|
ASSIGNMENTS/DIGITAL DROPBOX:
Creating Assignments: Animated Tutorial
Dropbox or Assignment Manager?
Dropbox Scrolling
Marking Papers
Multiple Sections/Instructors
Problem Browsing for Documents on My Computer
Unfound / Changed Student Dropbox Submissions
Uploading Assignments: Animated
Tutorial
Using the Assignment Manager
Students Have Trouble Uploading Some File Type
Dropbox or Assignment Manager?
Q:
How do my students submit their assignments through Blackboard?
A: There are two options for student submission of files, the Dropbox or the Assignment
Manager. Jerry Voltura of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, prepared this analysis:
This is Jerry Voltura with a comparison of the Blackboard Assignment Manager and the Digital Drop Box . Which one should you use? Did you know you have a choice? You have 2 options when using Blackboard to help organize your assignments: the Assignment Manager and the Digital Drop Box.
When deciding which tool to use, think about your needs and your students' needs . Consider using the Digital Drop Box when file exchange is required between you and a student, a select group of students (via "Group File Exchange Function" in a study group), or when a project/assignment will not be graded. Using the Assignment Manager may be more effective when a grade will be assigned and the graded product requires the submission of one document, such as a research paper or essay.
Here is a quick look at the advantages and disadvantages of each tool.
Assignment Manager
Advantages
- Allows multiple files for the same project/assignment all in one entry/submission
- Allows faculty to retrieve and grade an assignment right from the Gradebook
- Enables enhanced item management options, including bulk downloading and cleanup of files
- A column for each assignment is automatically created in the Gradebook when you create an assignment using the Assignments Manager
- After students submit their assignments, the faculty member sees an exclamation point (!) in the Gradebook signaling the assignment needs to be graded
- Students can view graded assignments from the "Tools>>View Grades" link from the course menu
- Availability dates allows instructor to set deadlines for assignments; once deadline passes, students lose the opportunity to submit the assignment
- Provides time and date stamp for all submissions
Disadvantages
- Submissions using the Assignment Manager cannot be shared with other students
- Can only submit assignment one time; no multiple submissions
- Additional time needed to set-up assignments using Assignment Manager
Digital Drop Box
Advantages
- Provides a private and/or shared area where students and instructors can store and exchange files
- Students are able to send files to the instructor where the instructor can retrieve and review those files and then return them to the students
- Faculty can send files to a single student, selected students, and all students enrolled in a course
- Provides time and date stamp for all submissions
- No set-up time needed for assignments
- Can have multiple submissions of one assignment
Disadvantages
- Assignments are not automatically entered into the Gradebook; faculty need to add Digital Drop Box assignment items manually (if they are to be part of the Gradebook)
- Limited organization capabilities
- Multiple files appear as multiple entries (i.e. multiple files from one student cannot be sent together; students can only send one file at a time)
- Cannot control availability dates for assignments
by Jerry Voltura
afjav@uaa.alaksa.edu
Q:
How does the Assignment Manager work?
A: The Assignment Manager allows the course designer to set up an assignment submission link in any content
area of the site. At the time the assignment is created, a corresponding
item is automatically generated in the Grade Center. This is where
the instructor or grader accesses, downloads, grades, and returns
the students' submissions. Advantages of this is that now
a column for each assignment's grades is conveniently linked to
the assignments and all of the submissions for a particular assignment
may be downloaded to your hard drive simultaneously.
When
you create an assignment in a content area, the item that the student
sees contains a link labeled View/Complete.
Below is an example of how a typical assignment item may look:
The
student clicks on View/Complete to
access a file submission window for that particular assignment.
The window may also contain a digital document that contains or
explains the assignment:
Q:
But I liked the dropbox -- it was easier than the assignment
manager. Can I use it?
A:
If you still wish to use the Digital Dropbox,
it is available in a modified format, without
the sorting and filtering capabilities that the old one
had.
Using the Assignment Manager
Q:
How do I add an assignment?
A:
Select a Content Area in the Control Panel, then from the drop down menu in the tool bar at the top right select Assignment, and click GO to
bring up the Add Assignment page.
Below
are explanations of the fields on the Add Assignment page.
