Learn more about the Blackboard features and settings that can assist you in improving student performance and retention.
Activity Stream
Your Activity Stream available on the base navigation menu.
- Today: See everything happening and due in the next 24 hours.
- Recent: View stream items that were previously in the Today section over the last seven days.
- Upcoming: View your top five events that will happen in the next seven days. Select Show More for a complete list.
- Important: Students see reminders about overdue assignments as well as tests and graded discussions that need immediate attention.
Notification Settings
You can view, filter, and configure the notifications that appear in your Activity Stream.
Performance Alerts
From your Stream Notifications settings, you can expand Performance alerts to select specific notifications.
- Activity data
- Grade data
- Number falling behind
- Number falling behind and absent
- Number falling behind and failing
- Number falling behind, absent, and failing
You can also be notified by email of past due assignments and tests:
Student Performance Alerts
From the Gradebook Settings, you can send Activity Stream alerts to students based on these settings:
- Number of days a student in inactive
- When a student’s overall grade percentage is below your specified grade percentage
- Missed Due Date Alert
You can also View Course Activity related to grades and access Alert Settings from the Course Activity report:
Faculty Performance Alerts
This feature is available for all Ultra courses from the Course Activity and Student Activity Details reports:
- Student Last Access Alert for Instructors
- Student Low Overall Grade Alert for Instructors
- Students Missed Due Dates Alert for Instructors
Performance Release Conditions
You can use release conditions to release supplemental content based on student performance on a graded item.
Choose which course members and groups will have access to the content:
- All members
- Specific members or groups
- Date/Time
- Performance
Formative Assessment
You can designate tests and assignments a formative assessments, even if they are already graded.
When you create or edit an assessment, select Formative assessment under the settings panel:
- This will automatically select Display formative label to students.
- If you unmark this option, no formative indicator is displayed to students in any section.
The formative label helps to easily identify formative assessments. This label is always visible for instructors in these areas:
- Course content page
- Test and assignment settings
- Gradebook list and grid views
- Student overview
- Student activity overview
If you choose to display the formative label for students, it is visible in these areas:
- Course content page
- Assessment panel before starting an attempt
- Assessment details & information panel during and after an assessment
- Assessment header when viewing a submission
- Gradebook
Filters temporarily narrow the displayed data in the gradebook grid view. You can use the formative and summative filters to show the corresponding assessments.
In the gradebook grid view, select the Filters button to open the filters panel. Under Assessment type, select the Formative option to display only the formative assessments.
