If you use the inline grading tools in Blackboard you will be seeing a change this term. Previously, inline grading used a plug-in called Crocodoc. The company that developed Crocodoc was purchased by Box.com and the Crocodoc plugin is being retired. As of January 15th 2018, Crocodoc will no longer be available. Before January 15th, however, we will enable a new tool,   Box View. All assignments submitted under Crocodoc will be migrated to Box View.

As a precaution we have archived all Crocodoc submissions with annotations to provide backup in case problems occur in the migration process.

On January 12th during our maintenance window (8 PM – Midnight), we will be turning on the new Box View tool. Any comments made using Crocodoc will be burned into the documents already graded/annotated and can’t be changed.

Learn more about Grading with Box View:

There will be some good and not so good changes with this transition. In Box View, students do not see any annotations until you submit the grade to Blackboard. Instructors who want to grade all student work and then release grades at one time, rather than over the course of a day or more,  can add comments but wait to add grades until they’ve reviewed all assignments.

Unfortunately there is no way to download an annotated assignment file as there was with Crocodoc. So to save annotated assignments for course manuals, you will need to take screen shots in addition downloading the original file. We’ll be looking for other ways of collecting this information (and Box View has heard from Blackboard System Administrators about how essential this feature is). Hopefully, Blackboard/Box.com will announce annotation download functionality as an improvement in the near future.

If you want to influence the development of Box View, make your voice heard and go to the Blackboard Community site, sign-up, and vote up the annotated download feature at:
https://community.blackboard.com/ideas/2504-new-box-view-download-document-with-annotations

Last fall Blackboard researchers published a report on course design in Blackboard based on student use of the tools in Blackboard (Whitmer et al, 2016).  The data sample used was an aggregate of over 600,000 learners , 70,000 courses from 927 institutions and included measures of time spent using tools. Using cluster analysis the authors looked for patterns within the student usage data that suggested ways in which instructors were designing their courses using Blackboard. From their analysis, the authors identified five basic archetypes, Supplemental (content posting), Complementary (announcements, content posting and grades), Social (discussion board focused), Evaluative ( heavy use of evaluations), and Holistic (use of wide variety of tools in an integrative pattern).

Another study of Blackboard usage examined course design patterns based on the tools chosen and implemented in Blackboard by instructors (Machajewski et al, 2017). A team at University of Illinois at Chicago collected data on approximately 2500 courses from Fall 2016 which included categorical indicators (used/didn’t use) for the use of 7 categories of tools in each course. Using latent class analysis, the study’s authors found three classes of Blackboard use in their courses which they describe as Holistic (use of ca. 5  tools) , Complementary (average of 3 tools used), and Content Repository (1 tool used) archetypes. Examining the distribution of class (archetype) assignments generated by the analysis by college, the authors found that the proportions of courses in each archetype varied among colleges. Different colleges seem to use Blackboard in different ways which relate to the proportion of online, hybrid and face-to-face courses.

In light of these findings, we wondered are there unique patterns of Blackboard use here at Wentworth? An initial latent class analysis of tool use data across 11 Blackboard tools in over 13,000 course sites over 10 terms (Spring 2014 through Spring 2017) revealed four latent classes which correspond to non-use and three usage classes. The three course usage types at Wentworth corresponded to the Holistic, Supplemental, and Complementary/Evaluative archetypes found in the Blackboard study. Approximately 35% of the course sites evaluated did not use Blackboard. Of those courses using Blackboard, most fell into the Supplemental category (64%) , followed by Complementary/Evaluative at (28%) and Holistic (8%).  At Wentworth Supplemental course sites used the announcements and files features, while the Complementary/Evaluatative courses used announcements, files, tests, assignments, video and rubrics. Robust courses at Wentworth used the most diverse set of tools: announcements, files, tests, assignments, discussion boards, blogs, journals, groups and rubrics.

In general, instructors at Wentworth are using Blackboard in ways similar to those at other institutions. The results also are consistent with findings from the COF BLES study which found that Blackboard use for most courses is as a file repository with pockets of more robust use in some programs.

Whitmer, J., Nuñez, N., Harfield, T., & Forteza, D. (2016). Patterns in Blackboard Learn tool use : Five Course Design Archetypes, 1–8.

Machajewski et al. 2017. Course Design Patterns: Latent Class Analysis With Open Source BbStats. Blackboard World 2017 Presentation, July 24, 2017.

Beginning in January we will begin removing courses from our Blackboard system. Over the past year, with the help of the LIT Advisory Committee, we’ve established a policy for archiving and removing courses from Blackboard. This policy has been approved by Faculty Senate and the Provost’s Office. Moving forward, we will be archiving courses one semester after the course ends (so, Fall 2017 courses will be archived at the end of Spring 2018) and courses will be removed from Blackboard after three years.

One reason for the policy is practical; storing old courses requires storage and since we are using hosting services, we pay for storage. Removing courses not being actively used saves space. Archiving courses provides a record for courses in the event either the content in needed or there is a grade dispute after a course has been removed from the system.

Once the archiving and course removal process is complete you will see courses from 2015-2017 plus Spring 2018 courses listed in My Courses or on the Courses tab in Blackboard. Should you need access to courses for terms before this, contact LIT and we can selectively restore courses to a temporary sandbox site for you.  Moving forward we will archive courses three times per year and at the same time remove courses more than 3 years old.

Instructors can export course packages to retain copies of course contents and structure for future use. For more information on exporting courses see Blackboard’s help resources.