Content
Information
Name: Enter the name of the assignment (NOTE: Use only alpha-numeric characters, the dash and underline, as this becomes part of the file name you will download later, so it can only have "legal" characters in it)
Color: Click Pick and select a color for the assignment
name.
Points Possible: Enter the maximum number of points possible
for this item.
Instructions: Enter
instructions for completing the assignment.
Availability
Options
Do you want to make the assignment visible?: Select Yes
and users will view the Assignment. Select No
and the assignment will not be visible to users.
Do you want to track number of views?: Select Yes and
the system will track the number of times Students open this Survey.
Select No and this information will not be recorded.
Availability Dates: Select the range of dates that the assignment
will appear. Select dates using the drop-down lists or click on
the icon for a calendar interface.
To display an assignment from a date forward, select a date in
the Display After: field but do not select the Display
Until option. To display an assignment for a specific amount
of time select a date in the Display After: field, check
Display Until, and select a date below.
Assignment
Attachments
File to Attach: Click Browse and select a file to
attach.
Name of Link to File: Enter a name for the file to appear
in the Assignment.
Currently Attached Files: Lists the files that are currently
attached to the Assignment.
Viewing an Assignment
After the Assignment is created it will appear in the Content Area.
To preview files from the Content Area that have been attached to
the Assignment, click Upload File next to the Assignment.
The attached file will appear.
Guidelines
- When creating an assignment, use a short and meaningful name, since this will also appear in the gradebook.
- Avoid changing the name of the assignment after creating it, since this will not be reflected in the gradebook.
- Be careful when deleting an assignment: all attachments and feedback will also be deleted from the system
- When you do delete an assignment, check the gradebook and, unless you need to keep the scores, also delete the gradebook column, to avoid cluttering up the gradebook.
- Never copy a folder with an assignment in it: this will cause the assignment to become corrupt and unusable! (Error message: 'Problem loading assignment’).
- As a precaution, ask students to only use numbers, letter of the alf abet and underscores in their filenames and to keep the filenames short. Some versions of Blackboard have problems with attachments that make use of very long filenames, spaces and/or diacritical characters like '%' and 'é'.
- Explain to your students the difference between the Save and Submit button. Save only stores the file for the student to see; Submit sends to file to the instructor.
Q:
How do I access an assignment file submitted by a student?
A:
When a Student submits an Assignment it will appear in the Grade Center, where Instructors can access and grade it. The Download Assignments page enables the Instructor to download Student Assignments and save them.
Follow the steps below to open the Download Assignment page.
1. Select Grade Center on the Control Panel.
2. Select an Assignment item in the Grade Center. The Item Options page will appear (when you click on the double down arrows to the right of the assignment name in the column heading).
3. Click Item Download.
The following details the fields on the page that opens:
Fields
The following table details the fields on this page.
Field |
Description |
Select Students |
Check All |
Select this option to download the files for all of the Students on the list who have submitted Assignments. |
Check Ungraded |
Select this option to select the check boxes and download the files for those Students whose Assignments have not been graded. |
Uncheck All |
Select this option to deselect all of the check boxes. |
Download Assignments
The Instructor selects the check boxes next to the Student Assignments he or she would like to download. Individual or multiple check boxes may be selected. After Submit is selected a Download Assignment page appears. Click the link on this page to save the exported assignments to a location on the hard drive, where they can be accessed. The file name automatically includes the user name of the Student who submitted the file.
For example, a file submitted by Mary Wallace (user name ‘mwallace’) for Week 1 Assignment:
Week_1_Assignment_mwallace
Multiple Sections/Instructors
Q:
Can I create folders within the digital dropbox? There are several
sections in my course, and I need a way for students to get their
papers to the appropriate instructor.
A:
Unfortunately, there is no way to create folders in the digital
dropbox. However, this problem can be handled by having each
instructor
create an assignment with a unique name (e.g., Section 02--Paper
1) so that when they access the assignments through the Grade Center,
they can click on the name of their assignment to just download
the
submissions from their students. Alternately, if students are divided into groups in Blackboard, Smart Views can be set up in the Grade Center to allow each section instructor to view her/his students.
On
the other hand, the dropbox in the current version of Blackboard
(Bb6) has no sorting or filtering capabilities, so using it in
a multi-section course site is quite impractical.
