For comprehensive 'how to' instructions for Blackboard see - Blackboard Help.

The Assessment Details page will populate with any tests, surveys, Blackboard assignments and Turnitin assignments that you create there, however, other assessment objects, such as gradable discussion forums, blogs, journals, wikis and Collaborate sessions will be created within those tools.

Discussion board forums

You can enable grading for a forum on the Create Forum page when you initially add the forum to the discussion board, or on the Edit Forum page for an existing forum. The grade setting is under the Forum Settings heading on both pages and allows you to allocate a maximum mark for the whole forum or marks for individual threads.

When you set a forum to be graded, you need to apply a maximum mark for the forum, which creates a column in the Grade Centre for the forum. It also asks you to enter how many posts a student needs to make before they appear on your Needs Grading page.

If you choose to grade threads, your students’ ability to create new threads in that forum will be automatically disabled as will their ability to post anonymously.  You will need to create any threads for the forum, and the Create Thread page includes a Grading option where you can enable grading for the thread, allocate a maximum mark, set the number of posts the student needs to make before the Needs Grading page shows their post/s as needing grading, and a due date and time. Unlike other graded activities, a graded forum or thread can be changed to ungraded by editing the settings of the forum or thread and disabling the grading. Any grades already assigned to the forum or thread will be permanently lost (a warning message will be provided).

A link to a discussion board can be created on the Assessment Details page by selecting the Tools pull-down menu, then clicking on Discussion Board.

This will open the Create Link page. Click on Select a Discussion Board Forum, then select the forum that you want to link to. Select Next to continue. Note: You can create a new assessable forum as part of this process.

You can then add instructional text (which will appear on the Assessment Details page) and control its availability. When you click on Submit, a link to the discussion forum will appear on the Assessment Details page.

The order of the items on the page can then be adjusted by clicking and dragging the left-hand margin of the items. Be aware that deleting the forum link that you have created here will not delete the forum itself, only the link to it. The forum will still be accessible by clicking on the Discussion Board link on the site menu.

Grade discussions from Blackboard Help.

Blogs

Individual and group participation in blogs can be graded. You can enable grading for a blog on the Create Blog page when you first create it, or on the Edit Blog page for an existing blog. The Grade Blog option is under the Grade Settings heading on both pages.

When you set a blog to be graded, you also need to apply a maximum mark for the blog, which creates a column in the Grade Centre for the blog. It also asks you to enter how many blog entries a student needs to make before they appear on your Needs Grading page. Graded blogs cannot be changed to ungraded. The graded blog topic needs to be deleted from the Blogs page and Grade Centre, then a new ungraded blog created. If you want to retain the blog entries, you can set the blog’s Grade Centre column to not be included in calculations and make the blog unavailable to students if desired.

Grade blogs from Blackboard Help.

Journals

Enabling of grading of individual and/or group participation in journals is very similar to that of blogs. The Grade Journal setting is under the Grade Settings heading on both the Create Journal and Edit Journal pages. When a journal is set to be graded, you also need to provide a due date and the maximum mark, and a column in the Grade Centre is created for the journal. You can also set the number of journal entries a student needs to make before they appear on your Needs Grading page. Like blogs, graded journals cannot be changed to ungraded. The graded journal needs to be deleted from the Journals page and Grade Centre, and then a new ungraded journal created.

Grade journals from Blackboard Help

Wikis

Grading can be enabled for wikis either upon creation or by editing the wiki’s settings. The Grade Wiki setting is located under the Wiki Settings heading on the Create Wiki and the Edit Wiki pages. A mark can only be assigned to a student for the entire wiki, not for separate pages. Enabling grading creates a column in the Grade Centre for the wiki. Like blogs and journals, you provide a maximum mark and a due date for the wiki, as well as indicating how many page saves a student makes before you are notified of their activity on the Needs Grading page. Once a wiki has been made gradable, it cannot be changed to ungraded. A new ungraded wiki needs to be created, and the graded wiki deleted.

Grade wikis from Blackboard Help.

Group assessment

Forums, blogs, journals and wikis can all be created as group tasks where marks earned collaboratively will be automatically assigned to all group members. You are also able to change the group marks individually where individual contributions within the group are found to be unequal.

Managing groups from Blackboard Help.

Using rubrics

Forums, blogs, journals and wikis allow the use of marking rubrics when being used for student assessment. A rubric can be used to assist in providing clarity to the student regarding how the interactivity is to be marked and includes criteria on which the marking will be based as well as the expected standard of performance required against each criteria to achieve a particular result. MySCU allows you to create, save and reuse rubrics.

Grade with rubrics from Blackboard Help.

Blackboard Collaborate

Participation in Collaborate sessions can also contribute to a unit grade. Grading is enabled when Attendance Reporting is enabled in the session setup.

You then use the Attendance tool to monitor students attendance. There are a few steps you need to follow at Blackboard Help - Attendance.