External Examiner Blackboard Access

With the pre-Christmas assessment period over, it will soon be time for your external examiners to moderate work on Blackboard and Turnitin. This can be tricky for examiners, who may be unfamiliar with University of Worcester processes and applications.

The first step is to ensure that examiners have their University of Worcester single sign-on account set up (this can be arranged via HR). They will need this to access all university systems.

Once this is in place, external examiners can request access to modules via the Blackboard Access form. As with all University systems, it is extremely important that users use Chrome or Firefox as their browser.

The process for this is:

1. Navigate to the University of Worcester Staff Portal – the link to this can also be found at the bottom of the University website.
2. Log in to the portal via the \’Sign In\’ button at the top right of the screen using University of Worcester account username and password.
3. Click on the relevant Blackboard Access link. Usually displayed are the current year and the previous year. This will take the user to the Blackboard Access form.
4. Complete the form for each module required. When entering the module code, it is important that there are no spaces before, after or within the code. Under type of access, select \’External Examiner\’.
5. Access to the modules will be granted within 24 hours.

To access Blackboard:

1. Navigate to the University of Worcester Staff Portal – the link to this can also be found at the bottom of the University website.
2. Log in to the portal via the \’Sign In\’ button at the top right of the screen using University of Worcester account username and password.
3. Under Applications, click the Blackboard 9.1 link.

Accessing Assessments

Once in the system, and the Access Request forms have been processed, External Examiners will see the modules they need to mark under My Courses (highlighted in yellow below) Clicking on the module name will open the course.

Accessing the students\’ work for marking/moderation depends on the system the assignment is using. The course tutor can verify this if required.

The finer points of how marking/moderation is to take place should be agreed at a course level.

Turnitin

Turnitin is the most commonly used system for assessment and is the best system for text based assignments such as essays, reports and presentations.

Within the course, unless stated otherwise, Turnitin points can be found under \’Assessments\’. The External Examiner will click into the assessment that they are moderating. This will open the Assignment Inbox. Clicking on one of these documents will open students\’ work.

For further information, see our sections of the Turnitin Workflow that cover finding assignments and online grading and feedback.

Blackboard

Blackboard Assignments are used for portfolios and non-text based work.

To moderate Blackboard assignments, External Examiners will need to enter via the grade centre and navigate to the correct assignment. Some guidance from the course tutor may be required for this.

See our guide on Grading and Feedback for further information – please be aware that this guidance is intended for tutors.