Making the Best of Blackboard Tools

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Making the Best of Blackboard Tools

• Grade Book, Assignments, and Turnitin

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Turnitin

• Get an account
• Go to http//www.turnitin.com/
• Account number 16011
• Password csuhayward2

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Deterrent Value

• Announce your intentions to use Turnitin in the
  class
• Include Turnitin info in your syllabus
• Explain how it works
• Print out and show examples of how Turnitin works

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Turnitin (continued)

• Two ways to submit documents
• Students submit documents
• Revision feature allows revision without
  plagiarism check
• Instructors submit documents
• One at a time
• Batch upload multiple files

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Turnitin

• Searches the Internet, old copies of the
  Internet, journals, newspapers, Proquest
  database, and its own database
• Sensitivity is 6 8 characters in a row
• Creates a digital fingerprint of the submitted
  document and compares it to all others on the web

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Proquest
From http//www.proquest.com/division/au-about.sh
tml
Today, as a result of agreements with more than
9,000 publishers worldwide, ProQuest Information
and Learning provides access to information from
periodicals, newspapers, out-of-print books,
dissertations, and scholarly collections in
various formats. Our archive includes more than
5.5 billion pages of information, spanning 500
years of scholarship, in formats that range from
print to microform to digital.
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Bernie, Youre supposed to do the demo part
now. Sincerely, Bernie
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Turnitin Hints

• Create revision assignments so a students paper
  will not be flagged as plagiarized
• Use as a deterrent
• Provide an alternative

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Gradebook

• Control Panel gt Gradebook
• Students automatically populate the spreadsheet
• Spreadsheet is downloadable as an Excel file

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Setting up

• Click Add Item to create a column
• Auto generated columns
• Assignments
• Assessments
• Pay attention to settings
• Letter A, B, C, D, and F with or only
• Text all letters
• Score number
• Complete/Incomplete I or C
• Inconsistencies in display settings and entries
  may result in an F displaying to students

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Gradebook Display As

• Ensure that Points Possible and Display As
  options are matched

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GB Display Options
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Weighting Grades
Number of points scored
1.
X

Number of points possible
y
2.
X
times the weight of the item
Sum of the y of each item weighted total
3.
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The F
Grade List Input
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Gradebook Hints

• ensure the grades/score you enter in an item
  match the display options (setup)
• ensure that for a grade only display, points
  possible are 0
• when weighting grades, that the weights equal
  100
• being aware of the display options
• download spreadsheet after it is set up (you can
  work offline) and do not alter its structure

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Assignments

• Integrated with the Gradebook
• More elegant than the Digital Drop Box

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Assignments

• Provide clear and concise directions of your
  expectations as well as of the process (download
  assignment - complete assignment - upload
  assignment)

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Assignments Hints

• Create a naming protocol
• Avoids duplicate filenames and over-writing of
  files
• Ex. lastname_hw1.doc for the first homework
  assignment
• Provide clear instructions