New Blackboard Feature of the Week: Calendar and Verifying Student Activity During a Test

Calendar

The new Calendar replaces the old calendar tool. Faculty and students can now view institution level, course and personal events in a single calendar view. (note: The PGCC Academic Calendar has been added to the calendar for you.)

• When accessed from My Blackboard or the Tools menu on the My eLearning tab, the calendar displays a consolidated view of all course, organization, and personal calendar events for a user. Calendar events are color coded to indicate which place they belong.
• When accessed from a course, instructors and students see the course calendar from the Course Tools page (Quicklinks button). Instructors can use the calendar course tool as a way of managing and communicating the schedule of events and assignments in the course.
• Calendar supports due dates, if set, for gradable items. Clicking on calendar items allows an instructor to view or edit the item, or grade attempts on the associated item.
• Students can use filtering options to selectively view only course level items. They can then click on an item to view item details.
• Users can create recurring events by selecting the Repeat checkbox.

Please Note:  You must update your due dates and assignment dates so they will be displayed on the calendar correctly.

For more information on the Calendar, Click here.

Click here for a tutorial on how to use the calendar.

Tip:  If you cannot open your calendar, please notify eLearning.

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Verifying Student Activity During a Test

In previous versions of Blackboard, it was difficult to determine what happens when students encounter problems while taking a test.  As an instructor, it was difficult to tell whether a student actually started the test or how far the student got before encountering a glitch. SP13 provides a detailed Access Log which will provide a more detailed report on student attempts.  Instructors can view the Access Log from the Grade Center to see a detailed list of the student’s interactions with Bb while taking a test. The log will show the time the test was started, and the time of each interaction  (such as saving an answer).

For more information on the Access Log, click here.


For further details and videos on the new Blackboard 9.1 SP13 interface and features, please visit What's New for Faculty - Blackboard 9.1 SP13. Here you will find a list of new features and links related to this new service pack. Please visit this site and get acquainted with the new features available this fall semester.