Category: Workflow

If the assessment has been listed as a ‘BB submission’ in eVision, the Blackboard assignment will automatically be created in the relevant course in the Assessment submission and feedback area. For further advice on setting up assessments in eVision, see the Bristol Education Administration Manual (BEAM).

Once assessments have been downloaded, you should prepare a system for managing and distributing these assessments to markers. This section provides a suggested solution for this process and information on supplying coversheets, where that is required.

1. 1. Navigate to the Assessment, Submission and Feedback area of the course.
   2. Locate the assessment sent from eVision. It will have the title that was entered into the eVision system. Once you have found it, click to enter.

Warning: It is important you do not change the assessment’s title whilst making configurations. Making changes to these details can impact mark extraction.

3. If you wish to add information for students directly within the Blackboard Submission point, select the text box below Instructions, enter the information, then select Save. Before students can submit, they will be prompted to View instructions and see information written here before they submit work. If you are using anonymous submissions, the following (or a localised version) should be included:

“This submission is anonymously marked. You should not submit your work with any identifying information (eg, your name), including in the file name itself. If you do, you will forfeit anonymity.”

Warning: This text does not appear as a description on the submission point. It is not recommended to use this area for assessment-critical information required by students far in advance of their submitting work. It is only visible once the student has clicked on the submission point and entered it. To add a description to your assessment, see point 9 below.

4. Click on the cog icon in the top-right corner of the screen to open the assessment settings.
5. It is recommended that the Due date section is not changed from defaults:
   
   Warning: It is important you do not change the assessment’s due date whilst making configurations. Making changes to these details can impact mark extraction.
   1. Prohibit late submissions should be left toggled off.
   2. Prohibit new attempts after due date should be left toggled off.
   3. Collect submissions offline is not used. Rather, if you have an offline submission, choose either “Physical (marks only)” or “No submission (marks only)” whilst creating the assessment in eVision.
   4. Allow class conversations should be toggled off.

6. The Formative Tools section provides the option to toggle the Formative assessment. This MUST be left off for all summative assessments.
7. In the Marking and Submissions section:
   1. 1. Mark category should be left as Assignment
      2. Attempts allowed (recommended: 3 – may vary for local practice)
   
   Warning: If these settings are altered, it may increase the complexity of allowing students additional submissions in exceptional circumstances, or administering the management of extensions. If you are looking to prohibit late submissions after a specific period (e.g., five working days), you can instead use Release Conditions discussed in the Optional Configuration (in Blackboard) section.
   3. 3. Attempts to mark (recommended: Last attempt)
      4. Mark using (recommended: Points, unless using 21 point scale or a pass/fail model)
      5. Maximum points (recommended: 100)
      6. Under Anonymous marking, the option to Hide student names should be left toggled Off . This is the case to set up both anonymous and non-anonymous marking whilst using the offline workflow.
   
   Warning: It is not required to use Blackboard’s anonymous marking features to achieve anonymity in this workflow. Doing so may cause complications.
   7. Evaluation options should not be altered from their default off settings:
      1. Two markers per student should be left toggled off.
      2. Peer review should be left toggled off.
      3. Delegated marking should be left toggled off. If you require delegated marking, please refer to the Distributed Marking guidance in the Optional Configuration section of this workflow.
   8. Assessment mark provides the option to Post assessment marks automatically once marking and feedback have been input. This should be left toggled off.

8. 8. The Presentation Options section cannot be affected unless you add test-style questions to this assessment. It can be ignored for most assignment submission-based assessments.
   9. Under Assessment security, the option Add access code should not be activated.

Warning: Adding access codes will require the distribution of that code to all students taking the assessment. Due consideration must be made for accessibility restrictions when using this setting and the distribution of the code must be conducted so as to avoid any participating student being excluded. The DEO recommend against the use of access code restrictions

10. Scroll to the Additional Tools section:
    1. The time limit tools should not be used in most instances. The option to Add time limit will impose a limited submission time on students from the moment they first enter the submission point. If you would like to explore the use of this tool (perhaps for timed assessments), please contact the Ultra Project team via blackboard-ultra@bristol.ac.uk to discuss suitable configuration options.
    2. As marking is conducted offline, you should not use the Add marking rubric The marking rubric will not be able to affect offline marking.
    3. The Goals and standards section and Align with goals options are not currently being used.
    4. If this assessment is a group submission, click on Assign to groups under Assigned groups. To configure group assessments further, please refer to Assigned Groups (Group Submissions) in the Optional Configuration and Setup
    5. If you are intending to use Turnitin Similarity and AI reports for this submission, click on Enable Turnitin under Originality Report. To configure Turnitin functionality, please refer to Turnitin Similarity and AI Report in the Optional Configuration and Setup
11. Scroll down to the Description field and enter any guiding text that is required. This information is then displayed on the submission point itself before students click to enter, making it a good space to reiterate pre-submission guidance. If you are using anonymity, the following (or a localised version) should be included:

“This submission is anonymously marked. You should not submit your work with any identifying information (eg, your name), including in the file name itself. If you do, you will forfeit anonymity.”

