Blackboard 8.0 - New Features
There are a number of new options available to instructors in Blackboard 8. Here are some important things you should know about this new version:Grade Center
Almost entirely redesigned, and newly named, the Grade Center exhibits many new capabilities:
- A redesigned tool bar, titled the Action Bar
- Create and print reports, such as final grades, to hand out to students and other interested parties
- Inline editing: the ability to enter grades directly through the Grade Center
- New grade calculations, average grade and minimum/maximum grade
- Improvements to the creation of weighted grades and total points grade
- Smart views -- the ability to categorize students into groupings based on selected criteria
- A multitude of ways to customize the display of the Grade Center
- The ability to create grading schema: multiple grading scales that match assessment grades to chosen grade displays, such as text or percent grades
Through the Grade Center, an Instructor may create a Report that displays various grade and Student information. A Report could be used, for example, as a final grade Report or a mid-term progress report. The Instructor can control what grades are displayed in the Report as well as what student information appears. A signature line and any comments can be added. Reports can then be printed from the screen and distributed.
Grade CalculationsIn the Grade Center, an Instructor can calculate grades by combining multiple Columns to attain performance results, such as class averages, final grades that are based on a weighted scale, or total points, and so on. These include Weighted grade, Total points grade, Average grade, and Minimum/Maximum grade. Each of these functions allows the Instructor to choose the Columns included, such as all Columns from a Grading Period, all Columns, or selected Columns.
Smart ViewsInstructors have the ability to customize the Grade Center to display a subset of Students based on selected criteria. Called Smart Views these customized displays can be saved and used again. Students can be sorted based on Course, Group, performance measurements, or other criteria. Once built and saved, Smart Views become a selectable list item on the Current View drop-down menu of the Grade Center page, enabling easy navigation from one view to another.
Grading SchemaAdministrators and Instructors can create Grading Schema-- a diagram based on percentage ranges that matches scores to specific grade displays -- and then use it in grading. For example, a Student’s raw numeric score on a quiz that has 100 possible points is an 88. The Instructor creates and deploys a Grading Schema titled "Standard," in which a percentage of 87.5 to 89.5 equals a B+, this score results in a B+. Conversely, if the grade display option Letter is chosen, the B+ will display to the Student. The Instructor can also choose text as the display option in Grading Schema. Grading Schemas may be edited or added to an ongoing Course and grades will be updated to reflect the changes.
Exploring the Grade Center
Use this reference for working with grade columns, entering grades, adding comments to and modifying grades, deleting or exempting. See also how to customize the Grade Center, send emails, work with grade history and download Grade Center data.
Self and Peer Assessment
The new Self and Peer Assessment Building Block is a comprehensive and flexible tool for the self- and peer assessment of text, images, and digital-based resources within Blackboard Learning System. It allows an Instructor to create an exercise with a list of questions for the assessor. These questions can have a variety of grading or marking criteria, created or selected by the Instructor, to be used in the assessment. The Instructor then distributes the exercise with the questions and criteria to the Students. The Instructor can choose to have the Student assess his or her own work or the works of other Students. In turn, the Students submit the work, to be viewed by the Instructor. The Instructor can monitor the progress of the assessment, download the assessment submission and results, and add the assessment marking to the Grade Center.SafeAssign
Release 8 features the new SafeAssign™, a tool that compares submitted Assignments against a set of academic essays to identify areas of overlap. SafeAssign can be used to prevent plagiarism and to create opportunities to help Students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase. SafeAssign draws from several different databases: the Internet, ProQuest©, ABI/Inform© database, institutional document archives, and the Global Reference Database, which includes content submitted into SafeAssign from Blackboard-powered institutions. Please note that SafeAssign content must be created itself, and that previously created Assignments cannot be integrated with SafeAssign. SafeAssign is integrated with the Grade Center.
For more on SafeAssign, see:
- FSU SafeAssign User Manual (
908) - FSU SafeAssign Student Manual ( 764 Kb)
- SafeAssign Quick Reference Card ( 340 Kb)
Content System Enhancements
Collaboration (Workflows)New to the Blackboard Content System is the Collaboration page. Through this page, it is possible to create, initiate, and manage workflows. A Workflow is a chronological collection of tasks that comprise a business process, an Assignment, or a collaborative project. Now, all Blackboard Content System users can create multi-stage workflows, thereby creating tasks, defining task order, and managing the Workflow. This can all be managed through the Collaboration page.
Workflows are comprised of Actions of Milestones. Actions are required steps that an assigned Workflow participant must complete before passing the Workflow onto the next assigned participant. These are designed by the Workflow Owner. The Workflow Owner also determines Milestones: goals in a Workflow that are reached through the completion of Actions. Workflows are deployed by using Models. A Model is a collection of Milestones and Actions that are pre-defined so a Workflow can be deployed quickly and easily. A model serves as the template for a Workflow: A single Model multiple Workflow can have occurrences and can be shared with other Content System users. Sharing these Models with the appropriate roles within an Institution can increase efficiency and accuracy. The Collaboration page provides users with the capability to do the following:
- Get Started on a Workflow
- Check the Progress of a Workflow
- Design Models of a Workflow
- Email Workflow participants
- Create a To Do List that displays the Workflow Actions to which the user has been assigned.
There are a number of enhancements to Blackboard Content System’s Metadata feature. Metadata is now integrated with the Blackboard Outcomes System’s Standards, Objectives, and Goals, wherein the Standards, Objectives, and Goals can be treated as Metadata and be used to align Content System items. Also, Metadata can now be linked to the creation of a Content Item. If configured, Metadata subsets are filled out upon Content item creation, facilitating precise records. When the Content item is created, the Metadata aligned with the Content item is displayed.
360° ViewImproved in the Blackboard Content System for Release 8 is the 360° View, which is available for each Content item. Through the 360° View, users can view the properties located on various pages in the interface, the information on existing links to the item, and the Metadata information associated to the item.
Scholar Building Block
Blackboard Scholar is a social bookmarking service customized for education. Social bookmarking is an activity performed over a computer network that allows users to save and categorize a personal collection of bookmarks -- stored or retrievable web pages -- and share them with others. It provides a new way for Students and Instructors to find educational resources on the Web for Courses and research. Furthermore, by storing and sharing associated information with each resource through tags and disciplines, Scholar allows users to evaluate the resources and find the most relevant and reliable. Scholar is directly integrated within the Blackboard Learning System™ - Enterprise, Vista, and CE Licenses, providing access within the Course environment.
Questions to help@campus.fsu.edu
