Adding a quiz to Blackboard that can’t be seen by students

Problem: The instructor of a course would like to add a quiz to Blackboard, but she does not want to student to be able to see it.

Solution: The user should first build a quiz with questions, etc. Once the quiz is complete, you can choose to deploy the quiz. When you deploy the Quiz, you can set the link as available or unavailable depending on whether you want students to be able to see the quiz; you can even set dates of availability so that Blackboard will automatically show the quiz link to the students when the specified start date comes.

Here is a video that shows you how to create a quiz- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyQFNjhlpdE&hd=1

Unable to see links, discussion board, and groups

Problem: The user is unable to see links, discussion board, and groups when she is in the student view; she is also unable to make them viewable for the students.

This usually occurs because the Tools are hidden. Some of the content buttons on the left side of the course rely on some of the tools being available in order to function (for example, the 'Announcements' section points to the Announcements tool, and the "Instructor Info" button points to the "Contacts" tool). Since the tools that they rely on are hidden, the content of some of the buttons are no longer available. 

Solution: The trick to fixing this is to temporarily turn on the Tools section again, enable the visibility of the tools, and then hide the Tools button itself from the left side of the course so that the students can't see it. You may selectively hide or show course menu items on the left side of the course to students by using the chevron menu and toggling "show" and "hide". 

Here's a video showing how to add the Tools button back, enable the internal tools, and then hide the Tools button again so the students can't see it. This will have the effect of re-enabling some of the sections that the students were having trouble seeing because the tools they rely on were hidden- http://screencast.com/t/gqWwj99H 

Rearranging Order of Columns in Grade Center

Problem: The user would like to move the columns around in the Grade Center.

Solution: When in the Grade Center, click on “Manage” and then select “Column Organization”

Here is a screenshot of that menu- Rearrange column order

Weighted Columns in Grade Center

Problem: The user would like to know the difference between equally and proportionally weighted for grading.

Solution: When weighting columns by category, the "proportional" vs. "equal" option determines how Blackboard weights the items within the category itself.

For example:

There is a category called "Tests" with two quizzes in it. One quiz is scored on a scale of 10 points, and the other is scored on a scale of 100 points.

If the option is set to "equal" for the Tests category, both quizzes will be given equal weight within the category. If a student scores 8/10 on one and 60/100 on the other, the category will be scored at 70% ((8/10+60/100) / 2), which is the simple average of the two quiz scores.

If the option is set to "proportional" for the Tests category, the quiz that is scored on a 100-point scale will be given 10 times the value of the one that is scored on a 10-point scale. If a student scores 8/10 and 60/100, the category will be scored at 62% ((8+60) / (10+100))

If the instructor feels that all quizzes are equally important within the category of "Test" regardless of their point scales, then the "equal" proportion setting should be used.

If, on the other hand, the instructor has some quizzes that are more important than others as reflected by their maximum point values, then the "proportional" setting should be used.

Changing Grades from Numeric to Letters in Blackbaord

Problem: The user doesn’t know how to enter letter grades in Blackboard Grade Center instead of number grades.

Solution: To change the grading from numbers to letters:

• Go into “Full Grading Center”
• At the top of the column, click on the downward facing arrow icon and select “Edit Column Information”
• Change primary display to “Letter” and change secondary display to percentage.
• Click on “Submit”

Note: This will have to be done for each column if you would like them all to show a letter grade.

Here is a short video to show you how to do this- Change to letter grade

Exporting Gradebook from Blackboard to Excel

Problem: The instructor does not know how to export their Gradebook from Blackboard to excel.

Solution: To download your Blackboard Grade Center:

• In the course click on “Grade Center”, then select “Full Grade Center”
• Click on the “Work Offline” button and then select “Download”
• Leave the default settings as they are and click on “Submit”
• Click the “Download” button. This will have your browser to download the file.
• Make sure you save the file on your computer.
• After your browser downloads the Grade Center file, you may open the file for viewing on your computer using Excel or a similar spreadsheet program, or the text editor of your choice.

Follow this link to see these steps with screenshots- http://blackboardtips.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-download-your-blackboard.html

Students Missing from Course List in Blackboard

Problem: When trying to add a user as a TA for a course in Blackboard, the instructor noticed that some students were missing from the course list.

Solution: There are three ways to view the list of students in a course:

In “Tools” go to “Roster” and make sure that the search criteria that you’re using at the top are correct (e.g. "Last name" "Not blank"), and click the "GO" button to search.

Here is a short video to show you how to do this-Roster List

Another way is to click into “Users and Groups” then click on “Users” (at the lower left) because it shows more information.

Here is a screenshot to show you where this is- http://screencast.com/t/o5OCDaHX

Or you can go into the “Grade Center”, then into the “Full Grade Center” (lower left) this gives you a table view of the students.

Here is a screenshot to show you where this is- http://screencast.com/t/zblpwoRIU