Here are the highlights of this month’s new and improved features in Blackboard Ultra. For more details, please follow the links below:
Instructors often find themselves in situations where a survey form is more appropriate than a test when collecting information about students’ preference, interests and opinions. However, in the past, survey forms were not available on Blackboard Ultra. Now instructors are able to collect information on a Form using one or more of the following items:
- essay question
- Likert question
- multiple choice question
- true/false question
- text
- local file
- file from cloud storage
- page break
By default, a Form is not gradable. In the Gradebook grid view, student submissions appear “Submitted”. Optionally, instructors can enter the final grade for a Form to encourage participation.
The Form results can be downloaded from the Grades and Submission page as a spreadsheet or CSV file.
Rubrics performance level descriptions: Display choice persists
Rubrics are frequently used as important part of grading process. In the past, instructors had to grade students' submissions by looking at the performance levels of categories without descriptions. This caused challenges in accurately assessing students’ performance levels. Now, instructors are able to view descriptions while navigating submissions.
Send reminders from gradebook: Improved student count for instructors
Sending a reminder to students who missed submitting an assessment is a useful function, which is conveniently available from Gradebook. Instructors are able to send a notification by clicking on the assessment, however, the notification was also sent to students who already received an overridden score. This release improved the logic of narrowing down the number of students who should be included in the notification.
When instructors click to notify missed submission, the following students receive the message if they didn’t submit, and:
- they are available in the course.
- they have not received an automatic zero.
- they don’t have a manual override score that was posted.
This helps improve accuracy of target students who should receive the notification message.
Audio/Video Recording in feedback: Usability improvements
Audio/video feedback is an effective method for addressing complex concepts and providing detailed explanations. Previously, this tool hid the student submission from view when in use. Now, the recording window has been repositioned so instructors can see the student submission while recording feedback. Instructors also have the option to maximize the recording window.
Missed due dates included in the Course Activity report
The Course Activity report provides insights into student performance in a course. Information about the number of missed due dates gives valuable data for instructors to grasp the performance tendencies of students.
In addition, the Alert Settings for Course Activity now include an option to set a threshold for the number of missed assignments that will trigger notifications. Visit the link to see the full list of special considerations.
Please note that once the alert setting is on, it counts assessments including formative and hidden assessments for individuals and groups. If instructors set a due date for a manually-graded assessment, any grades entered after this date will be considered past the due date.
Better control over "Student Alerts" notifications for instructors
From the Activity Stream, instructors can create notifications about Student Alerts. This helps instructors become more aware of students who are at risk. Now, the options have been slightly modified to provide more relevant notifications, including alerts for missed due dates.
Long student names visibility in the Course Activity report
In the Course Activity report, parts of lengthy student names were previously hidden. Blackboard has now improved visibility for longer names in this report. This enhancement promotes inclusivity, considering longer names are common in certain cultures.
Feedback on override and automatic zero grades for Tests and Assignments
Feedback helps students learn and reflect on their work, which encourages and motivates students to improve their future work. Now instructors can provide Feedback on grades that were automatically assigned zeros, or overridden. They can also submit Feedback as part of the offline grading process. These changes provide more opportunities for instructors to give crucial Feedback to students’ learning.
The full list of February 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 - February 2024 Update
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