Unfound / Changed Student Dropbox Submissions
Q:
A student swears she submitted her paper through the dropbox,
she says a receipt even shows up in her interface, yet I can't find
it. What's wrong?
A:
She most likely used the Add File button instead of the Send
File button. The Add File button only stores the file
in the student's dropbox, whereas the Send File button puts
it in the instructor's dropbox.
The
way the student can verify is by seeing if the file receipt says,
"Submitted by" (indicates sent to instructor), or "Posted
on" (indicates simply added to student dropbox). If it says,
"Posted on" the student may click the Send File
button and select the posted file from the drop down list to submit
it to the instructor.
Q: A
student sent me a file I have read, but now when I look at
it (same name) the file is different, why?
A: When
a user uploads a file into the Digital Drop Box named "homework.doc" and
then three days later updates it and uploads the file again "homework.doc",
the file "homework.doc" will be saved over, removing
the original file. You can see the new date and time stamp on
the file, but you have lost the original. It would be a good
idea to tell your students to name each version differently (ex:
homework1_10.doc, homework1_13.doc).
Marking Papers
Q:
Once I've received my students' papers, what are my options for
marking them prior to returning them to the students?
A:
If you can agree to have all your students submit their work in
Microsoft Word or rtf (Rich Text Format), you will have a number
of useful tools at your disposal, including Insert Comments,
Track
Changes, and Highlight. For illustrated instructions on using these
tools, go to Online
Learning.net. There you will also find directions for marking
Adobe Acrobat (pfd) documents.
Dropbox Scrolling
Q:
After I return each paper, the program puts me back at the top
of the digital dropbox. I therefore have to scroll all the way back
down to the part of the screen where I can send back the next paper.
Is there a way around this?
A:
Again, this is an advantage of using the assignment manager over
the dropbox. Unfortunately, in the dropbox there is no way to avoid
having to scroll. There are, however, a few tricks that can speed
up the process:
- With the mouse, grab
on to the scroll bar (the part that moves as you go down the page)
and drag it down to the bottom; or
- Use the "page down"
key, just above the arrow keys.
Problem Browsing for Documents on My Computer
Q:
When I use the "browse" command to find a paper that I've saved
on my computer, the box that opens allowing me to do this is set
by default to look only for HTML files. What I really want is to
look for MS Word files, but the ".doc" extension is not one of the
search options. Can I change the default to show Word files, or
at least to display all files?
A:
The default setting for HTML files is an internal feature of Netscape
over which Blackboard has no control. Consequently, when using Netscape,
you will have to change "Files of Type:" setting from
"HTML files" to "All Files (*.*)" every
time you use it. Internet Explorer, however, does use the "All Files"
default. If you find this inconvenience insurmountable, you may
want to use IE with the dropbox.
Students Have Trouble Uploading Some File Types
Q: When I upload certain files types, like .wma, they work fine, but not when my students upload them. What's wrong?
A: For content added within the course (Learning System), the issue generally does not affect files uploaded by instructors or system administrators. It only affects files uploaded by "untrusted" users (students).
Some file types known to be affected by this issue include:
- .flv (Flash video)
- .isf (Inspiration schema)
- .pub (Microsoft Publisher)
- .wma (WindowsMedia Audio)
- and generally any file type for which you previously had to manually add a MIME type to content/WEB-INF/web.xml to make them download ok
Close inspection of the uploaded files and comparison with the original files show that null bytes have been stripped out. Other changes may have been made to the files as well, e.g. by adding "disabled-" prefixes to certain strings. These files are essentially worthless and need to be re-uploaded after correcting the server's configuration.
The cause of this issue is the newly implemented filtering of uploaded files to protect against cross-site scripting attacks. This is an eminently important new feature that strongly enhances the security of your Blackboard system and its users by preventing the uploading of files containing executable or malicious content in a form that permits direct execution in the browser, which would expose users to session theft, malicious data manipulation or deletion, identity manipulation, and other attacks.
The quickest and easiest solution to most file up-/download/transfer issues is to include the problem file in a .zip package. Zip archives are not filtered by XSSUtil, since they will not open in the browser itself and thus pose no cross-site-scripting risk. Upon download/receipt the package can be easily extracted and the file inside opened normally. However this does create an extra bit of work for every up- or download action.
August 20, 2008 |