12. Click Save.
13. Assignments are hidden from students by default. Once you have finished configuring the assessment, you can release the submission point to students manually by toggling the Hidden from students option in the top-right of the submission point’s screen to visible to students. Alternatively, you can set a date for release – see Optional configuration and Setup.

1. Click on View course & institution tools under Course Tools in the right-hand Details and Actions menu and then Marks and Feedback.
2. Next to the relevant assignment, click on Release.
3. Next to the relevant zip files, click Release grades. E.g. if there are two marker groups, you will need to release both zip files.
4. This will send the data to the Gradebook. Students can access their feedback from My Marks (see student guidance for more information).

Warning: If you don’t want students to see their marks immediately, ensure the submission point is hidden from students.

You can check the feedback has been correctly uploaded through the attempt in the Gradebook. Go into the Marks section, click on a student’s mark and select View.

This will take you into the Mark and Feedback section where you can view the feedback for the student.

Warning: Checking who has not submitted should only be done either where anonymity is not applied or by a member of staff unto whom anonymity restrictions do not apply (eg, not a marker).

1. Navigate to the Gradebook and select Markable items.
2. Find the relevant assessment and click on its name.
3. Click inside the Student status box at the top of the page to sort the list of students by status. For those students who have submitted, the date and time of the attempt appears underneath the student’s name.

When using the offline workflow, distributed marking can be arranged by setting up easily identifiable groups in the Blackboard course. These groups should correspond to folders set up in a shared file space (see Preparations outside of Blackboard and SITS).’ The Marks and Feedback tool is then used to download assignments for each group into the appropriate folder to be marked.

Warning: Whilst delegated marking options exist in Blackboard submission points, they present several issues for most workflows. Therefore, they are not recommended at this time.

1. In the Blackboard course, navigate to Groups from the top menu.
   1. If you don’t already have group sets in your course, you will need to click the New Group Set option in the top right corner of the screen.
2. In the Group students option box, click the drop-down arrow and select either:
   1. Create custom groups to manually choose how many groups to produce and which students you assign.
   2. Randomly assigned groups to automatically create a number of groups with students randomly assigned to them.

Regardless of which option you chose, you can manually move students between groups either by:

1. 1. 1. Clicking on the “…” icon next to a student’s name and choosing another group to move them to.
      2. Clicking on several students, highlighting their details in black, then clicking on the “…” icon in any of the highlighted student’s details to relocate them all to another group.

3. Once you have assigned all students to groups, name each group so that they are easily identified by a marker. This may be the marker’s name, a pre-agreed number, or some other identifier. For ease of association, you should name each group so it corresponds with folders created in Preparations Outside of Blackboard and SITS. To rename a group, click on the current name.
4. Ensure that the visibility option in the top-right of the screen reads Hidden from students. You can click on it to change it, if needed.
5. Click Save.
6. Navigate to the Content section of the course.
7. From the Details and Actions menu, click on View course & institution tools under Course Tools.
8. Click on Marks and Feedback Settings. This page can take a moment to load.
9. Locate the submission point name from the list and ensure that Delegated Marker Group availability is: is toggled to on.

Warning: Turnitin reports cannot be enabled if you are using group submissions.

1. Navigate to the Assessment, Submission and Feedback area of the course.
2. Locate the assessment sent from eVision. It will have the title entered into the eVision system. Once you have found it, click to enter.
3. Click on the cog icon in the top-right corner of the screen to open the assessment settings.
4. Scroll down to the Additional Tools section and click on Assign to groups under the Assigned groups
5. In the next screen, click on the Group students drop-down and:
   1. If you have already created groups for this assessment, select from the Reuse groups
   2. Choose between:
      1. Custom to manually choose how many groups to produce and which students you assign.
      2. Randomly assign to automatically create a number of groups with students randomly assigned to them.
      3. Self-enrolment if students are allowed to choose which groups they are working with.

Regardless of which option you chose, you can manually move students between groups either by:

1. 1. Clicking on the … icon next to a student’s name and choosing another group to move them to.
   2. Clicking on several students, highlighting their details in black, then clicking on the … icon in any of the highlighted student’s details to relocate them all to another group.

