This can be caused if your OS and/or browser is out of date.
For specific recommendations, please visit this DoIT page.
Creating a VoiceThread Assignment that is tied to the Blackboard Grade Center
To create a VoiceThread Assignment, you will go to Build Content -> Mashups -> VoiceThread.
Make sure to enable Grading.
If you forgot to do this part, you will not see the Assignment Builder option in the next step. You can go back and enable grading if you need to:
1. Edit the VoiceThread link that you’ve already built in Blackboard.
2. Scroll to the grading section and make sure that “Enable Evaluation” is set
to “Yes.”
3. Set the number of points your assignment is worth.
4. Save.Now Click Assignment Builder.
2. Scroll to the grading section and make sure that “Enable Evaluation” is set
to “Yes.”
3. Set the number of points your assignment is worth.
4. Save.Now Click Assignment Builder.
.
After you click on Assignment Builder you will have options of VT assignment types:
This is the Create a VT option:
Notice the option to allow resubmitted assignments
This is the Submit a Comment VT assignment option:
Note the name of my assignment is VT test.
The watch a VT assignment looks much the same where you have to select the already built VT (or create a new VT that you want them to watch).
The Grade Center won’t show that something has been submitted, but as soon as
you enter the grade into the VoiceThread assignment, that grade will be passed
back to Blackboard for you automatically.
you enter the grade into the VoiceThread assignment, that grade will be passed
back to Blackboard for you automatically.
Image not Appearing in Test?
This is from the Bb listserv. I thought it might be of interest.
…yesterday we had an instructor report that students could not see images in
test questions, but they could. After extensive testing, we discovered that
if the ‘Display Until’ date has passed, the images will no longer appear.In our situation…
Due to a recent issue of students cheating, the instructor set a 10 or 15
minute time window where students had to start the test.They did this by
using the ‘Display After’ and ‘Display Until’ settings. The test was
setup to present/display “One at a time”. When the ‘Display Until’ date
passed, the images no longer appeared in the test. The test continued to
function as normal and the text is all there, just the images do not
display and instead a broken image icon displayed. If the ‘Display Until’
date was changed to in the future, the images reappeared.
test questions, but they could. After extensive testing, we discovered that
if the ‘Display Until’ date has passed, the images will no longer appear.In our situation…
Due to a recent issue of students cheating, the instructor set a 10 or 15
minute time window where students had to start the test.They did this by
using the ‘Display After’ and ‘Display Until’ settings. The test was
setup to present/display “One at a time”. When the ‘Display Until’ date
passed, the images no longer appeared in the test. The test continued to
function as normal and the text is all there, just the images do not
display and instead a broken image icon displayed. If the ‘Display Until’
date was changed to in the future, the images reappeared.
I submitted a support ticket to Bb Support and after submission it gives
you potentially related articles. One of those was a Nov 06,2015 “Article
No.- 000041338- Assessment Images and Other Attached Files Cannot be Viewed
While Inside a Test After Display Until Time”:
https://blackboard.secure.forc
So our particular issue has been around for a while and doesn’t appear is
planned to be fixed anytime soon.
Jeffrey Ries
Applications Administrator/LMS
IT-Educational Technology & Media Services
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa
All Those Test Options in Blackboard & How to Give a Synchronous Test*
This blog entry is going to focus on the options in Blackboard that have to do with the timing of an test.
When you are first creating the Test.. these options are found under the Test Information area and span a few sections. If you have already made the test you can find these options by clicking the chevron next to the test name and clicking “Edit the Test Options”.
Force Completion
When you set this option, if the student looses the connection or accidentally closes the browser, they will be unable to go back and finish the test. (Without you having to intervene anyway.) We don’t recommend enabling this setting.
Set Timer
This option gives the student a visible countdown timer during the test. It begins after the test description and instructions have been displayed. If Auto-Submit is selected, at the end of the count down, it ends the test, no matter where they were. If Auto-Submit is not checked, you will see an exclamation point in the grade center and have the option to adjust the grade, if they went long.
If the Force Completion is not set, and a student looses their connection or accidentally closes the browser, they will be able to continue taking the test, and the timer will continue from when it initially started. (eg., If they loose the connection for 10 minutes, they loose that 10 minutes.)
Display After and Until
A better way of handling whether students can see the test, rather than the “Make the Link Available” option. Also consider, they can’t start what they cannot see. *So if you want everyone to be done by 1pm and you have a 30 minute timer with auto-submit enabled, consider Display Until to end around 12:30.
Due Date
Due dates (and times) do not affect the test availability (unless you choose the Do not allow students to start the Test if the due date has passed option), but rather provide a flag on the test if it was started or ended after the due date/time.
Test Availability Exceptions
This section allows you to make test rule exceptions for people that need accommodations, or have other needs depending on language or technology situations.
If these settings exist for a test or survey, you can create these exceptions:
- Number of attempts
- Timer
- Availability: Date and time the test is available to the student or group
- Force completion
- Restrict location
Have any interesting testing stories to tell? What other testing options do you have questions about? Please comment below!
This blog is a cross post from https://you.stonybrook.edu/academictechnologyservices
“Force Completion is one of those functions that sounds like it will be useful, but really is just a way of going swimming in cement boots.”
Accepting Videos as an Alternative form of Course Assessment
This is about using a echo360 mashup tool to accept video submissions inside of Blackboard and which instructor will be able to grade under Needs Grading in the Grade Center. This is an excellent alternative to high stakes grading via traditional exams.
First you will want to create an assignment. You will go to your Assignments area and go to Assessments -> Assignment.
Give it a name and add instructions for the students to follow.
Create a due date and points possible for the presentation.
Make the assignment available to the students.
Submit.
