confusion, please keep this not visible to students. Let’s name this column Assignment Calculation.

Select the name of the first assignment from Variable, select the multiplication operator, then add the value of 0.05 for 5%, then select the addition operator and continue to select the next assignment, and so on.

In the end, you will have the Assignment Calculation column that holds the calculation such as: Assignment 1 * 0.05 + Assignment 2 * 0.05 + Assignment 3 * 0.25 + Assignment 4 * 0.25 + Assignment 5 * 0.4 (or you can use brackets to simplify it, too) Once you create this calculation, then go back to Overall Grade. Unlink the Assignment Calculation column from Calculations, then assign 50%. Don’t forget to exclude Assignment category from the total.

Method 3: (Not recommended): Using Advanced calculation instead of Weighted in Overall Grade is another method. If you select this option, you have to use the calculation as described in Method 2 for all assessment items. Here are some useful links:

• Calculation Columns - Anthology website
• Setting up overall grade - Faculty Blackboard Self-Help

Question (Moving columns in Gradebook): I have taken over a course in the middle of the term. I want to rearrange the Gradebook columns to make them easier to manage. How can I achieve this?

Answer: Go to the gradable items view in the Gradebook, and drag items by holding the arrows on the right side of the item. This allows you to freely move and reorder the items. For a more detailed description, please visit our website.

The full article is also posted on BB Hub: Questions of the Month at the ILSC (July 2024)

Need Blackboard support? The ILSupport Centre (ILSC) is here to help.  

July 20 to August 11 is SFQ Season for 14-Week Courses

Student Feedback Questionnaires (SFQs) are available until August 11 for 14-week courses and can be accessed via the unique link sent to students' Blackboard email. You can find the dates for a specific course using our SFQ Date Tool.

All responses are anonymous and confidential.

Students should complete the SFQs at their earliest convenience, or in class as scheduled by the instructor.

If you have already enabled the SFQs for your course, then you are all set! Please note:

• Set 20 minutes of in-class time for students to complete the SFQs
• Only students can access the SFQ link. You may check with your students to verify that your SFQ is active
• Check your Humber email for SFQ updates on viewing response rates and results

Instructors can enable the SFQ in Blackboard following this process:

• Select "Books & Tools" (Details & Actions, left course content menu)
• Click "+" next to "Student Feedback Questionnaire"
• Once added to the course content, make the SFQ visible for students.

Please connect with the Innovative Learning Support Centre if you need support.