Improve the accessibility of your course content Blackboard Ally works seamlessly with your Learning Management System (LMS) to gauge the accessibility of your content. Ally provides guidance and tips for lasting improvements to your content accessibility. Receive feedback on the accessibility of your content Improve content accessibility with Ally's step-by-step instructions In addition to providing you with insight to your content accessibility, Ally automatically creates alternative versions of your files. This allows students to choose the type of file they want that best suits their needs. While you're in the process of improving files, students still access alternative copies. See attached file(s) and links below for further information on using Ally in your course. Checklists: Accessibility Checklists for Word.docx Accessibility Checklist for Blackboard.docx

  Learn your own way with Blackboard Ally   Ally creates alternative files that are easier to use by all students. Ally works within your online course so it's available right where you need it. Alternative files include readable text for screen readers, pictures with captions, and easy-to-navigate content. Ally creates multiple alternatives from the original documents in your course. You can download these alternative formats anywhere that files are used. Don’t stick to just one format! Use as many formats as you want.   Links:   Quick Start - East as 1-2-3 Alternative Formats  FAQs Help Videos

Learn about Ally one fix at a time. Walk through accessibility scenarios, and see how Ally feedback helps you improve inclusive learning in your course. Ally accessibility indicators Add alternative descriptions to image files Remove potentially harmful content Scanned PDFs: An enemy to accessibility Add a library reference View all file accessibility issues Add alternative descriptions to PowerPoint images Add headings to a Word document Add headers to your data tables in Word Export a Word document as a tagged PDF For more information: Ally - Communication & Adoption Toolkit

  Grading Offline   You can download assignment submissions to review them offline. Choose to download all or only selected submissions as a single ZIP file. Unzip or expand the file to view the contents. Each submission is saved as a separate file. In the Grade Center, access the assignment column's menu and select Assignment File Download. On the Download Assignment page, select the student submissions to download -OR- select the check box in the header bar to choose all available submissions. Select Submit. On the next Download Assignment page, select the Download assignments now link. A pop-up window displays instructions for what to do with the file. In the pop-up window, select Save File and select OK. Browse to the location where you want to download the file and select Save. To return to the Grade Center, select OK on the Download Assignment page. When you use the download function, usernames are included automatically in the file names for easy identification. But, files you download one by one from the Grade Assignment page won't include usernames. To avoid confusion, you can specify that students use a detailed file name that includes their last names or their usernames when they submit assignments. If a student added an attachment, the downloaded ZIP file may contain two files for each student: the attached file and a TXT file produced by the Grade Center. The TXT file contains information about the submission and student comments. Both files have the student's username included in the file name for easy identification. Note: The Assignment File Cleanup function allows you to select students and delete files associated with their submissions. This function is available from the assignment column's menu in the Grade Center.  After you review submissions offline and assign grades, you can provide grades and comments in the Grade Center. Access the assignment cell's menu and select View Grade Details. On the Grade Details page, select Edit Grade. You can use the Insert File function in the editor to add files. Or, select View Attempt to see the student's work in the Submission and Comments sections as you add a grade, comments, and files. Alternatively, you can type grades directly in the Grade Center cells. If you type a grade for the first attempt for an assignment that you have allowed two attempts for, this grade is called an override grade. If you go on to grade the second attempt from the Grade Assignment page, the override grade still supersedes the second attempt grade you assign. So, consider the ramifications before you assign grades directly in Grade Center cells for assignments. Source: help.blackboard.com

  Color Code Blackboard Grade Data   The Grade Center can provide color-coded visual indicators to help assess more quickly the status of students’ work or grade performance. Here’s how: Navigate to the Full Grade Center Choose Manage, Grading Color Codes Notice at the top the option to enable Grading Color Codes is displayed. You can use this like an on/off switch to show or hide color code displays.  A button also displays in the Grade Center  to hide color codes. Color coding options can be applied to grading status. For example: By default, the color code is white so you can leave as is if you do not wish to flag something. You can color code specific grade ranges using more than one criterion. Click Add Criteria to add more then Submit.  

