Advanced/Other
Tool Availability
You can select which tools are available in your course and determine if guests can access them. For example, if you won't use the course messages tool, make it unavailable. No one can see it or access it, including you, until you make it available again. On the Tool Availability page, available tools are listed alphabetically.
Your institution can turn off select tools, making those tools unavailable for use in your courses. Your institution can also remove your ability to choose who has access to select tools.
For the tools you make available in your course, you can add links to them on the course menu and in course areas. The Tools menu item is made available in all courses so students see all the tools that you have made available on one page.
See Blackboard's Course Tool Availability page for information on tool availability or view the How to turn tools on and off in your course video.
Performance Dashboard
Instructors can view a summary of student activity in the Blackboard course by accessing the performance dashboard. All users enrolled in the course are listed, including instructors, students, teaching assistants, graders, and guests. See a person's last access date and time, how many Review Status items have been completed, the student's progress through Adaptive Release rules, and a summary of their Discussion Board activity.
See Blackboard's Performance Dashboard page or view the Performance Dashboard Overview video for more information.
Course Analytics and Course Reports
Blackboard has built-in reports that instructors can run to view information about course usage and activity. You can view summaries of course usage such as which course areas are used most frequently and course access patterns for specific students. These are called Course Reports.
UND has also purchased an additional analytics product called Analytics for Learn. These reports combine extensive data from Blackboard with student and course attributes from our student information system (Campus Connection) to create comprehensive reports and dashboards for our students, instructors, staff, and leadership.
View the Course Analytics and Course Reports page for more information on the types of reports available.
Portfolios
Portfolios are organized collections of work completed over time. The collected evidence of education, work samples and skills tells a carefully crafted story about the creator's accomplishments and abilities. Students can create more than one portfolio to tell more than one story. Portfolios can be downloaded for sharing outside of Blackboard.
Instructors can request that portfolios be submitted for a Blackboard assignment. To be sure that students are creating portfolios that follow the correct pattern for your course or program you may want to a have a portfolio template created.
View Blackboard's Portfolios page for more information.
Achievements
The achievements tool allows instructors to designate criteria for issuing rewards to students in the form of digital badges and certificates. Students can see which rewards they’ve earned and what is required of them to receive additional rewards, providing insight into learning progression toward defined competencies. Students are able to publish badges to the Mozilla Open Backpack, transporting evidence of their learning outside of Blackboard Learn. You can easily see which students have reached learning milestones.
See Blackboard's Achievements page or view the What is a Badge video for more information.
Content Collection
Blackboard’s Content Collection is a file repository that allows faculty and students to store, manage, and share content. The Content Collection functions as a virtual hard drive that can be accessed from any computer by logging into a user’s Blackboard account. When a file resides in the Content Collection, it can be easily reused and linked to from any Blackboard course, and if a file that resides in the Content Collection needs updating, faculty need to update it only once, eliminating the need to go into each course to upload an updated version of the file.
Visit Blackboard's Content Collection page for more information.
Blackboard Ally
Blackboard Ally works seamlessly with Blackboard to gauge the accessibility of your content. Ally provides guidance and tips for lasting improvements to your content accessibility.
- Receive feedback on the accessibility of your content
- Improve content accessibility with Ally's step-by-step instructions
In addition to providing you with insight to your content accessibility, Ally automatically creates alternative versions of your files. This allows students to choose the type of file they want that best suits their needs. While you're in the process of improving files, students still access alternative copies.
Visit Blackboard's Ally page or view the Blackboard Ally Overview video for more information and to get started with improving the accessibility of your course content.
Blackboard Instructor App
Blackboard has launched an all new version of the Blackboard mobile application, available Monday August 8th, 2022. The new app is based on the desktop/website version of Blackboard – and it is equipped with the same features, allowing users to seamlessly move their learning experience from their desktop to mobile and back.
The new app also combines the formerly separate student and instructor applications into a single unified experience, reducing the complexity of supporting multiple apps and allowing for a more consistent experience across user roles (student and instructor) and platforms (desktop and mobile). All users may download the same app, then log in to see student or instructor -specific content.
See the Blackboard Mobile App for Students & Instructors help article for more information.
Course Archival, Removal and Retention
- Course Archiving - Archives (a complete copy of the course, including student interactions) of all semester-based courses are made at the end of the semester, the day after grades are due. Instructors can also create an archive of their course and save it for record retention.
- Course Availability - All semester-based courses are made unavailable one week after grades are due for the semester. Instructors for the course can make the course available again, as needed.
- Course Removal - Courses are removed from the Blackboard system one year and one semester after the course was taught. Email notices are sent to instructors advising of the date for course removal, including the option for the instructor to retain the course for a longer period. If instructors choose to keep their course(s) on the Blackboard system longer, they can email blackboard@UND.edu with their information.
- Course Retention - The archive copy of courses is retained in accordance with UND records management guidelines.