The Assessment Manager in the Control Panel allows you to create a quiz with only one type of question or a variety of types: multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, ordering, etc. You can use the Assessment Manager to show the results for each question, including feedback for each answer (correct and incorrect) or you can show only the total number correct and total incorrect.

Recommendations

1. If you want every student to take a quiz with the exact same questions, and if you do not care if students compare the results, then use the Assessment Manager to create the quiz.
2. If you want every student to take a different quiz on the same subject, use the Control Panel Pool Manager to create a pool of questions for each learning module or unit of study. You can create a pool for each module, or you can create several pools with different types of questions for each learning module or unit of study. Then after you create the pool, you would use the Control Panel Assessment Manager to create a quiz. When you choose questions for the quiz, you would take the option of letting the software draw questions randomly from one or more pools from your Pool Manager. You can also export your question pools to your hard drive and then import those pools to the Pool Manager of other Blackboard courses. Follow the steps below to create a quiz.

1. Click on the Control Panel button on the navigation frame on your course home page.
   

2. When the Control Panel appears, look for the Assessment area on the right side of the screen:
   

3. When the Assessment Manager appears, click on the "Add Quiz" button:
   

4. The screen will then refresh, and the "Assessment Properties" page will appear, as shown below. Use a short title to save room in your gradebook. Then provide a longer description, including a caution to remind students not to exit the quiz without taking it. Then click the "Submit" button.
   

5. After you submit your quiz title and description, a new "Assessment Properties" page will appear, as shown below. On this page you will create the instructions that will appear at the top of the quiz itself.
   

6. Choose the type of question that you wish to create in the next screen:
   

7. If you wish to draw your questions at random from a quiz pool, click on the select box and choose "from assessment pool":
   

8. Then click the "Submit" button and continue.
   

9. At this point, you will have to choose random questions:
   

10. The next step is to decide whether to draw the questions randomly from any type of question in your pool or only one particular type. Then click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the screen to continue. The next screen will ask you to both the type of questions from a pool and the name of the pool from which to draw one type or all types. Do not click the "Preview" button since you are drawing questions at random. Previewing will just slow down the process of creating the quiz. Of course, you may preview each question if you like.
    

11. In the next step, select the number of questions to draw from the pool and then click "Cancel" to return to the previous screen or "Submit" to continue building your quiz:
    

12. On the next screen that appears, select the point value for your questions. Notice that the screen indicates that this is the first question, but remember to note that the dialog box indicates that your first question is actually ten questions drawn at random. If your test is only ten questions, you can set the value at whatever number you like, such as "10," and then click "save and make available" or "save" to continue adding questions. In some cases, you may wish to draw more questions from other pools or even add one question at the end of the quiz that all students must answer, such as a short essay question. If you do add short essay questions, be sure they are indeed short so that students who are using a slow modem will not be interrupted from their connection.
    

1. From the previous step above, Click on the "Yes" radio button beside "Make assessment available?" If, however, you are entering the assessment manager from the Control Panel to make a quiz available that you have already created but not made available, click on "Set Availability" button beside the name of the quiz. A new screen will appear. Click in the "Yes" box beside "Make assessment available?"
2. The screen will then refresh, and the "Assessment Availability Information" page will appear.
3. Your next option is to decide if you want an announcement to appear. If you do, the announcement always appears on the "Announcement" page of the course. You have no choice in where the announcement appears. The announcement always gives the name of the quiz, a "take quiz" link, and your description of the quiz.
4. You also must select where you want a link for the quiz to appear (besides the "Announcements" page). By default, the quiz will appear as the last item in the "Course Documents" section. You can change this to whatever section and folder within that section where you would like the quiz to appear, such as "Assignments/Module One."
5. If you want students to know which answer was incorrect, click in the box for the first option, "Show Detailed Result?"
6. If you also want students to know which answer was correct, click in the box for the second option, "Reveal Correct Answer?"
7. If you want students to have feedback on the correct or incorrect answers, also click in the box for the next option, "Feedback Enabled?" (Note: If you want to give students feedback on a particular question that you have already created, you must provide that information by returning to the quiz and modifying the question.)
8. If you want students to be able to take the quiz more than once, then click in the box "Allow Multiple Attempts?"
9. You have two more options left. The first is the set a time limit for the quiz and the second is to set a password. If you set a time limit, a student who exceeds the limit, whether just a few seconds or an hour will not receive a grade in the gradebook. You will have to go to the gradebook spreadsheet via the Control Panel and click on the red exclamation point in the quiz column for that student. Then you will have to determine if the time excess was small enough to grant credit. If so, you will need to update the score by clicking the Submit button.
10. Finally, click the "Submit" button to make the quiz or survey available.

1. DO NOT return to the Assessment Manager to make the exam unavailable. That will erase the grades.
2. INSTEAD, use the Control Panel again but enter the Assignments section of the Page Editors and open the Quizzes folder.
3. Then click the Modify button beside the name of the quiz.
4. Then check the box that says "not available." This will prevent students from seeing the "take quiz" button in their Quizzes folder in the Assignments section but will preserve the exam and all its records in their Gradebook and your Spreadsheet (via the Control Panel).

1. Click on Control Panel.
2. Click on Online Gradebook.
3. Click on Spreadsheet.
4. Scroll down the screen until you see a lock under the quiz column and in the student's row:
   
5. Click on the quiz lock image. The results page for that student's attempt will appear.
6. Near the top of the "results" screen, click on the "Clear Attempt" button:
   
7. You will then return to the gradebook. You can then click on the link near the top of the screen to return to your course.
8. Click on the Communication button and then the "Send E-Mail" button.
9. Then send an e-mail message to the student informing him or her that the quiz is now available.

For other types of learning activities or assessment instruments, such as discussion group activities or reports, you will have to create a gradebook entry if you want to record a grade for that activity or assessment. You do this by clicking on the "Spreadsheet" link in the Online Gradebook. Then you click on the "Add Entry" button at the top of the screen. You will then type a name for the entry and then choose a type. You will also enter the maximum number of points that you will award for this entry. You will then click the "Add Spreadsheet Entry" button.

Suggestion: Give some thought to the naming of entries to make them easy for you to view. Blackboard will organize them in numberical order first followed by alphabetical order: Q01 will be ordered before Q11; D01 will be placed before the "Q" entries. Notice the brevity of the entries; "Q" and "D" stand for quiz and discussion, for example. Use short titles if you have more than 10 columns in your gradebook.

Once students complete an assignment and you evaluate it, you can then open the spreadsheet in the Online Gradebook and click on "Edit" under the name of that assessment or activty. You will then see a column of textboxes marked with each student's name. You will then enter each student's gradeand then click the "Update Grades" button at the bottom of the column.

To change the name of a gradebook item or to change the point value from the one that you originally assigned when you created the entry, click on the "Modify Entry" button at the top of the spreadsheet and enter the correct title or number of points.