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External Examiner Access to Blackboard 2022

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With marking season underway, we thought it would be a good idea to provide updated guidance for getting EEs access to Blackboard so that they can moderate student assignments.

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 on the Courses tab (which you can see has been selected in the image below). Clicking on the module name will open the course.

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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, including Panopto video assignments.

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.

Why you should not hide your assessment points from students in Blackboard

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We strongly recommend that you always keep your submission points visible to your students. The advantages of this are:

1. Students are familiar with the submission point in advance, which aids confidence in the submission process.

2. Enables students to refer to their feedback to inform future assessments.

3. Avoids panic and confusion on the students’ behalf.

4. Mitigates any unnecessary support calls and emails to tutors, TEL and the Helpdesk.

If you are unsure whether your submission point is available to students, you can use the Student Preview option to check.

The screenshot below is how you would ordinarily see the assessment from a tutor\’s view:

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To ensure your students can see the assessment, click on ‘Student Preview’ to view your course from a student\’s perspective:

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Now you are in student preview (as indicated by the orange bar) you can clearly see the assessment submission point is visible as a student:

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This is the best way to check the visibility of any item in Blackboard to see if it can be accessed by your students. If you would like any further information on this, please contact TEL@worc.ac.uk

TEL Workshops Autumn 2021

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Baffled by Blackboard? Confused by Collaborate? Puzzled by Panopto? Well fear not. The Technology Enhanced Learning Unit will be running a series of workshops to help you get to grips with the various education technologies on offer.

The first session, \”Blackboard Made Simple\” will be of particular benefit to staff members who have recently joined the organisation.

Workshop Title  Date 
Blackboard Made Simple  9th September 10:15 – 11:15 
Using Tests and Surveys in Blackboard  21st September 10:15 – 11:45 
Blackboard Accessibility and Ally  23rd September 10:15 – 11:45 
Camtasia  29th September 10:15 – 11:45 
Collaborate Virtual Classroom  30th September 10:15 – 11:15 
An Introduction to Panopto  4th October 10:15- 11.30 
Using Blackboard for Blended and Mobile Learning  5th October 10:15 – 11:45 
Assessing student presentations online using Collaborate and Panopto  6th October 1:15pm – 2:15 pm 
Vevox Polling Software  12th October 10:15 – 11:30 

If you would like to sign up for any of the sessions, please do so via the Staff Development Workshop pages of the Staff Portal.

Blackboard update and student enrolments

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Blackboard has now been updated and you will see a new sleek interface when you next log in. Only the login interface has changed, courses will remain the same and you can continue delivering your module resources, activities and assessments as before.

We are now also starting to enrol students onto modules. Enrolment on Blackboard is integrated with the student record system so students will only have access to modules once they have completed registration for the new academic year and have been registered on the modules they wish to take.

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TEL Training Survey – Closing Soon

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The TEL Training Survey will be closing on Friday 5th March, so there is just one week left to respond, if you have not done so already  (and we would be incredibly grateful if you did!)

We at Technology Enhanced Learning unit have been extremely busy this year and have run many workshops and training sessions to help staff get to grips with the technology they need to use to deliver teaching online.

We would like to evaluate the impact of this training by asking staff who’ve participated in our training offering to answer a few questions to help develop our programme of workshops for the future.

Please follow the link below to complete a short survey which should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.

https://ucw.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/tel-training-evaluation-and-impact

Video hosting in Blackboard

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With the move to online teaching this year, many staff have uploaded video resources to Blackboard to support their learning and teaching. Although this is a good idea – videos can be an invaluable learning resource – the video files do quickly consume the available data quota assigned to each module. Often one video will equal a quarter of the total quota.

A far better solution is to host videos via Panopto. This system was launched at the University in September and is available on all Blackboard modules and organisations. As well as video hosting, Panopto can be used for lecture capture, creation of video learning resources and the submission of video and presentation-based assignments.

Find out more about Panopto on our Panopto page .

When you move recordings to Panopto, you will also need to remove existing videos from your modules in order to free up space for other resources. Be sure to remove videos from both the content areas in which they are deployed and the files area, which is where they are stored.

For more information about file management and optimal usage of Blackboard data quotas, please see our earlier blog post Finding your feet with files.

For more information about the topics discussed in this blog post, please email us at tel@worc.ac.uk

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TEL Training Survey

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TEL Training Survey

We at Technology Enhanced Learning unit have been extremely busy this year and have run many workshops and training sessions to help staff get to grips with the technology they need to use to deliver teaching online.

We would like to evaluate the impact of this training by asking staff who\’ve participated in our training offering to answer a few questions to help develop our programme of workshops for the future.

Please follow the link below to complete a short survey which should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.

https://ucw.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/tel-training-evaluation-and-impact

Happy 2021!

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The team at the Technology Enhanced Learning Unit would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and look forward to working with you in the new semester. 2020 was certainly a challenge for us all, in a number of ways. Hopefully 2021 will bring positive changes.

We also have some exciting news to share. We have recruited a new Academic Learning Technologist to help meet the growing need for online learning resources. Louise Davies joined the team just before Christmas and will eventually focus on developing PebblePad workbooks and delivering training.

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Louise has a wide range of experience in e-learning having worked as a Learning Technologist at Newman University and at HOW College. She has also worked in the commercial sector as an e-Learning Developer and more recently as a Learning and Development specialist at NFU Mutual.

We would like to welcome Louise to the University and to the TEL Unit, and look forward to reaping the benefits of her considerable experience.

Blackboard Housekeeping

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A little later than usual, it is time for our annual Blackboard Housekeeping.

Please be aware that we will be deleting modules from the academic year 16-17 on 16th November. We will also be deleting all organisations with a 2016 or 2017 date against them. If you have any resources that you need to rescue, please log in and download them (or migrate to a newer module) before 16th November.

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