Blackboard assessments provide a convenient way for instructors to evaluate students' knowledge, understanding, and skills in a digital environment. Blackboard offers a range of question types that instructors can include in their assessments, such as multiple-choice, true/false, short answer, essay, matching, and more. These question types allow instructors to assess different levels of understanding and cognitive skills. The assessment feature provides analytics and reporting features to track student performance and identify areas of improvement. These insights can help adapt teaching strategies and support students effectively.

Create Assessment

1. Login into the course where you would like to add an assessment.
2. In the middle of the page, select the + icon where you'd like to add the assessment.
3. Select Create.
4. On the right hand side, under the Assessments heading, select Test.
5. In the top left hand corner, enter the name of the test. 
6. In the middle of the screen, select the +sign and select the question type you would like to add. 
   • Multiple Choice Question
   • True/False Question
   • Essay Question
   • Matching Question
   • Fill in the Blank Question
7. Continue to use the +sign to add additional questions until all questions have been added to the test. 

Due Date Settings

• Enter the due date and time for the assessment.
• Prohibit late submissions will prevent students from submitting work after the due date has passed. If this setting is enabled, all drafts will be automatically submitted at the due date and time.
• Prohibit new attempts after due date will prevent students from starting new attempts once the due date and time has passed.
• Allow class conversations provides the students with the ability to discuss the assignment.
• Collect submissions offline gives the instructors the ability to proctor an assessment in the classroom, and provide a grade and feedback in the grade center.

Presentation Settings

• Display one question at a time displays one test question at a time to students. Note, you must add questions to enable this feature.
• Prohibit backtracking prevents students from going back to change an answer for a previously submitted question based on information that may have been provided in another question.
• Randomize questions provides the questions to students in a random order. This means student A and student B will receive different exams.
• Randomize answers provides the answers to students in a random order. This means student A and student B will have different options for A-D for a multiple choice question.
• Randomize pages displays the pages in a random order to students providing students with different exams. 

Grading & Submission Settings

• Grade category is the category the test will be weighed in when using the overall grade column in the grade book. If you do not use this feature, leaving it as test is fine.
• Attempts allowed is the number of attempts the students can use to take the test.
• Grade using can be set to points, percentage or a letter grade. 
• Hide Student Names will remove the student names for anonymous grading.

Assessment Result Settings

• Submission view customizes when the submission content is available to students. Options available are after submission, after individual grade is posted, after due date, after all grades are posted or on a specific date. If you do not want to allow students to view their submission at all, simply uncheck the checkbox next to the setting.
• Automated question feedback customizes when the automated question feedback is available to students. Options available are after submission, after due date, after all grades are posted or on a specific date. If you do not want the automated question feedback available at all, simply uncheck the checkbox next to the setting.
• Show question scores customizes the ability to view question scores. Options available are after submission, after due date, after all grades are posted or on a specific date. If you do not want students to view the question scores, simply uncheck the checkbox next to the setting.
• Show correct answers allows students to view the correct answers, select the check box next to show correct answers. If you do not want the students to view the correct answers, simply leave the check box unchecked.

Additional Tools 

• Access Code can be turned on if you want students to enter a code to access the exam. This is helpful if you only want one or two students to access the exam, or if you would like students to access the exam earlier or later than other students int he course.
• Respondus Lockdown Browser enables the tool which prevents students from using anything on their computer while completing the exam. They will need to install the application prior to taking the exam.
• Time Limit sets the alloted time allowed for the assessment. 
• Use Grading Rubric can only be enabled if you have an essay or short answer question on your test in order to use a rubric. If your test is all multiple choice, the rubric option will not be enabled.
• Assign to Groups will assign the test to a specific group of students. You will need to take create the groups first before assigning the test to them.
• SafeAssign allows you to receive safe assign reports for questions the student answer.

Visibility Options

• Visible to Students: the content will be available to all students in the course.
• Hidden from Students: the content will be available to the instructor to continue to edit, but will not be available for students to view. 
• Release Conditions: the content will be visible based on the criteria set.
  • Select Members:  You can make the content visible to all members (default) or specific members or groups. 
  • Date/Time: You can make the content visible based on a specific date/time. This is helpful when releasing content on a consistent schedule. 
  • Performance: You can make the content visible based on a student's performance on an assessment. This is helpful when you want to provide additional resources to students that may be struggling.