What the students see: (You can also see this yourself using the student preview mode, entered by clicking on this icon in the upper right part of the screen in blackboard: 
Under assignments, they locate your assignment and click in it’s name.
They see the points possible and the instructions that you wrote previously.
They need to click on Write Submission to get to the Blackboard WYSIWYG editor. They should type the name of their assignment into this text box and then select the Mashups button.
Then they click on Mashups -> Echo360 Video Library
This opens a new window for them where they have three choices. They can choose any video already in their echo360 video library. (That is Choose From My Home), they can create something new (Create New Media) or Upload a video they have on their computer. This is what the different options look like:
Choose from home allows the student to either browse or search for files in their echo360 library.
Create New Media will give them the option to Launch Universal Capture from their computer.
Where they can name the video and start recording from their webcam, desktop and audio.
and finally Upload Existing:
Here they can grab videos from their cloud storage locations or browse from their computer.
After they have typed the name of their presentation and selected the video, they will click submit.
After submitting they will get a submission confirmation:
As the instructor, you can find the student submission under Needs Grading in the Grade Center:
…where I will see the list of submitted assignments and I can either chose Grade All or go through them one by one. Here is the assignment I submitted and you can view the presentation, grade it and leave feedback for the learner right here.
Huge Update in Echo360’s Universal Capture!
It now allows for live streaming!
I’ve done some tests already. I’m seeing a 10 sec lag on what comes out of my mouth and what comes through the stream. The screen share seems about 3 seconds ahead of my camera’s live video. There is a 15 secondish lag between when you start streaming and the stream actually begins.
I was testing on a laptop that had a hard wire connection to my router at home… the receiving computer was on the wireless.
Here is their documentation which includes technical requirements:
https://learn.echo360.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041458112
I will be doing more tests… but this is awesome news for additional options for synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning!
You don’t have to download a new version of the software. If you have never used it before, the software can be downloaded from echo360.org with your netid and password.
More to follow!
zoom accounts
Zoom has been around a while. Many people already have used it, even if their company or school never had it as their official web conferencing platform. Because we have had to suggest that all users be authenticated, it is important that you are arriving in the room with the correct account.
Inside the zoom app, check that you are logged in with your stonybrook.edu email address.
You can see that in the upper right. If you are not, select switch account, and login through SSO. (Not Google)
STOP THE ZOOMBOMBS!
You made a room from Zoom Meetings in Blackboard. You know it has a forced password. You know students will be logging into Blackboard to find the link. Isn’t that enough to prevent others from joining? And when I say others, I mean truly foul people who apparently have nothing better to do with their time then really and truly mess up your whole class. Nope. We have to do more
After creating your room in Blackboard, leave Blackboard, and sign back into zoom at stonybrook.zoom.us. Your room will be listed under meetings. Click on the name, go to the bottom on the page and click edit meeting. Just above there, in meeting options, you will find the “only authenticated users can join” option. stonybrook.edu will pre-populate for you. This will force them to use a stonybrook.edu email address and they can no longer be anonymous in the session.
Please note that this means that guest speakers from outside the University will not be able to join. Nor would high school students be able to participate. See other methods for tightening up security below the screenshot.
If you want people from outside stonybrook.edu to join, here are other things that you can do:
Never share the meeting link in Social Media.
from the participant list inside an active meeting:
Lock the Zoom Meeting room once everyone has arrived from the participant list.
Mute Participants on Entry & Don’t allow them to unmute themselves.
Remove unwanted visitors*
Under the share button in an active meeting:
Do not allow participants to share their screen
Do not allow participants to share their screen
When you schedule the meeting:
Don’t use recurring meetings. They all have the same URL and password. Obviously this isn’t as convenient. Maybe try this if you continue to have issues and have tried other steps.
Schedule the meetings outside of Blackboard and only give the students the link from a blackboard announcement or email right before it starts. This way the students will not have the URL to share with others beforehand. This means scheduling from stonybrook.zoom.us and not from Blackboard’s Zoom Meetings menu item. You will find that setting for Only Authenticated Users right away if you schedule in this manner.
Don’t Allow Students to Join Before the Host
These settings are found in your stonybrook.zoom.us Settings area.
*Don’t Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin. The default on this setting is for it to be off (which is correct). What it doesn’t tell you though, is the user that you booted from the room can clear there “cookies” and reenter anyway. So it depends on how savy your bomber is.
“Require a password when scheduling new meetings” – this is locked on. So you’re good.
“Require a password for Instant Meetings” – default this is on.
“Require a password for Personal Meeting ID” – default this is off.
In addition, you can disable the setting called “Embed password in meeting link for one-click join”. This means you will have to provide the password in a separate communication from the meeting link. This is much less convenient, but is a deterrent to unwanted visitors.
Consider having a Co-Host to handle these items during the meeting.
and finally:
Shut Down the Meeting
- In an emergency, end the meeting by clicking “End meeting” in the lower right corner of the Zoom window. Then set-up a new meeting with a unique URL, and send it to participants via a Blackboard Announcement and email, etc.
After having said all that…. don’t you wish people were just nicer??
Zoom feature that doesn’t work as expected
Polling. I love polling. It allows you to engage with a large group of students and comes with all sorts of side reasons to use.. assessment, active learning, demographics, attendance, etc.
But, we are strongly encouraging remote learning these days, as well as asynchronous learning. This means recording things. Turns out that zoom cuts polls clean out during a recording. The screen that is pops up in isn’t part of the recording, and even if you share your display and the poll is on your display when open and as you go through the results, that window is not part of the recording either.
argh. You could speak the poll question and verbally go over the findings, they just won’t be able to see anything or participate. So… perhaps a good time to bring Turning Technologies back into the mix??
Let me know what you think in the comments.