Assignments and Tests (grouped under Assessments in the course Content Items panel) share the same user interface and options. Many options in the settings are enabled or disabled based on whether at least one question is included in the assessment. In practice, instructors use these assessments differently.

For example, you might create an assignment with instructions for students to submit a file for a grade. In a test, students may answer a series of questions you’ve added to the assessment. To distinguish between assignments and tests, and to highlight workflows with and without questions, the discussion of tests will emphasize a workflow with added questions.

In Blackboard Ultra, the Assignment tool allows students to submit their work to grade, provide feedback, and include it in Gradebook calculations. Assignments can be for individual student submissions or group submissions and can also be marked as offline submissions. Assignments are always available to instructors but are hidden from students by default until they are marked available or release conditions have been set. Once you set up an Assignment, a Gradebook column is automatically created.

• Create an Assignment
• Create an Offline Assignment

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Create an Assignment

1. Go to your course's Content page and click the plus icon (+) at your point of insertion to access content options.

2. From the content list, select Create.

3. The Create Item layer opens. Click on Assignment.

4. Add a name to the Assignment. If you don't add a name, it will default to "New Assignment" with the date that it was created. You can change the name at any time.

5. Once a name for the assignment has been provided, you can begin adding instructions, files, or questions. To add content to the assignment click on the plus icon ( + ) and select the desired option. To add instructions, select the Add Text option to access the text editor box. You can include text, links, videos, images, and much more. Learn more about the content editor here!

6. Once you have added the necessary content for the assignment, click the Save button.

7. Click on the gear icon on the left side of the page to adjust the settings of the assignment. In the assignment settings you can do the following:

Details and Information

• Due date: Due dates appear on the Calendar and in the Activity Stream. Late submissions appear with a Late label in the course Gradebook. More information about Due Dates can be found below.
• Prohibit late submissions: Enforce a hard deadline and prevent a late submission. In-progress and saved attempts will auto-submit at the due date. Students will receive a submission receipt email. Specified accommodations are still honored.
• Prohibit new attempts after due date: Prevent students from beginning a new attempt after the due date. Specified accommodations are still honored. 
• Allow class conversations: What if your students have questions about an assignment? You can allow conversations within an assignment, and anyone can contribute. As the conversation develops, it appears only with the relevant assignment. Learn more about Conversations here.
• Collect submissions offline: You may want to grade student work that doesn’t require students to upload a submission via Blackboard. For example, you can add grades to your Gradebook for oral presentations, artwork, or written papers submitted in person or via email. More information about Offline Submissions can be found below.

 

Grading & Submissions

• Grade category: By default, assignments are assigned to the pre-made Assignment category. You can change the assignment's grade category to be part of one of the custom Gradebook categories you set up in your course. You can create new categories to customize how coursework is grouped in your course.
• Attempts allowed: By default, assignments are set to allow one single attempt. With this option, you can let your students submit more than one attempt at an assignment.  When you allow multiple attempts, you can also choose how the final grade is calculated.
• Grade using: By default, assignments are graded using Points. You can change the grading schema at any time, and the change will appear to students and in the course's Gradebook.
• Maximum points: By default, assignments are set to 100 points. You can add a number value between 0 and 99,999 for your assignment. 
• Anonymous grading: When you create an assignment without questions, you can enable anonymous grading. Student names are hidden while you grade. Please note you may only add text and files to anonymously graded assignments.
• Assessment grade: By default, all assignments need to be "posted" manually once a grade and feedback have been provided in the Gradebook. This option allows you to automatically post a student’s grade once grading is completed. 

Additional Tools

• Time limit: A time limit can keep students on track and focused on the assignment because each person has a limited amount of time to submit. The assignment attempts are saved and submitted automatically when time is up. You can also allow students to work past the time limit. 
• Use grading rubric: You can associate a rubric with the assignment for students to follow as they create their posts. This will help students know what you are looking for as you grade the assignment​.
• Goals & standards: Some programs may require specific goals and standards to be met. Click on Align with goals to see what is available at your institution. After you make the assignment visible to students, they will be able to view the goals you set.
• Assigned groups: You can create a group assignment where you can assign a grade to each group as a whole. You can override an individual group member's grade.
• Originality Report: You can use SafeAssign to check for potential plagiarism in student submissions. You can enable the SafeAssign Originality Report at any time, even after students have started their submissions. However, submissions are only checked when SafeAssign is enabled.

8. Once your assignment settings have been made, click the Save button in the bottom right. Make sure you adjust the visibility settings!

