Introduction
Anthology releases monthly incremental updates to their Blackboard software. The April update brings the following new features and improvements:
- Student Non-Submission Feedback Update.
- Allow anonymous responses and replies in discussion boards.
- Duplicate a test/form question option, plus a change to the default test question value.
- Likert-form questions include options for 4 and 6, as well as 3, 5, and 7.
- Contact Us.
This blog post will guide you through these new features, how they can benefit a module and the workflows to implement them.
1. Student non-submission feedback feature
Previously, students could only be given assessment scores and feedback after they had submitted the assessment. Blackboard now allows a score and feedback to be provided to a student if no submission has been received. There are times when this is appropriate; however, they are few and far between.
Examples include:
- When a student(s) submits work in a format that is not compatible with the Blackboard learning environment.
- If a student has not submitted or has incorrectly submitted (such as through email), this would allow the academic to still give feedback.
*NOTE This feature only impacts assignments created in Blackboard and not those created in Turnitin. It also requires staff to follow a different workflow to post feedback and for students to receive it.
The new workflow for staff is as follows:
- Add a score for the student in the correct assignment in the Gradebook.
- Once a score has been added, click the three dots to the right, and select the Feedback option.
- Now give the feedback as per usual (type it directly, attach it etc.). Once complete, click Save.
- Click the Post Mark option to post the feedback to make it visible to the student.
The new workflow for students is as follows:
- Open Blackboard and access the Gradebook from the top menu.
*NOTE Students cannot access non-submission grades and feedback through the assignment will not show this non-submission feedback. Students can only access non-feedback through the Gradebook.
- Once in the Gradebook, the student will see the assessment score and a small purple icon that looks like a speech bubble to the right of the score.
- Clicking on the purple icon will allow them to access this feedback.
If the student clicks on the assignment using the standard workflow, they will get a “No feedback” message.
2. Allow anonymous responses and replies in Discussion Boards.
April’s upgrade will allow staff to set up Ultra Discussion Boards to allow students to post and reply to posts anonymously. This new update will introduce the option to “allow anonymous responses and replies” which will be available in the ‘Discussion Settings’ panel.
*Note Please note that selecting ‘Allow anonymous responses and replies’ does not mean that all replies and responses will be anonymous; instead, it means that students and staff can choose to post anonymously if they want to. To post anonymously, the ‘Post anonymously’ checkbox will need to be selected. Once a post is submitted anonymously, its anonymity cannot be altered. In other words, anonymous posts cannot be attributed to their authors, and non-anonymous posts cannot be converted to anonymous status.
*NOTE You may notice that the ‘Post anonymously’ tick box is initially greyed out, the option to post anonymously does not become available until the user has started to type into the discussion text box.
3. Duplicate test/form question option, plus changes to the default test question value.
Blackboard now includes the ability for staff to duplicate test and form questions.
Confirmation of the duplication process is shown once it is complete.
*NOTE Additionally, the default point value for newly created test questions has changed from 10 points to 1 point.
4. Likert form questions now include scale options for 4 and 6, as well as 3, 5, and 7.
The February 2024 Blackboard SaaS upgrade introduced the ‘Forms’ tool. One of the question types available in the new Form tool is a ‘Likert’ question. This is a type of survey question that asks respondents to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with a statement, usually on a numeric scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
When this question type was first released, its scale only included scale options for 3, 5, or 7 points. Following this month’s upgrade, scale options also now include 4 or 6 points.
Contact Us
If you would like to discuss any of the above in more detail, please contact the Digital Learning Specialists, who can arrange bespoke coaching and mentoring sessions.
They are contactable at elearning@tees.ac.uk.