Tips for Deploying a Test in Blackboard

For a quick demonstration video of how to deploy a test in Blackboard, scroll to the bottom of this post.

Click here for a general tutorial from Blackboard on how deploy online assessments and surveys.


Specific tips for deploying an online test/quiz in Blackboard

After you've created on online assessment in Control Panel > Test Manager, you can deploy it into the content area of your course (e.g. "Assignments") by going to that area in your Control Panel and clicking the "+ Test" button at the top.

Remember, deploying an online test is not the same as a paper test. Here are some recommended settings to help eliminate potential problems when deploying a test in your Blackboard course. These settings can be found in the content area where you deploy a test (e.g. Control Panel > Assignments). Use the "Modify" button to the right of the test to open the "Modify the Test options" section.


Options:

Open test in new window - Make sure to keep this option set to No. If your student has their browser set to block pop-up windows, setting this to Yes could prevent the test from launching in their browser because the new window will be blocked by the pop-up blocker.


Allow multiple attempts - checking this option will allow the student to take the test multiple times. This is the best option when the test is a self-assessment. If it is a graded test, you will probably want to keep this option off so that they can't restart the test if they don't like their grade. Also note, whenever a multiple attempt is started, the previous attempt is deleted from the Gradebook. Only the most recent attempt is saved.


Force Completion - This setting probably causes the most difficulty for students. When this is checked on, it removes the students' ability to exit and re-enter the test at a later time, even if the "save" progress buttons are used. This means the students must complete the test in the same session as when the test is initially launched. If the student closes her browser, her computer crashes, her Internet Provider boots her off, etc., then she cannot get back into the test. In that event, the instructor has to make the decision as to whether or not to let the student take the test again by resetting the attempt in the Gradebook. Resetting the attempt clears out all the previously given answers and will force the student to start over.

Timed Tests - To eliminate the Forced Completion problem, you can keep this setting turned off, but then turn on the "Set timer" option. This setting records completion time for this Test. By setting the timer on and setting how long they have to take the test, you can see how long it took the student to complete the test, no matter how many times they may have accidentally closed their browser or been booted off. Since Force Completion is off, they can still get back into the test if they are booted off and the Instructor can see how long they took to complete the test to make sure that they didn't open it on a Friday and then finally submit it on a Sunday.

Note: if a student goes over the time allotted, they do not get an automatic score. Instead, they will get an exclamation point in the Gradebook instead and the Instructor will need to go into the Gradebook and hand grade their test, in case the instructor needs to deduct points for going over the time allotted. Blackboard will not force a submission at the end of a timed test, but will warn the student when they have 1 minute left to submit the test themselves.


Test Feedback - Sometimes an Instructor would like to only show the student their score during the time period the test is available, but then give them more detailed results once everybody has completed the test. This can be done by returning to the test options and changing the Test Feedback from the old setting to the new setting. When the student next goes to view their grades via Tools > My Grades, they will see the test results in whatever the current Test Feedback setting is.


Presentation Mode - There are many differing opinions on what option is better, All at Once or One at a Time. The "One at a time" settings may be slightly more prone to problems, since it involve more browser interaction between questions. Do not use the "Prohibit Backtracking" option--when this is turned on a student may try and get around it by using the Back button in their browser and it is very important that the Back button is never used during a test. It can cause problems with the test and the database storing the answers, possibly booting the student from the test.

If you are presenting your test in All at Once mode, please recommend to your students that they click the Save button next to each question as they proceed through the test. This will immediately save their answer to that question in the Gradebook. Otherwise, if a student is completing a long test and gets booted from the test before completing it, all their answers are lost. If they were clicking the Save button for each question as they proceeded through the test, the questions they already answered would still be saved.


Video demonstration:
(Note: A tricycle has 3 wheels, but we accidentally left the correct answer "1 wheel" on our sample test question.  See if you can spot this error in the video!)