This issue of the Blackboard Bulletin is going to share some tips, tricks, and recommendations on offering online tests within Blackboard. If you are new to online tests within Blackboard, please first read the Adding Tests and Surveys to Your Course handout to familiarize yourself with how to setup online tests.
Creation Settings
Before you begin adding questions, it is recommended that you review, and adjust as needed, the default settings for your test. Begin by clicking on the 
button within the test canvas. Some features of tests, such as Provide feedback for individual answers and Add images, files, and external links, are turned off by default.
Another important item in creation settings is Specify default point value for questions. This is set to 10 points by default, so if you were to enter 100 questions and then decide that you wanted to change them all to 1 point each, you'd have to change each question individually. Changing Specify default point value for questions to 1 point in the beginning would save you from this headache.
Auto Grading vs. Hand Grading
If you have a large class, you may want to steer clear of question types that you must hand grade, such as Essay and File Response. Blackboard can auto score almost any type of question, but the types above require an instructor to score them.
Why is the formatting in my test canvas all screwy?
Have you ever pasted in some new questions and answers and had the formatting come out looking like this:
One of the drawbacks of the Blackboard WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text editor is that it sometimes carries over some invisible formatting when you copy and past from MS Word and other applications. Don't worry though, when the test is accessed in student mode, these funky formatting issues don't carry over. What looks like the example above in the test canvas, looks perfectly normal when the student takes the test:
"Modify the Test options" Tips
The following are recommended settings to help eliminate potential problems when deploying a test:
"Open test in new window"
Make sure to keep this option set to No. If your student has their browser set to block pop-up windows, setting this to Yes could prevent the test from launching in their browser because the new window will be blocked by the pop-up blocker.
"Allow multiple attempts. Permit users to take this Test multiple times."
If the test is for self-assessment, checking this option will allow the student to take the test as many times as they'd like. If it is a graded test, you will probably want to keep this option off so that they can't restart the test if they don't like their grade. Also note, whenever a multiple attempt is started, the previous attempt is deleted from the Gradebook. Only the most recent attempt is saved.
"Force Completion. Test must be completed the first time it is launched."
This setting probably causes the most headaches. When this is checked on, it forces the student to complete the test as soon as it is initially launched. If they close their browser, their computer crashes, their Internet Provider boots them off, etc., then they cannot get back into the test. The Instructor then has to make the decision on whether or not to let them take it again by resetting their attempt. Resetting their attempt clears out all their previous answers and will force the student to start over.
To eliminate this problem, you can keep this setting turned off, but then turn on the "Set timer. Set expected completion time. Selecting this option also records completion time for this Test." By setting the timer on and setting how long they have to take the test, you can see how long it took the student to complete the test, no matter how many times they may have accidentally closed their browser or been booted off. Since Force Completion is off, they can still get back into the test if they are booted off and the Instructor can see how long they took to complete the test to make sure that they didn't open it on a Friday and then finally submit it on a Sunday.
Note that if a student goes over the time allotted, they do not get an automatic score. They will get an exclamation point instead and the Instructor will need to go into the Gradebook and hand grade their test, in case they need to deduct points for going over the time allotted.
"Test Feedback"
Sometimes an Instructor would like to only show the student their score during the time period the test is available, but then give them more detailed results once everybody has completed the test. This can be done by returning to the test options and changing the Test Feedback from the old setting to the new setting. When the student next goes to view their grades via Tools > My Grades, they will see the test results in whatever the current Test Feedback setting is.
"Presentation Mode"
There are many differing opinions on what option is better, All at Once or One at a Time, and I don't really have a recommendation on one or the other. I do recommend that you don't use "Prohibit Backtracking. Prevent changing the answer to a question that has already been submitted." When this is turned on a student may try and get around it by using the Back button in their browser and it is very important that the Back button is never used during a test. It can cause problems with the test and the database storing the answers, possibly booting the student from the test.
If you are presenting your test in All at Once mode, please recommend to your students that they click the Save button next to each question as they proceed through the test. This will immediately save their answer to that question in the Gradebook. Otherwise, if a student is completing a long test and gets booted from the test before completing it, all their answers are lost. If they were clicking the Save button for each question as they proceeded through the test, the questions they already answered would still be saved.
Respondus and the LockDown Browser
Finally, I'd like to mention some new software we have on campus to assist in creating tests and for locking down the browser to protect against some of the browser issues that students encounter during online tests.
The application Respondus is a tool for formatting test questions, which can then be loaded into Pulse. Respondus is also able to pull down existing tests or test pools from Pulse, and also accepts a much larger variety of test item import formats making it easier to load items from MS Word or MS Excel formats.
The Respondus LockDown Browser (LDB) locks out all other applications. Students are prevented from accessing another web browser window, instant messaging, printing and even accidentally closing the browser window. The LDB is currently installed in both Learning Resources Centers on campus.
In order to use the LDB you must create the test using Respondus. AISR has purchased a site license for using the LDB and a site subscription for Respondus. If you would like to get a copy of Respondus to install on your office computer, please contact Dr. Tony Frisby at Tony.Frisby@jefferson.edu. To learn more about Respondus and the LockDown Browser, see Dr. Frisby's article in this issue of the Forum.
If there are specific topics you would like me to cover in future issues, please let me know by emailing me at Chris.Braster@jefferson.edu or by filling out the comments poll to the right of this article (under my photo and name).
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