When adding assessments to an Ultra Development shell, instructors frequently ask to have a sample student enrolled in their course to help them better test the Gradebook. Your Student Preview user is designed to serve as this sample student.
Blackboard Ultra courses include a feature called Student Preview. Student Preview allows you, the instructor, to engage with your course content and assessments just like students in your course will. Additionally, Student Preview allows you to practice grading assessments and giving feedback.
Using Student Preview is essential in Ultra course development and conversion from Blackboard Original courses. Student Preview allows you to:
- Determine whether students can see the course content as you intend,
- Practice submitting assessments,
- Test Gradebook calculations,
- Practice Grading and providing feedback on assessments,
- View grades and feedback as a student.
Note that Student Preview is only applicable to the course you are currently viewing. You will not be able to navigate away from the course until you exit Student Preview.
When in Student Preview, you may receive emails in your cod.edu email account from Blackboard related to the course.
To begin using Student Preview, click the Student Preview icon. The icon for Student Preview resembles an eye. It is in line with the navigation menu at the top of your course.
Then click Start Preview.
When you enter Student Preview, a preview user is created for you. Note that you do not need a separate login for your Student Preview user. When you enter Student Preview, you can see your Student Preview username by clicking Gradebook.
To exit Student Preview, click Exit in the top right corner of your screen. When you exit Student Preview, you will be given two options. They are Discard and Save. If you select Save, you will be able to see your Student Preview user and any work you submitted while in this role when you return to your role as the instructor. If you select Discard, any work you submitted while in Student Preview will be deleted and you will not be able to see your Student Preview user when you return to your role as the instructor.
If you submit work while in Student Preview and save it, it will be retained through the next time you access Student Preview. Therefore, if you click Discard, any work you submitted in Student Preview, even previously saved work from prior sessions, will be deleted along with your Student Preview user.
When using Student Preview in a live term course (not a development shell) it is recommended that when you finish your testing in Student Preview that you exit Student Preview and select Discard. If you choose to save the Student Preview user, you may receive error messages for this user when entering grades and verifications.
Previewing Course Content Visibility
While in Student Preview, you can see what content students can currently access in your course. You’ll notice when you are in your instructor role, you can view all your content, whether it is visible to students or not. If there is a piece of content that you expect students to be able to view but your Student Preview user cannot, you will need to exit Student Preview and review the visibility settings.
Note that there are multiple reasons why students may not be able to view content. Review the following items to troubleshoot issues with content visibility:
- Content visibility: Ensure that your content shows that it is visible to students. The following icon (eye with a slash) and the notation of “Hidden from students” will indicate that content is not visible to students.
- If your content displays a locked padlock icon and the notation “Release Conditions,” this indicates that the content has Release Conditions enabled. Release Conditions allow you to control under which conditions students can view content.
- With Release Conditions, you can set Rules which dictate when students either gain or lose access to pieces of course content.
- You can choose to have content visible to students until one or more conditions are met, or hidden from students until one or more conditions are met.
- Release Condition Rules can be set to allow students to view content after a specific date and time.
- Rules can also be set to allow students to view their content after a specific grading criterion is met. For example, you could set a rule that only permits students to view the next piece of course content after they have mastered (as indicated by a score in the Gradebook) the current content. Please note that multiple rules for the same piece of content are cumulative rather than an “or” option. Students need to have met both/all rules to view content if multiple rules are set.
- With Release Conditions, you can set Rules which dictate when students either gain or lose access to pieces of course content.
- If your content is inside a Learning Module or Folder, ensure that the Learning Module or Folder is visible to students. Learning Modules and Folders contain content. If the container is hidden from students, the content cannot be viewed, even if the content is set as visible to students.
Practice Submitting Assessments as a Student
You can also use Student Preview to submit assignments, take a test, participate in Discussions, or write a Journal entry. You can check to ensure that all instructions and expectations are accurate and clear.
Special note about Discussions: If you post to Discussions in your Student Preview in a live course, we recommend not saving the content. If a student replies to a Student Preview post and the Student Preview data is later removed, the student replies may be lost.
To engage with any of your assessments, enter Student Preview and click the assessment to begin.
If you plan to practice grading any content you have submitted in Student Preview, be sure to click Save when exiting student preview to retain your submissions.
Testing Gradebook Calculations
The Student Preview user can help you to better envision what the Gradebook will look like with students enrolled. It can also help you to test Gradebook Overall Grade calculations.
When you exit Student Preview and Save your preview user, your Preview User will remain in your course.
After saving your Student Preview user, navigate to Gradebook. In the Grades view, you will see your Student Preview user (in either Grades or Students views). You can either enter scores manually, or as outlined in the next section, practice grading the Student Preview work and providing feedback. You can then check to ensure that your Gradebook is calculating grades as expected.
Practicing Grading and Providing Feedback
If you have submitted work to an assessment in your course as your Student Preview user, you can then practice grading the work and providing feedback. After submitting work, be sure to click Save when exiting Student Preview to retain the work and save the Student Preview user. Once in instructor mode, navigate to the Gradebook in Grades view to view the submission. You can click the New Submission indication and view the student’s attempt. You can provide a score for the work and use the feedback options available to provide feedback to your Student Preview user. If you have submitted work to multiple assessments, you can provide grades and feedback on each submission.
The following Blackboard Help articles provide more information on navigating the Gradebook, grading, and providing feedback to students in Blackboard Ultra.
Viewing Grades and Feedback as a Student
After grading your Student Preview user submissions as an instructor, return to Student Preview to view the grades and feedback as a student. Be sure that assessments are graded, and the grades are Posted (scroll page to Posting Grades header) to ensure that you can see the grades and feedback in Student Preview.
Re-enter Student Preview. Click Gradebook. You will see an indicator on the Gradebook tab with the number of new grades, and a purple dot appears for each assessment that was recently graded. The following Blackboard Help article provides more information on how to view grades and feedback as a student (scroll to Grades for a single course).
Exit Student Preview to return to your role in the course as an instructor. If you want to continue viewing your Student Preview user’s work, be sure to click Save when exiting Student Preview.
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