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Tips and Tricks

If you're want to use one of my bookmarklets, you might find it helpful to read How to use a bookmarklet. These tips are all for version 5.6 or earlier. I now have access to version 6 and am working on updating them. Because of various changes some of them no longer apply.

  1. Dropbox Files: Cleaning them out quickly
    Removing a batch of files from the dropbox at one time. This is a Blackboard version 5.5 (and above) solution. I doubt it will work or help with other versions. This is a little more involved than the others, so I've documented it on a separate page.

    I have not examined whether this needs updating for Blackboard 6.

  2. Assigning Points in Assessments
    There's no way to assign points to all the questions at one time.

    Solution: Here's a bookmarklet that asks for a point value and assigns it to all the questions.

    Do Points

    Just drag the Do Points link to somewhere in your favorites/bookmarks/links. When you get to the screen with all the questions, just click the button and it'll ask for the points to assign. Then it does it for you. See How to use a bookmarklet.

    Note: Blackboard 6 doesn't have a place where this makes sense, but you do have a default points assignment option in a test's settings. It doesn't, however, work with questions that come over from a pool.

  3. Students Getting Disconnected While Taking Tests
    Students time-out on their home connections while taking a test. This is a big pain.

    Solution: Open a floater window behind the test window that refreshes every x minutes (3 in our case).

    The code I use is here. There is now an extensive ReadMe for administrators on implementing this. Instructors put <script language=javascript src=/path/to/quiz.js></script> in the first question for a quiz (not a pool). The rest is taken care of for them.

    If you're feeling lazy, you can just use my server and put the following in the first question of your quiz (click the Advanced button and then the HTML radio button to make sure this works properly):

    <script language="Javascript">
function maker(durl) {
	r = window.open(durl,"rwin","width=100,height=200,resizable=yes");
	r.location.href = durl;
	self.focus();
}
maker("http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/stayalive/page.html");
</script>

  4. Preventing students from printing tests
    Important: Please note that this does not work with BlackBoard 6.x
    If you are using the Copy Protection trick (next), then you don't need this trick. One line of code in your first question (instructions and description don't accept html, and don't put it in a pool):

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/css/noprint.css" type="text/css" media="print" />

    It's a CSS trick so it won't work in browsers that don't support the print media method for imported stylesheets, but that's only Netscape 4.x basically.

    If you have a problem linking to our server, just put it on yours - the whole stylesheet consists of: 

    BODY {
	display:none;
}

    ... or use the alternative (less comprehensive) approach:

    <style type="text/css">@media print {BODY {display:none}}</style>

  5. Preventing students from copying a test
    This combines the no print trick with some javascript to prevent test copying. Put the code in the last question of a quiz (not a pool). It's not completely foolproof, but it's a great inconvenience to casual cheaters. It works on recent versions of Internet Explorer (there are some reports of problems with Windows 95 machines). It mostly works on Netscape 4.x, but does show some extra text. Just put:

    <script language="Javascript" src="http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/services/Blackboard/nocopy.js"></script>

    In a question. Actually you can put it in any web page anywhere and it will work. It's on this page as a demo. You may copy the script to your server if you wish, but keep the attribution intact, please.

  6. Check All button when adding questions from a pool
    One of the pains in version 4 (and 5.02) of Blackboard is that there is no "Check All" button when you're adding specific questions from a question pool. This problem has returned in Blackboard 6!

    Solution: Here's a bookmarklet that checks all the questions (Blackboard 4 and 5.02 - use the next one below for Blackboard 6)

    Check All Questions

    Just drag the Check All Questions link to somewhere in your favorites/bookmarks/links (see How to use a bookmarklet) .

    If you're looking for something similar for other checkbox situations, here's a bookmarklet that Checks or Unchecks all the elements in any Blackboard form (and perhaps elsewhere too). This works in Blackboard 6 for checking all questions.

    (Un)Check All

  7. For administrators only - A Suite of Scripts: bbUtilities (for version 6 here) includes
    In each case you drag an automatically-generated file of course ids onto the scripts and the function is performed for all the courses in that file. Requires Windows, Windows Scripting Host and Internet Explorer (all on the client, not the server).

  8. For administrators only - Blackboard Maintenance Script: A script for automating Blackboard maintenance and cleanup on Windows.

  9. For administrators only - "nice" URLS: Yes, you can get back the nice URLs you had in CourseInfo 4.x


Blackboard Services: About   ||   Create Quiz   ||   Background   ||   Tips and Tricks   ||   Help

David Carter-Tod
To WCC Front Page Wytheville Community College