6. Once you have assigned all students to groups, name each group so that they are easily identified by a marker. This may be the marker’s name, a pre-agreed number, or some other identifier. To rename a group, click on the current name.
7. Ensure that the visibility option in the top-right of the screen reads Visible to students.
8. Click Save.

In some instances, it may be desirable to adjust when submission points are available to students. For example, to prevent late submissions after five working days or to only enable access after a certain date.

1. Navigate to the submission point.
2. Click on the drop-down arrow next to the visibility status in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Depending on the conditions already applied, this will either read:
   1. Visible to students
   2. Hidden from students
   3. Release conditions

Select Release conditions, which will take you to a new screen.

3. By default, your new rule will be called Rule # where # represents the number of rules applied to this assessment. For example, “Rule 1”. If you wish to change the name of the rule, click the name and enter text.
4. Choose between:
   1. All members to control access for all students on the course.
   2. Specific members or groups to add specific students or students you have added to a Blackboard group.
5. Toggle Date/Time option to expand more details.
6. Click either and/or both:
   1. Access from: to choose the date and time the submission point should become visible to students.
   2. Access until: to choose the date and time the submission point should become invisible to students.
7. Performance: should be left toggled off. If you would like to explore performance related (streamed) assessment workflows, please contact the Ultra Project team via blackboard-ultra@bristol.ac.uk.
8. Once you have made the changes you wish to, click Save. This will create a rule. Additional rules (for different groups/individual students/dates and times) can then also be added).

Warning: Turnitin reports cannot be enabled if you are using group submissions.

Warning: The Blackboard Offline workflow requires extra administration and planning if you’d like markers to be able to view Turnitin similarity reports and mark anonymously. This is because similarity reports are accessed through the gradebook, where student names are visible.

1. 1. Navigate to the submission point in the Assessment, Submission and Feedback area of your Blackboard course.
   2. Click on the cog icon in the top-right corner of the screen to open the assessment settings.
   3. Scroll down to the Additional Tools section and click Enable Turnitin under the Originality Report header.

Warning: Configuration of similarity settings should be discussed with the academic/teaching lead.

4. Configure the similarity check settings as desired.
   1. 1. Store student submissions in:
         1. Standard paper repository: this will store submitted papers in Turnitin’s global paper repository, making them available to all institutions for future similarity checks. You should only select this option if this is a final submission of work.
         2. Do not store the submitted papers: this will ensure that any submissions made to this submission point are not stored by Turnitin. If you are setting up a formative submission or a submission point for students to submit work in progress or drafts, you must use this setting. If you do not, the student’s final, summative submissions may generate erroneous Similarity Reports by comparing their initial draft with their final work.
   
   Info: In most instances, all of the comparison options should be toggled ON.
   2. Compare submissions against:
      1. Student database (on) will check all submitted work against Turnitin’s repository of submissions from both Bristol and other institutions using Turnitin.
      2. Website content (on) will check all submitted work against Turnitin’s repository of website content.
      3. Periodicals, journals and publications (on) check all submitted work against Turnitin’s repository of published materials.
      4. Institution database (on) will check all submitted work against the University of Bristol’s local repository of materials.
   3. Similarity Report:
      1. Toggle Exclude bibliographic materials on if you wish for the similarity report to ignore materials included in bibliographies. Toggling this on can provide a more accurate report in the first instance. It can be overridden in individual student’s similarity reports after submission.
      2. Toggle Exclude quoted materials on if you wish for the similarity reports to ignore materials included in quotation marks. Toggling this on can provide a more accurate similarity report in the first instance. It can be overridden in individual student’s similarity reports after submission.
      3. Toggle Exclude small sources on if you wish for the similarity report to ignore smaller sources cited in the text. If you choose this feature, an additional configuration to state how many words to ignore will appear and require adjustment.
5. Toggle Allow students to view Similarity Reports on if you wish for students to be able to view their similarity reports. This is shown to improve a student’s understanding of plagiarism and academic integrity practices.
6. Click Save.

Warning: To use anonymous submission in this workflow, you should not configure the submission point to “Hide student names”. Doing so could highly complicate the management of submissions in Blackboard.

In this workflow, administrative staff can still use Blackboard’s Gradebook to attribute submissions to specific students. To sustain anonymity, markers should not access the Gradebook during the marking process.

1. Once the submission point is configured, including the addition of all instructions to students to submit with no identifying information, navigate to the Content section of the course.
2. From the Details and Actions menu, click on View course & institution tools under Course Tools.
3. Click on Marks and Feedback Settings. This page can take a moment to load.
4. Locate the submission point name from the list and ensure that Anonymous Marking is: is toggled to on.

This will ensure downloaded submissions are anonymised (provided students have submitted with no identifying information).