Blackboard Ultra – Assessment Overview

Supported file types and similarity checking with Turnitin

The Ultra Assignment tool accepts a wide range of file types and multiple files can be uploaded to a single submission.

Ultra Assignments includes Turnitin integration so Turnitin supported file submissions can be checked for potential plagiarism as part of the Assignment workflow. You can continue to use the direct Turnitin link if you prefer to use this interface for submission and marking.

Marking and Feedback options

Assignments offer a range of tools for marking and feedback options including rubrics, annotation, audio and video feedback with transcript, and file attachments.

Distinguishing Assignments and Tests in Ultra

Assignments are generally used to submit files and Tests are for adding Questions (like multiple-choice questions). However, Ultra Assignments and Tests (grouped under Assessments in the Course Content Items panel) share the same user interface and you will see the option to add Questions to both. It is up to you what you define as an Assessment vs a Test for example you may want to add short answer essay questions to an Assignment. Be aware that many options in the settings are enabled or disabled based on whether at least one question is included in the assessment.

We do not advise mixing questions with the option for students to upload a file content at the end of the assessment (submit files). Many marking options will not be available if you include questions in an assessment.

See this guide for details of the different setting options for Ultra assessments with and without questions.

Uses

• Assessments requiring a file upload submission for example essays, presentations, project work and scanned handwritten notes.
• Submissions requiring similarity checking with Turnitin – new from June 2024.
• Integrated Panopto and media submissions.
• Group work – one group member can hand in and all receive the mark and feedback.
• Peer review – designate a number of submissions for each student to review.
• Collect submissions offline – add marking and feedback for assessments with no physical student submissions, such as oral presentations and practical work.
• Assignments can include questions such as short answer essay questions, but read the guide carefully before including test questions in an Assignment.
• Timed Assignments.
• Summative or formative assessment.

Guide : How to create an Assignment and review settings

Ultra Tests allow you use a range of question types to build self marking assessments. Test can also include short answer essay questions that are manually marked - the Ultra Flexible Grading workflow allows you to easily mark by student or by question.

Tests are ideal for formative assessment, but can be used for some summative assessment. You can also consider the on campus OnDemand software for summative multiple choice type assessment.

Tests can be a completely asynchronous solution as you can set up tests with automatic feedback and custom marking schematics. You can also use outcomes of marked items to control the release conditions of course content.

Use for:

• Building self marking tests/quizzes.
• Tests using a range of question types including multiple choice, calculated formula and fill in the blanks.
• Short answer essay questions (note restrictions to submission and marking options are listed below)
• Formative knowledge check, but can be used for some summative assessment.

Note: File submissions and Tests!

We recommend you use Assignments (without questions) if you want to mark file submissions.

• Any files students attach to short answer essay questions need to be downloaded by the marker and cannot be marked inline.
• You can leave the option for student to upload files after answering questions, but you cannot assign a separate mark to uploaded files where questions are also included.

For more information please see our comparison of Blackboard Assignments and Tests.

Discussions can be used as a collaborative communication tool anywhere in your module, but participation can also be assessed if you tick the option to mark discussion.

In marked discussions, grades are based on each student's total contributions, not each individual post. Students can contribute and edit their posts until the due date.

Use for:

• Community building and interaction with students.
• Assessing language learning or critical thinking skills.
• Encourage participation in the analysis of some content or participation in a debate.
• Assess discussion analytics and participation of each individual.
• Allow students a group space to discuss their work using Group Discussions.
• Allow students to create their own discussions on the Discussions page.
• Reply to posts or leave overall feedback for marked discussions.
• Flexibility for students to create posts with a variety of media. Students can upload documents, videos, images, audio files.
• Set a due date on marked discussions.

Journals are personal spaces for students to communicate privately with you. Students can also use journals as a self-reflective tool. They can post their opinions, ideas, and concerns about the course, or discuss and analyse course-related materials and develop ideas.

You can choose to mark a Journal, add a rubric and leave feedback.

Use for:

• Providing formative feedback throughout a course.
• Encouraging reflective practice and refinement of ideas.
• Recording participation in group work.
• Provide evidence of developing work over time.
• Flexibility for students to create posts with a variety of media. Students can upload documents, videos, images, and audio files.
• Leave continuous feedback on student work.
• Set a due date on marked Journals.

Turnitin is a third part tool that supports submission and marking of written work, including similarity checking. It has a simple marking inbox and interface. You can filter your view of student work by Blackboard groups or enable anonymous marking.

Use for:

• Written work requiring a similarity score to support plagiarism checking.
• Summative assessment if this is the tool required by your school or department.
• Submitting a range of file types, but accepted file types are more limited if similarity checking is required. See the Turnitin guide for details of file requirements

Use: Blackboard Tests and Assignments, Turnitin Assignments or eAssignments

• Anonymity must be applied before any student submits. It cannot be applied retrospectively.
• Some features such as progress tracking and student overview, discussion analytics, and targeted reminders may not capture student participation while the assessment is anonymous.
• Blackboard Discussions are truly anonymous, and Instructor cannot reveal poster identities. Marked discussions cannot be anonymous.

Guide: Blackboard Anonymous Marking.
Guide: Turnitin Anonymous Marking.

Use: Blackboard Tests and Assignments, Discussions, Turnitin Assignments or eAssignments

Turnitin does not have a group assignment feature - all students will be able to submit individual files. You can manage a group assignment in Turnitin using Blackboard Groups.

Guide: Blackboard Group Assignments.

Use: Blackboard Assignments, eAssignments, Turnitin

Large images may need to be compressed if the file is larger than the platform allows. Check the file submission requirements of the platform you wish to use.

