We've compiled a list of terms for instructors new to Blackboard Learn.
Content area: Top-level containers that organize and store course content, such as lecture notes, assignments, and tests. You might also organize your content area by week, unit, chapter, lesson, or topic. You add links to content areas on the course menu.
Course entry point: The area students see when they enter your course. The default course entry point is the Home Page and contains modules that alert students to activity in your course. From the Control Panel, you can change the entry point—select an available area that appears on the course menu.
Course menu: The course menu is a panel that appears on the left side of the course window. Users select button or text links to access all course content, such as content areas, individual tools, web links, course links, and module pages.
Control Panel: You access all course management functions through links in the Control Panel. The Control Panel is located under the course menu and is only available to users with one of these defined course roles: instructor, teaching assistant, grader, course builder, or administrator. From the Control Panel, you can access the Grade Center, and determine the style of your course and which course tools are available to your students.
Delegating grading: You can assign specific users in your course to grade particular sets of student assignment submissions. Roles with default grading privileges include instructor, teaching assistant, and grader. The users who help you grade are called delegated graders and they provide provisional grades. Delegated graders follow the same grading steps you do. However, the group of assignment attempts they see is based on the options you choose. After all delegated graders provide grades and feedback, one or more final graders review the grading to determine a final grade or reconcile it.
Edit Mode: When Edit Mode is ON, all the instructor functions are shown, such as Build Content in a content area and menu options. When Edit Mode is OFF, you view the page basically how a student sees it. The Edit Mode function appears to users with a role of instructor, teaching assistant, course builder, and administrator.
Grade Center: Access all the coursework that is specific to the course you're in. The Grade Center is populated with students when they're enrolled in your course. You can grade coursework, manage items, and run reports.
Item analysis: Item analysis provides statistics on overall performance, test quality, and individual questions. This data helps you recognize questions that might be poor discriminators of student performance.
Menu: Throughout Blackboard Learn, items that are acted upon by a user have a menu associated with them. To access the menu, move your mouse pointer over the item's title and select the downward arrow icon. The menu contains options for many components in Blackboard Learn, such as content items, course menu links, or Grade Center columns. The options in the menu vary based on the component and a user's role.
Modules: Modules can appear on the My Institution tab or on course module pages you add to courses, such as the Home Page. Modules contain information about what's happening in your courses, and you may be able to access commonly used tools. Examples of modules include My Announcements, What's New, and Calculator.
My Grades: On the My Grades page, students can view all the coursework and grades for the course they're in. After you view the student My Grades page, use your browser's back function to return to the instructor info.
Question pool: You can use pools to create tests and surveys. You can also export and import pools for use in tests in other courses.
Question set: You can use question sets when you create tests. You choose how many questions you want in the set. The questions are randomly chosen each time a student takes the test. In the Ultra Course View, question sets convert to question pools.
Random block: When you create a test you can use random blocks to be sure each student receives a different version of the test. Random blocks draw questions from pools only, so you must first create at least one question pool.