 

More information: Blackboard Help: Assignment Settings

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Create an Offline Assignment

You may want to grade student work that doesn’t require students to upload a submission via Blackboard. For example, you can add grades to your Gradebook for oral presentations, artwork, or written papers submitted in person or via email. You can create assessments that appear on the course Content page that don't require students to upload submissions. You can add instructions, files, a rubric, and goals so students can prepare for the offline work. You can also enable conversations, but you cannot add questions or grade anonymously. When students open this type of assessment, they're informed they can't submit work online. If you create groups to collect submissions offline, students can view their group members.

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1. Go to your course's Content page and click the plus icon (+) at your point of insertion to access content options.

2. From the content list, select Create.

3. The Create Item layer opens. Click on Assignment.

4. Add a name to the Assignment. If you don't add a name, it will default to "New Assignment" with the date that it was created. You can change the name at any time.

5. Once a name for the assignment has been provided, you can begin adding instructions, files, or questions. To add content to the assignment click on the plus icon ( + ) and select the desired option. To add instructions, select the Add Text option to access the content editor box. You can include text, links, videos, images, and much more. Learn more about the content editor here!

6. Once you have added the necessary content for the assignment, click the Save button.

7. Click on the gear icon on the left side of the page to adjust the settings of the assignment. Under the Details and Information section, click the checkbox next to Collect submissions offline​​​.

8. Adjust other assignment settings as necessary. Please note for submissions collected offline, you cannot allow multiple attempts, allow a time limit, use SafeAssign, add questions, or grade anonymously.

9. Once your assignment settings have been made, click the Save button in the bottom right. Make sure you adjust the visibility settings!

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More information: Blackboard Help: Create and Edit Assignments

In Blackboard Ultra, the Test tool allows you to create questions for your students to test their knowledge of the course content where you can then provide feedback and a grade, and include it in Gradebook calculations. Tests are always available to instructors but are hidden from students by default until they are marked available or release conditions have been set. Once you set up a Test, a Gradebook column is automatically created. A test's score consists of the sum of all the questions' points.

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Create a Test

1. Go to your course's Content page and click the plus icon (+) at your point of insertion to access content options.
2. From the content list, select Create.
3. The Create Item layer opens. Click on Test.
4. Add a name to the Test. If you don't add a name, it will default to "New Test" with the date that it was created. You can change the name at any time.
5. Once a name for the test has been provided, you can begin adding instructions, files, or questions. To add instructions, select the plus icon ( + ) and choose the Add Text option to access the content editor box. You can include text, links, videos, images, and much more. Learn more about the content editor here!
6. Once you have added the necessary content for the test, click the Save button.

7.  To questions to the test click on the plus icon ( + ) and select the desired option. The following question types exist for tests:

• Calculated Formula
• Calculated Numeric
• Essay
• Fill in the Blank
• Hotspot
• Matching
• Multiple Choice
• True/False

 

 

8. Click on the gear icon on the left side of the page to adjust the settings of the test. In the test settings you can do the following:

Details and Information

• Due date: Due dates appear on the Calendar and in the Activity Stream. Late submissions appear with a Late label in the course Gradebook. More information about Due Dates can be found below.

• Prohibit late submissions: Enforce a hard deadline and prevent a late submission. In-progress and saved attempts will auto-submit at the due date. Students will receive a submission receipt email. Specified accommodations are still honored.

• Prohibit new attempts after due date: Prevent students from beginning a new attempt after the due date. Specified accommodations are still honored. 

• Allow class conversations: You can allow conversations within a test, and anyone can contribute. As the conversation develops, it appears only with the relevant assignment. Learn more about Conversations here.

• Collect submissions offline: You may want to grade student work that doesn’t require students to upload a submission via Blackboard. Please note, if questions are included in the test you will not be able to collect submissions offline

Presentation Options

• Display one question at a time: This option controls how a student navigates the test and allows them to focus on a single question at a time and reduce cognitive load. Students can skip questions with this option enabled unless Prohibit backtracking is enabled.

• Prohibit backtracking: The Displaying one question at a time option enables you the option to prohibit a student from navigating back to earlier test questions. This option is also available for paged tests, in which case enabling this option prevents students from navigating back to earlier test pages.

• Randomize questions: Randomize the sequence in which questions are displayed for each student.

• Randomize answers: Randomize the sequence in which answers for Matching and Multiple Choice questions are displayed for each student.

• Randomize pages: If your test includes questions across multiple pages (for example, a page of Multiple Choice questions followed by a page with Essay questions), this option randomizes the order in which these pages are displayed.

  • Do not randomize first page: If your test is set to randomize pages, this option allows you to lock the first page in place. This is useful, for example, if the first page of the test includes instructions.

Please note:  Questions appear to you in order but are randomized for students. To prevent confusion, don't add numbers to reference other questions within the test.

Grading & Submissions

• Grade category: By default, tests are assigned to the pre-made test category. You can change the test’s grade category to be part of one of the custom Gradebook categories you set up in your course. You can create new categories to customize how coursework is grouped in your course.

• Attempts allowed: By default, tests are set to allow one single attempt. With this option, you can let your students submit more than one attempt at an assignment.  When you allow multiple attempts, you can also choose how the final grade is calculated.

• Grade using: By default, tests are graded using Points. You can change the grading schema at any time, and the change will appear to students and in the course's Gradebook.

• Maximum points: By default, tests are set to 100 points until you begin adding questions. Once questions have been added, Blackboard will automatically calculate the maximum points based on the total of each question's point values.

• Assessment grade: By default, all test grades will be posted automatically for auto-graded questions. Some questions, such as Essays, may need to be reviewed and graded before students can view the grade. You can uncheck this option to manually control grade publication.

Assessment Results

• Submission View: This option allows you to customize when the submission content is visible to students once they have submitted their attempt. You have the option to display:

  • After submission

  • After individual grade is posted

  • After due date

  • After all grades are posted

  • On specific date

• Automated Question Feedback: This option allows you to customize when question feedback is visible to students once they have submitted their attempt. You have the option to display:

  • After submission

  • After due date

  • After all grades are posted

  • On specific date

• Question Scores: This option allows you to customize when individual question scores are visible to students once they have submitted their attempt. You have the option to display:

  • After submission

  • After due date

  • After all grades are posted

  • On specific date

• Correct Answers: This option allows you to customize when correct answers to questions are visible to students once they have submitted their attempt. You have the option to display:

  • After submission

  • After due date

  • After all grades are posted

  • On specific date

Please note: Some options may prevent you from enabling others. For example, you can't hide question scores when answers are shown. Correct answers can only be displayed at the same time or after question scores. You may need to update your question score timing to turn on additional options.

Additional Tools

• Time limit: A time limit can keep students on track and focused on the test because each person has a limited amount of time to submit. The test attempts are saved and submitted automatically when time is up. You can also allow students to work past the time limit.

• Use grading rubric: Rubrics cannot be added to an assessment with questions.

• Goals & standards: Some programs may require specific goals and standards to be met. Click on Align with goals to see what is available at your institution. After you make the test visible to students, they will be able to view the goals you set.

• Assigned groups: You can create a group test where you can assign a grade to each group as a whole. You can override an individual group member's grade.

• Originality Report: You can use SafeAssign to check for potential plagiarism in student submissions. You can enable the SafeAssign Originality Report at any time, even after students have started their submissions. However, submissions are only checked when SafeAssign is enabled.

9. Once your test settings have been made, click the Save button in the bottom right. Make sure you adjust the visibility settings!

More information: Blackboard Help: Create Tests

The Due Dates feature allows you to remind students about upcoming coursework. Any Due Dates that you set for coursework will appear on your and your student's Blackboard Calendar. Due Dates can be set for the following content items in Ultra courses:

• Tests
• Assignments
• Discussions
• Journals
• SCORM

These content items do not appear in Due Dates for Ultra courses:

• LTI tools (3rd party)

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Setting a Due Date

By default, Due Dates for assignments and tests are pre-populated with the date and time to tomorrow's date at 11:59 pm but can be adjusted for any future time and date. To adjust the Due Date, click on the calendar or clock icon located in the date and time fields and adjust as needed.

For Discussions and Journals, the item needs to count for a grade for a Due Date to be assigned. Grading for the item can be enabled within the item’s settings.

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Remove a Due Date

To remove a Due Date, navigate into the item’s settings, click in the date field, and backspace until the date has been deleted. Blackboard will automatically remove the time, too.

NOTE: Be sure to click Save at the bottom of the settings panel to save any new changes.

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No Due Date

Blackboard has added an option to Assignments and Tests for "No Due Date". Selecting this option will prohibit you from entering a date in time in their respective fields.

There may be cases when the “No due date” selection conflicts with the Assessment Results settings. When this occurs, the instructor is prompted to review the settings.

Instructors can navigate to the Assessment Results section in the Settings via the link in the banner.