How do I make a Blackboard test or survey available to students?

Students cannot access a test or survey unless a link to it has been created in a content area and that link made visible to students.

If you want to preview an assessment before allowing students access to it, follow the instructions below, but in step 7, do not click Yes for Do you want to make this link visible in step 7. You can then access the assessment through the Control Panel, but the assessment link will not be visible to students.

1. In the Control Panel, navigate to the content area in which you'd like to create the link to your test or survey. Note that you can also create an assessment link inside of a folder or as part of a learning unit.

2. To link to a test, click Test in the Add toolbar. To link to a survey, locate the drop-down menu to the far right of the Add toolbar (Learning Unit is the default selection). Select Survey from the menu and click the GO button.

3. On the Add Test/Survey page, select an existing test or survey from the list, and click Submit. (If you haven't yet created a test or survey, click the Create button to begin, and follow the instructions for "Creating a Test and Adding Questions", or "Creating a Survey and Adding Questions".

4. A Test/Survey Added page opens. Click OK to open the Modify Test/Survey page.

5. On the Modify Test/Survey page, click Modify the test options. The Test/Survey Options page opens. Note that the Test/Survey Options page is divided into six sections: Information, Availability, Self-assessment Options, Feedback, Presentation, and Submit.

6. In the Information section, you can modify the assessment's name, description, and specify whether it should open in a new browser window when its link is clicked.

7. In the Availability section, either click Yes for Do you want to make this link visible if you want students to have immediate access to the assessment, or select a Display After date and time. (Click the calendar icon to open a window with a month-by-month view of dates.)

a. If you want students to be able to take an assessment more than once, click Allow multiple attempts. Note that there is no way to specify a certain number of attempts.

b. If you want to allow students only a single attempt at completing an assessment, you must also check Force Completion when deploying it. Otherwise, students could save a test after launching and then resume taking the test at a later time, even if Allow multiple attempts is not checked.

c. If you want the assessment link to be removed from students' view at a specific date and time, click Display Until and choose the desired date and time. (Click the calendar icon to open a window with a month-by-month view of dates.)

d. If you want to be able to view how much time individual students spent taking an assessment, you can set a time limit. If a student does exceed the time limit, he or she will not be "kicked out" of the test; however, the amount of time in excess of the limit will be recorded in the Gradebook along with the student's test answers. While a student is taking the test, the elapsed time taken will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the web browser's window. An alert window will appear one-minute before the test limit is reached. When the alert appears, the student must click OK to continue taking the test.

Warning
If the timer does not appear in the status bar at the bottom of the web browser's window follow these instructions:

* If you are using IE 7:

1. Add the URL https://blackboard.unc.edu/ to the list of trusted sites. To do this, open your IE7 browser and click on: Tools> Internet Options> Security Tab> Trusted Sites> Sites. Under "add this website to the zone:" enter https://blackboard.unc.edu/ and click on Add. Click Close to leave the dialog box.

2. Allow Status Bar Updates via Script in your IE7 Browser. To do this, open your IE7 browser and click on: Tools> Internet Options> Security Tab> Trusted Sites> Custom Level. Make sure that "Allow Status Bar Updates via Script" (under the scripting section) is selected. Click OK to leave the dialog box.

* If you are using Firefox 2:

In your Firefox browser go to Tools> Options> Content> Click on Advanced next to "Enable JavaScript." Make sure that "Change status bar text" is selected. Click [OK] to leave the dialog box.

e. You can also set a single password that students must enter before they can access the assessment.

8. In the Self-assessment Options section, you can specify if you want the test included in the Grade Center score calculations. You can also choose to hide the test results from the instructor and the Grade Center. NOTE: To protect student privacy, selecting to hide results for the test from the instructor and the Grade Center cannot be reversed without losing ALL attempts.

9. In the Feedback section, you can specify what information about the test students can access after having completed that test. By default, students will see only the scores that they earned; however, you can allow students to see their own answers, the correct answers, and any automated feedback that you included when creating the individual test questions.

10. In the Presentation section, we highly recommend setting the Presentation Mode to Question, where questions are presented to students one screen at a time. As a student moves to the next question, the student's answer to the previous question is automatically saved. So if a student's network connection is disrupted while taking the test, his or her answers to early questions will be saved so that the instructor can review them.

a. If you want to prevent students from returning to questions that they have already answered, check Prohibit Backtracking.

b. Checking Randomize Questions will randomly re-order the questions when each student accesses an assessment.

11. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Submit. A Test Options Modified page will display. Click OK to return to the Modify Test page. Click OK again to return to the content area in the Control Panel.


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