Blackboard Test Quick Start Guide

Last Modified on 02/02/2024 4:33 pm HKT

Introduction

You can use tests and surveys* to measure student knowledge, gauge progress, and gather information from students.

*Survey questions aren't graded, and student responses are anonymous ⚠️

FAQ: Test VS Assignment

 Test:

  • 17 question types (e.g., Multiple Choice Question, Essay, File Response...)
  • Test options, such as Timer, Results and feedback options.

Assignment:

  • Upload attachment* and/or write submission (*If students need to submit large files, i.e., larger than 200MB, please consider using another tools, e.g., OneDrive, Panopto for video submission.)
  • No Timer

Workflow of Managing Tests

The workflow of managing tests is as follows. (Reference: Blackboard Help: Test and survey basics)

Create tests

  1. Access Blackboard Course > “Control Panel” > “Course Tools” > “Tests, Surveys, and Pools”. Click “Test”. 
  2. Click “Build Test”. 
  3. On the Test Information page, type a name. Click “Submit”.
  4. On the Test Canvas, click “Question Settings” to check and modify the settings. 
  5. Rollover “Create Question”, select the question type (e.g. Multiple Choice, True/False, Essay...). 
    • If you would like to randomly draw questions from Pool (e.g. draw 30 questions out of 50) so that different students answer different sets of questions, please refer to “Build a Pool” and “Create Question Sets” below.
    • If a test consists of both automatically graded questions (e.g. MC) and manually graded questions (e.g. Essay), the grade would be shown as “Needs Grading” after the submission, as the manually graded questions do not have grades.
  6. On the Create/Edit page, fill in the information. Select “Submit”.
  7. Questions are created. Check the questions before deploying the test. Questions cannot be deleted when there are attempts in progress . 

Deploy tests and test options

  1. Access a Content Area (e.g. Course Contents). Select “Assessments” > “Test”.
  2. Select the test under “Add an Existing Test”. Click “Submit”. 
  3. Then select “Test Options” on the next page. Please refer to CUHK EdTech Help Center: Blackboard Online Test Best Practices for teachers and supporting staff and Blackboard Help: Test and Survey Options for more about test options. Click “Submit” to deploy the Test for student access.

Grade tests and test results

  1. Click "Grade Center", select "Full Grade Center", then select the column you want to grade.
  2. You can also ignore an attempt to keep it but omit the score from Grade Center calculations. The attempt isn't counted toward the number of allowed attempts.

Additional tips: Checking before starting tests

  • If you don’t want to show grades to students after they submit their attempts, hide the grade columns (including the “Total” column) in Full Grade Center.
    • Blackboard Help: Grade Columns (Can I control when students see their grades and feedback?)
  • If the test is copied from another Blackboard Course using “Course Copy” feature, check both “Adaptive Release” and “Adaptive Release: Advanced”. The  outdated Adaptive Release rules from the source course would be copied to the destination course as well. Remove the outdated rules. You can also check the test availability under “User Progress”.
  • If the test is available, you can also access and check the test using “Student Preview”. Click here to learn more about “Student Preview”.

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