1. Blackboard
Feature
Friday
Feb 22
BFF workshops are B.Y.O.D. (bring your own device) and will be held in room 104 from 12 to 1:00PM. 1

2. Room 104
Participants
Connect to the campus
WIFI by selecting the
JavNET2 wireless SSID
in your WIFI setup.
Note: Once connected you
may be prompted to
download and install
Safe•Connect.
Safe•Connect is a network
access control technology
used by the university.

3. Online
Participants
Use the Saba Centra
Audio Wizard to fine-
tune the performance of
your speakers and
microphone prior to a
Saba event.
If you are experiencing
audio problems, please
contact Ms. Cynthia
Farias, Video
Conferencing Coordinator
at 361-593-2858

4. ALL
Participants
Do you have a sandbox
course for Blackboard?
Obtain a sandbox course on
the Blackboard training
sever by submitting a ticket
to the iTech Help Desk.
Login to JNET.tamuk.edu
Click Tech Help
Enter Email and Password
Click
Request a sandbox course

5. Assignments
Assignments (digital dropbox) are
a form of assessment that
automatically adds a column to
the Grade Center.
Use the Grade Center to assign
grades and give feedback to each
student.
5

6. 6
Workshop Objectives
 Tolearn how to create and manage
assignments in Blackboard using the
Assignments tool.
1. Creating and editing an assignment
2. Grading an assignment
3. Returning corrected assignments
4. Assignment submission problems
5. Cleaning up assignment files

7. 7
What is the Assignments tool?
 The Assignments tool allows you to create
assignments to be submitted to a digital dropbox.
 When creating an assignment you can include a
description, attach a file (such as a rubric or example
file), set a due date, identify a point value for the
assignment.
 When using the assignments tool to create
assignments you can manage the grades and
feedback for each student separately.

8. Assignments 49
Student View of an Assignment

9. 9
Why should I use this tool?
 Instructors
can use an assignment to distribute files
Assignments
students needed to complete the assignment.
 Students can easily submit files to their instructors
for grading
 Assignmentsare tied directly to the Grade Center. A
grade column is automatically created in the Grade
Center when an Assignment is created.
 Assignment files can be quickly deleted using a
simple batch process when they're no longer
needed.

10. 10
Teaching Tips
 Download student file submissions as a ZIP file
Assignments
and review the assignments off-line. You can
then enter the grades online in the Grade
Center.
 Ifyou use special characters to name your
assignment created with Assignment Tool
(Assignment #1, for example), you won't be able
to download all the student files at once.
 Naming conventions for assignments should be
consistent

11. 11
Recommendations
 Provide clear expectations and detailed instructions.
Assignments
Consider an ungraded warm-up assignment to
familiarize them with the tool.
 Include which file formats, such as
DOC, RTF, TXT, PPT, XLS, JPG, GIF, PDF you will
accept for the assignment
 Keep file names short and simple (8 – 10
characters) when requiring students to name files a
certain way.

12. Creating and
editing an
assignment
12

13. 13
Creating an Assignment
Step 1, 2, 3

14. 14
Creating an assignment
Step 4 of 5

15. 15
Creating an assignment
Step 5 of 5

16. 16
Creating an assignment
Blackboard On Demand Video
This video shows how to create
a new assignment.
http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r9/movies/Bb9_Course_Content_Crea
te_Assignments.htm

17. 17
Editing an assignment
How to edit a previously created assignment
1. Navigate to the learning module containing the
assignment.
2. Click the dropdown menu to the right of the
assignments name and select Edit.
3. On the Edit Assignment page, make the desired
changes.
4. Click Submit.

18. Grading an
assignment
18

19. 19
Grading assignments
 Whenan assignment is created, a column is
automatically added to the Grade Center.
 Anassignment that has been submitted, but not
graded, is indicated with a green exclamation mark.
This is the needs grading icon.
 You
can access assignments that have been
submitted by students and need grading from:
 Needs Grading page -OR- Grade Center

20. 20
Grading assignments offline
Blackboard On Demand Video
This video shows how to
download assignments from the
Grade Center to grade them
offline.
https://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_assignments_down
loading_assignments.htm

21. Returning
corrected
assignments
21

22. 22
Returning assignments
 Once you have assessed a student’s assignment, you can
return it to the student for their review.
 Under the Control Panel, click Grade Center > Full Grade
Center. Locate the column / row for the assignment you want
to return, hover your mouse over the cell, click the arrow that
appears, and choose View Grade Details.
 Click the Grade Attempt button to the right of the attempt you
want to grade (or click View Attempts).
 Under Section 3 Grade Current Attempt, enter the grade, add
any feedback to the user, and attach the corrected file. To
attach the corrected assignment, click Browse My
Computer, select the file, and click Open.

23. Assignment
submission
problems
23

24. 24
When students name their files
Suggest the following
 Filenames should only contain
letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens, or periods
 Replace blank spaces with underscores or hyphens
 Do NOT use pound signs (number signs
#), asterisks (stars *), question marks (?), dollar
signs ($), or diacritical marks in a file name. Using
any of these can cause serious problems.

25. Cleaning up
assignment
files
25

26. 26
Cleaning up assignment files
Blackboard On Demand Video
This video shows how to delete
graded assignment files from
the grade center.
http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_grade_center_clean
_assignment_files.htm

27. Assignment
Tool
Terminology
27

28. 28
ADAPTIVE RELEASE:
The Adaptive Release tool enables you to customize
the release of content to control when and to whom
course content is available. You can create a rule
where students must satisfy the criteria to gain access
to an assignment -OR- where students must attain a
certain grade on an assignment to access other
content.
ATTEMPT:
An attempt is a specific submission of a test or an
assignment.

29. 29
COURSE LINK:
A Course Link is a shortcut to an existing area, tool, or
item in a course. You can add Course Links to a
Content Area, Learning Module, Lesson
Plan, folder, the Course Menu, and within some tools.
For example, if you have created all assignments in
their own Content Area, you can create Course Links
to individual assignments in other areas of the
course, such as in a unit folder, weekly Content
Area, or Learning Module. A Course Link has a
special icon in the course area.

30. 30
DISPLAY AFTER/UNTIL:
You can set assignments to display on a specific date
and time and to stop displaying on a specific date and
time. Select the Display After and Display Until
check boxes to enable the date and time selections.
Type dates and times in the text boxes or use the pop-
up Date Selection Calendar and Time Selection
Menu to select dates and times. Display restrictions
do not affect an assignment’s availability, only when it
appears.
DRAFT:
A draft is a version of an assignment saved by a
user, but not yet submitted for grading.

31. 31
SCORE ATTEMPTS USING:
When multiple attempts are allowed for an
assignment, you can edit the assignment’s Grade
Center column to change which attempt is used as
the score in the Grade Center. For example, if you
have allowed students to submit an assignment more
than once, you can select Edit Column Information in
the assignment column’s contextual menu. On the
Edit Column page, select which attempt to use for the
score in the Score attempts using drop-down list. The
default is Last Graded Attempt. If you do not edit the
column, the Grade Center automatically uses the
grade of the last attempt when more than one attempt
is allowed.

32. 32
Official Blackboard Documentation
 Download the PDF at
http://ondemand.blackboar
d.com/r91/documents/Blac
kboard_Learn_9.1_Getting
_Started_with_Assignment
s.pdf

33. Questions
and Answers
33