If submitting to Turnitin, please review the file requirements and assignment settings carefully:

• Please note that Turnitin plagiarism checking will not work on images or PDFs saved as images. Plagiarism checking can only scan highlightable text.
• Turnitin requires 20 words for plagerisim checking. Images can be embedded alongside text in word documents/PDFs but only the text will be scanned.
• Turnitin accepts one file per submission, so students may need to collate multiple images into one document.

Guide: Turnitin File Requirements.
Guide: Blackboard Supported File Types.
Student Guide:Submitting scanned, handwritten assessments online

Use: Blackboard Assignment, Turnitin, eAssignment

Note: File submissions and Blackboard Tests

We do not recommend you ask students to submit files in a Blackboard Test as these can be awkward for markers to download to mark.

We recommend you use a Blackboard Assignment (without questions) if you want to mark file submissions.

• • Any files students attach to short answer essay questions need to be downloaded by the marker and cannot be marked inline.

• • You can leave the option for student to upload files after answering questions, but you cannot assign a separate mark to uploaded files where questions are also included.

Guide: Turnitin File Requirements.
Guide: Blackboard Supported File Types.

Use: Blackboard Assignments, eAssignments,
Formative/drafts: Microsoft Teams, OneDrive or SharePoint

• Different platforms will accept different files and file sizes.
• Turnitin does not allow multiple file submission.

Some files may be accepted by the assignment platform, but some features are not compatible with the files. For example, the similarity checking will not work or the file will not load in browser and must be downloaded to mark.

Guide: Turnitin File Requirements.
Guide: Blackboard Supported File Types.

Different platforms will have different marking workflows.

• eAssignments has sophisticated marking workflows, such as double-blind delegated marking.
• Turnitin accepts one mark per submission and does not have a reconcile double marking feature.
• Blackboard allows for some delegated marking and double-blind marking, but often these settings cannot be applied together or requires a third person to be a reconciler. A marker cannot be a reconciler.
  • Blackboard does not currently allow double-blind marking workflow for delegated marking.
  • Blackboard Tests can be automatically marked.

Guide: Mark Blackboard Assignments with Flexible Marking.
Guide: Mark Blackboard Tests with Flexible Marking.
Guide: Blackboard Test Settings (including automated feedback and marks).
Guide: Using Turnitin Feedback Studio.

Use: Blackboard Gradebook items, Blackboard Offline Submission, Blackboard Calendar events and Blackboard web links

• Add details of offline assessment using the offline submission setting of a Blackboard Assignment or Test, or manually add the assessment as a Gradebook item to provide marks and feedback through Blackboard.

Guide: Add alternative and offline assessment to Blackboard.
Guide: Blackboard Help Grade Columns.

Use: Turnitin, eAssignments or Ultra Assignment

All these tools run submissions through Turnitin databases and return a similarity score and report. For eAssignments, the similarity reports are generated at the assignment due date.

You can choose whether the student can view their plagerism report/score.

Play close attention to the Submission settings. Select Submit papers to: Do not store submitted papers for drafts or assignments which may be submitted again in the future.

Guide: Turnitin.
Guide: eAssignments.
Guide: Blackboard Ultra Assignments

See this article for information about the features and uses of the new Turnitin integration in Blackboard Ultra Assignments.

Use: Blackboard Discussions, Journals, Blackboard Cloud Collaboration Document
Formative/drafts: Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive.

• Allow students to post reflective updates to Discussions and Journals.
• Allow students to co-create in a Cloud Collaboration document, then ask them to submit a copy to Blackboard Assignments, Turnitin, or eAssignments for summative submission.
• Use a Teams Assignment to set a template that students work on, that they can hand in and have feedback returned before the final due date. Ask them to submit a copy to Blackboard Assignments, Turnitin or eAssignments for summative submission.

Guide: Blackboard Discussion and Journals.
Guide: Blackboard Cloud Collaboration documents using Microsoft Onedrive.
Guide: Teams Assignments.

Use: Blackboard Assignments, Journals, and Discussions

• Select Peer review to set up a Blackboard Assignment as a peer assessment.
• Use Blackboard Journals for self-assessment and reflection.
• Encourage student interaction in Discussions.

Guide: Blackboard Peer review.
Guide: Blackboard Discussion and Journals.

Use: Blackboard timers and release conditions

Add a time limit to Blackboard Tests and Ultra Assignments.

• Note that Blackboard allows an extra 59 seconds before it considers a test as late. If you set a test for 60 minutes, only submissions received after 61 minutes are considered late.

Use release conditions on a Test or Assignment to show/hide the item at certain times or show different due dates.

• Note that if the student is already accessing the item, it will not hide.
• Always tick options to allow submissions after the due date. Any assessment submitted after the due date will be marked as late.

Exemptions and Exceptions

• You can allow students extra time by giving them a due date exception.
• You can allow a student an additional attempt.
• You can create a Group for extra time/special considerations and add the relevant students to that group. You can then use release conditions to show a different Test or Assignment that has a different due date.
• In Blackboard Ultra courses the A&A team can add AERs (Additional Exam requirements time) to a student's Accommodations and this will automatically add the extra time to all timed assessments in the module for that student.

Guide: Blackboard Test Settings.
Guide: Blackboard Grant Exceptions and Exemptions and Accommodations.
Guide: Blackboard Release Conditions.

Use: Blackboard Assignments, Panopto, and eAssignments

• We recommend all video content is stored and submitted with Panopto. The Panopto video can then be submitted via Blackboard or eAssignments.
• The recording must have appropriate permissions, so that markers can view it.
• You can record in-person assessment to Panopto, such as group presentations and practicals.