Looking for more information about outcomes assessment? Go to the Outcomes Assessment overview page.

Release information

  • Original Launch: June 19, 2013 (version 1) and September 11, 2013 (version 2)
  • Requirements: Service Pack (SP) 11 and later

An Outcomes Assessment license is required. Access to community engagement and content management are strongly encouraged, but not required.

Supported platforms

Outcomes assessment updates are supported on these platforms:

  • Blackboard Learn SP 11 (Build: 9.1.110082.0)
  • Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP 12 (Build: 9.1.120113.0)
  • Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP 13 (Build: 9.1.130093.0)

Release highlights

Outcomes assessment extracts direct evidence of student learning from Blackboard Learn courses. By collecting student-submitted assignments from existing courses and facilitating a rubric-based secondary evaluation of them, institutions can demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes.

Outcomes assessment updates:

  • Refreshed user interface and powerful new dashboard for the overview and management of evidence collection, goals management, assessment-related Enterprise Surveys, rubrics, and organizations for assessment collaboration.
  • Streamlined implementation that leverages existing Blackboard Learn functionality, including Blackboard Learn user records, courses, and course enrollments. In addition, clients with access to community engagement have the option to use the institutional hierarchy for efficient provisioning of privileges, access, and user data relevant to assessment processes.
  • Transition of existing evidence collection processes and data to the updated framework for existing outcomes clients. The old outcomes assessment functionality is deprecated.
  • Localization for the standard set of languages that Blackboard Learn provides.

Streamlined implementation

Streamlined processes provide an easier and more accurate implementation and upkeep of outcomes assessment. Updates to the implementation process eliminate the requirement for special batch processes or data feeds. The new outcomes assessment framework relies on existing Learn architecture for the collection and management of evidence assessment projects.

Integration with other modules

Access to community engagement and content management are strongly encouraged, but not required. Clients who license outcomes assessment but don't have access to community engagement will be missing critical Institutional Hierarchy capabilities. Clients who license outcomes assessment but don't have access to content management will be missing critical file and report management capabilities.

Migration for existing outcomes assessment clients

To install this building block, existing outcomes assessment clients need an updated outcomes assessment license file. If you haven't yet received the updated license file, contact your account representative.

Install this building block after careful consideration. Once installed, only the new outcomes interface is available for use. Evidence collection and rubric data are visible within the new interface. Deprecated outcomes assessment functionality, outlined below, is removed. These changes aren't reversible. Data from deprecated features isn't deleted from the system, however, all access points to this data are removed from the interface.

Deprecated functionality (affects legacy outcomes clients only)

As announced, the following features are deprecated upon accepting and installing updates to the outcomes assessment module. As noted, deprecation isn't reversible. Proceed after all necessary reports are run on the following deprecated features. The post-upgrade extraction of data related to these deprecated features isn't supported in the updated outcomes assessment module:

  • Artifact templates
  • Curriculum Maps
  • Improvement Initiatives
  • Improvement Projects
  • Outcomes Portfolios
  • Outcomes Hierarchy

Clients concerned with the data transition pathway may seek a service engagement from Blackboard Consulting Services to plan the transition to the new outcomes assessment module.

Installation of outcomes assessment updates

Installation of the updated outcomes assessment modules on Blackboard Learn 9.1, Services Packs 11, 12, and 13, require a series of steps specific to the local installation of Blackboard Learn. Self-hosted clients should refer to the installation instructions provided with the updated outcomes assessment license key. Clients engaged with Managed Hosting services, should contact their Managed Hosting representative to plan the installation of outcomes on their system.

Important notes

  • Because these updates are being delivered through a building block, outcomes clients can choose when to implement these changes on any release SP 11 or later.