Blackboard was upgraded to version 8 over the winter break.

Read on to learn more about some of the new features in Bb 8.0:

Gradebook

The almost entirely redesigned, and newly named "Grade Center" provides new capabilities such as:

• Create and print Reports such as final grades
• Enter grades directly through the Grade Center spreadsheet
• New grade calculations, Average grade and Minimum/Maximum grade, and improvements to the creation of Weighted grades and Total points grade
• Smart Views -- the ability to categorize Students into groupings based on selected criteria.
• The ability to create Grading Schema: multiple grading scales that match Assessment grades to chosen grade displays, such as text or percent grades

Self and Peer Assessment Building Block

• A comprehensive and flexible tool for the self- and peer assessment of text, images, and digital resources within Blackboard. Instructors create an exercise with a list of questions for the assessor. These questions can have a variety of grading or marking criteria, created or selected by the instructor. The instructor then distributes the exercise with the questions and criteria to the students. The instructor can choose to have the student assess his or her own work or the works of other students.

Blackboard Sync

• Delivers course information and updates from Blackboard to your Facebook page. Displays new assignments, grades, forum posts, etc., without having to leave Facebook. Blackboard Sync also cross-references your courses' rosters with Facebook to make it easier to connect with your class members through Facebook.

Blackboard Scholar

• An innovative social bookmarking feature that enables users to access an academic resource-sharing service customized for education. Rather than saving - or "bookmarking" - favorite Web sites in a browser or course, these tags can be stored and easily accessed from anywhere within Scholar.

Please contact your Instructional Technology Consultant if you have any questions about this upgrade: