What’s New in Blackboard 7.1?

There are several small changes to Bb, but the three areas where you’ll likely notice differences are the Gradebook, Discussion Board, and Adding Users to your course.  More detailed information about these features can be found in the Blackboard Tools and Strategies course site.

Gradebook

Override Manual Grade Option

Entering a score in the Override Manual Grade box trumps any other score, whether entered by hand or automatically.  If the gradebook item is set to display these scores to students, they will see the override score, not the original score.  The original score and the newly-entered override score, however, will be visible to Instructors and TA’s.  You can see this new option on the Item Grade List page.

Example: Student Jane Doe performed poorly on an exam (56 pts) and you allowed her to rewrite some of her essay questions to improve her grade. Jane submitted these new answers and was awarded 10 additional points toward her exam score. As the instructor, you would like to retain a record of her original exam score (56 pts) but have the updated exam score (66 pts) displayed in the gradebook. By entering 66 in the Override Manual Grade box  Jane will see her grade on the exam as being 66, while you have a record of her original exam score (Manual Grade) and the updated grade (Override Manual Grade).

Negative Values

Bb now allows you to set the “Points Possible” score as a negative number.  This makes it easier to drop the lowest quiz score from a course. For more information on this procedure, follow the instructions located in Special Tricks and Tips section of Blackboard Tools and Strategies.

Discussion Board

Assigning Grades to Student Postings

Students’ discussion board messages can be graded from within the discussion board. Scores submitted in the discussion board area are automatically recorded in the Gradebook.  Set up this option when you establish the forum, or enable it on an existing forum by using the Modify feature.

Accessing Whole-Class and Group Discussion Boards

Access any discussion board, whether it’s used by the entire class or only by a small group, from the Control Panel.  Forums used by the whole class are accessed by clicking the course ID link (e.g., ENGL101a-Sp07) and small group discussions are listed separately by group name.

Subscribing to Threads

Anyone in a course can now subscribe to threads within a whole-class forum. By subscribing to a thread, users will receive an email each time new posts are entered into that thread. Subscribers still need to log in to Blackboard to read discussion board messages, however.

Peer Rating of Posts

Another option that can be enabled (or not) allows students to rate messages posted by their classmates.  Ratings are assigned on a 5-point scale from zero to five stars.

Moderating Messages

Forums can be established (or modified) to require that messages are read by a moderator prior to appearing on the forum for others to read.  The moderator role can be assigned to any member (or members) of the course.

Enrolling TA’s and/or Changing User Status

Using Power User Enrollment

1. If you wish to add a new user, first make sure that he/she is not already in the course. 
2. If you wish to modify the status of a user and that person is already in the course, you’ll need to remove him/her with the Remove Users from Course link in the Control Panel.
3. Click the Power User Enrollment link (under Course Tools on the Control Panel).
4. Type his/her last name in the space provided and click Search.
5. Click the Add box to the left of the appropriate name.
6. Select the desired role from the pull-down menu on the right and click Submit.

To search for multiple names simultaneously, enter the last names (separated by commas) in the search field. You may wish to increase the number of “Results per page” in this case, or if you are searching for a common last name (Smith, Jones, etc.), so that all of the accounts will be displayed on the same page.