  Need to Meet with Students Online?   * * * COVID 19 recommendations using Collaborate Ultra * * *  Please see the video "How to Use Collaborate in Your Course Site" created by NDUS CTS staff. This video covers best practice in unnecessary resources while the Blackboard system is experiencing such high demand. In your Blackboard course, you can use Blackboard’s web conferencing tool, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, directly in your course site to meet with students virtually. Here’s how: 1.Course Tools 2.Click Blackboard Collaborate Ultra 3.Choose Create Session 4.Session information: a. Type a name for your session. b. Session parameters: At this point, Collaborate assumes you wish to create a session immediately and fills in the start and end date for today, lasting one hour. i. You can create individual sessions for specific dates and times. This session can be repeated. ii. You can also create one session, such as “Office Hours” that starts and ends on days coinciding with the semester or has no ending date. Students can jump into this session at any time. c. Description: This is optional, however if you create a session such as “Office Hours” you might want to indicate in the description the times you will be present. d. Links: Note the guest link listed at the top. If students have trouble finding your Collaborate session, you can give them this link to join. Once in the session, you can promote them to “Moderator” to give them additional capabilities such as screen sharing. An anonymous link would be used to invite, for example, a guest speaker. 5.Add Collaborate session to content area: To add a link to the Blackboard Collaborate room in your course site, select a content area then choose Tools, Blackboard Collaborate, select the session you wish to add.    TIPS   Accessibility Video: Blackboard Collaborate Blackboard Collaborate Ultra sessions can be recorded. As an instructor, you can record your lectures or supplemental course content for students to view. It can also be used to record student presentations giving you more time for reviewing and grading. Here’s a YouTube video that will help you become better acquainted with Collaborate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx_ec1nmTIs.

  Accessibility   Color Blindness Simulator   Collaborate Ultra   Meet with Students Online   Course   Copy a Course   Glossary   Creative Ways to Use   Grade Center   Color Code Grade Data Column Statistics and Item Analysis Drop Lowest Grade Extra Credit Factoring with Weighted Grades Grading Navigation Options Grading Offline Grading Schema Manage the Grade Center Display Verbally Record Grading Feedback to Student   Retention Center   Access the Retention Center   Student Preview   Using Student Preview   Tutorial Links   Blackboard - Help Blackboard - YouTube   Wikis   High Project Visibility

Creative Ways to Use Blackboard’s Glossary Glossaries can be a terrific resource and they don’t need to be limited to terminology. They can also work like a one-stop repository. With Blackboard’s Glossary, you can include: Pictures, Artwork Videos such as YouTube Files (e.g.; sample lesson plans) Quotes Biographies Historical events Key course concepts Websites News articles (subject is the glossary term) Audio files Writing prompts Once a glossary is created, add it to your content area by choosing Tools, More Tools, Glossary. Instructors can upload to create a glossary or download glossaries they’ve created. As with most content items in Blackboard, you can specify availability dates and you can track the number of views. (Note: for audio, Windows users might find the best results by selecting Embedded Audio and link to an MP3 file in your content folder.)

  Use Wikis for High Project Visibility   Wikis can be an effective way to increase the visibility of the work students do on projects. This type of sharing enables students to build on others’ ideas and create a better academic project as a result. In this example, a wiki has been created for students to share the development of their marketing plans. It also enables instructors to track group progress. When wiki pages are created, you can add content such as an outline to help scaffold student work. Visit Course Tools to find Wikis. Once the wiki has been created, you can add that wiki to a content area using the Tools option at the top. 

  Column Statistics and Item Analysis   The Column Statistics page displays statistics for a grade item, including average, median, and standard deviation. You can also view how many need grading and how the grades are distributed. Navigate to the Full Grade Center and select the chevron for that item. Choose Column Statistics. You can quickly navigate to other assignments and exams from here. Item Analysis provides statistics on overall test performance, test quality, and individual questions. This data helps you recognize questions that might be poor discriminators of student performance. You run Item Analysis by accessing the test menu (chevron), choose Item Analysis, then Run. Blackboard runs the analysis. Click View Analysis in the pink banner at the top to displays the results onscreen. A confirmation email message will be delivered via to your inbox.