Make Accommodations

You can set accommodations for individual students to exempt them from assessment due dates or time limits. Use accommodations to help students progress in the course even though they may have difficulty with some requirements.

You can also give an individual student an exception on a specific test or assignment to provide additional attempts or extended access, even if the assessment is hidden from other students. 

Watch a video about Roster in Blackboard Learn

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Video: Roster in Blackboard Learn

Add an accommodation to a student

From Details & Actions in a course, under Roster, select View everyone in your course. On the Roster page, open the student's menu and select Accommodations.

Select an accommodation for the student:

• Due date accommodation: Students with a due date accommodation may submit work any time after the due date for no penalty and their work won't be labelled as late in the gradebook.
• Time limit accommodation: These students have more time to finish their work during timed assessments. You can select Unlimited or specify the percentage of extra time needed to honor this accommodation. NOTE: These accommodations do not apply to discussions. 

If you add a time limit accommodation after students have started submissions, you'll receive a warning that time limits for previously submitted work will update.

View accommodations

For instructors, students with accommodations appear in the gradebook and roster with an indicator next to their names. When students view the roster, they cannot see who has accommodations.

When you choose to grade with student names hidden, their accommodations are hidden too.

To view the number of accommodations you've made for a course, select the settings button for the assessment. Select the link to view the accommodations. Select View Roster to make changes.

Remove accommodations

Time limits — When you delete a time limit accommodation, previously submitted work for timed assessments may then be marked late by the system.

Due dates — If you delete the due date accommodation for a student and the due date has passed for an assessment, the late label is applied.

Time limit accommodations and time limit settings combined

If a student has a time limit accommodation and you allow more time to complete an assessment in the settings, the times are combined.

Example:

You add a time limit of 10 minutes to an assessment. You allow 50% extra time to complete the assessment. Each student has 15 minutes total time.

Student A has a time limit accommodation of 50% extra time.

Student A:

15 minutes to complete the test based on the time limit offered to the whole class

Then, 50% more time based on the accommodation: 8 minutes

Total: 23 minutes to complete the assessment

Though this student receives a message when the final 8 minutes begins, this work is NOT marked as received after the time limit.

If you delete Student A's time limit accommodation after the student submits work, the work may be marked late by the system.

Accommodations and groups

If students with accommodations are in a group, all students in that group inherit the accommodation for that item. For example, when you create a group assignment, and one group member has a due date accommodation, the group's work isn't marked late if they submit after the due date. 

At this time, you can't add a time limit to group work.