I have taken a lot of courses that require the student to take a test using blackboard. However, there are a lot of different ways to set the quizzes. Some professors used the options well and others did not. So this is a simple list I put together for new professors or professors looking for the right way to do quizzes on blackboard that explain how students view each of the possible options in a test and what it will do for them.
Note: These options are under the assumption that they are taking them at home. These may vary for in class quizzes.
Timed quizzes - If you want your student to memorize what you're quizzing them on, then make your test timed, but make sure they know what you are quizzing them on. Don't just say "here's a test" and then not tell them the material that they'll need to memorize for the test. The time limit depends on how many questions you have. A typical multiple-choice quiz is 1 min to 2 min per question (depending on if it requires some calculation such as math or not).
If you just want to make sure your students are reading the material, do not time the test. As long as the quiz is not timed, even if the student did not read the material beforehand and even if it seems like cheating, a student will read the material as they take the quiz- thus even if it's not in the way you purposed it, at least you accomplished your goal of getting them to read the material.
Multiple attempts and revealing correct or incorrect answers - Blackboard gives you the option of giving your quizzes multiple attempts. It also gives you the choice of revealing which answers were correct and which were incorrect at the end of each quiz. I don't know if it allows you to choose which attempt you can reveal it on (I'm guessing it doesn't, because none of my professors have ever done this), but if it does. the best option would be to have the first attempt(s) reveal only incorrect answers, and the last attempt reveal both correct and incorrect answers. For example:
Assuming the student has just finished the test and is now looking at their score:
First attempt:
Q1: Who was the first president? Correct
Q2: What is 1 + 1? Incorrect
Q3: What is the largest planet in our solar system? Incorrect
Last attempt:
Q1: Who was the first president? Correct
a. Abraham Lincoln
b. George McDonald
c. George W. Bush
d. George Washington
Your answer: George Washington
Correct answer: George Washington
Q2: What is 1 + 1? Incorrect
a. 3
b. 1
c. 2
d. 12
Your answer: 12
Correct answer: 2
Q3: What is the largest planet in our solar system? Correct
a. Jupiter
b. Mars
c. Saturn
d. Earth
Your answer: Jupiter
Correct answer: Jupiter
If this is not possible on blackboard to change the options for each attempt, then the best option would be to always reveal only which answers were incorrect and not which answers were correct- unless you only give your students one attempt, in which case, you should tell which answers were correct. I would not advise you to use the option for never revealing if the answers were incorrect or correct unless for some reason you don't want your students to ever learn from their mistakes.
All at once or one at a time - Blackboard should give you the option of letting your students view the questions all at once or one at a time. Personally, I prefer all at once because it's easier to look back at my answers and double check that they are all correct, or skip ahead if I'm having trouble with a question and go back to it later. Blackboard will most likely advise you to use one at a time, as it forces students to save their progress so that if their computer crashes, they can start back where they left off (as long as you've allowed the option to save the test and resume it later). However, there are problems with this option. The test says "moving to the next question will automatically save your answer." However, I have had times where the auto save failed and my answer was marked incorrect because technically, I gave no answer. There can also be issues if your test is timed and a student has a slow internet or computer, because he/she must then wait for each individual question to load which can be time consuming. If the questions are viewed all at once, students are able to get through the questions more quickly and even if the test crashes, each question still has the option to be saved manually and will auto save quickly after the student has selected his/her answer (and for the record, not once have I had an auto save fail while the test used this option).
View previous questions - For some reason, blackboard gives you the option to allow your students to go back to a previous question or not while using the one at a time option. I have no idea what purpose you would have for not allowing your students to review their test before turning it in, except to just be mean. I suppose if your questions build off of each other, then that might make more sense. For example: Q1: 1 + A = 2, find the value of A (Answer: A = 1). Q2: If A = 1, then (etc.). However, I have never seen any professor do this in a test/quiz before while using blackboard. If the professor does do this, he/she has always used a different site or some other method.
Save the test and resume later - This is a good option to have for your students so that in case their computer does crash, they can pick it up again. And just for an extra bit of useful information, blackboard crashes the least using Firefox.
And there you have it: a student's guide to blackboard quizzing. I'm sure there are other options on blackboard that I do not know about, so if you have a question or suggestion about anything I did or didn't mention, feel free to comment below. I hope this helps!
No comments:
Post a Comment