What’s New in Bb 6.3
- Enhanced Course Menu and Course Map
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Detail View and Quick View: There is a new optional view of the course menu called “Detail View”. This look expands from the classic version of the course menu (now called “Quick View”) to show a hierarchy of the folders. The student can choose which view to use, or the instructor can restrict the views available.
Tools panel: By default there is a new Tools panel underneath the course menu, which duplicates commonly used tools: the Communication and the Course Tools; and includes the Course Map. Instructors can choose to make this Tools panel invisible or remove the ones in the default course menu through the Control Panel.
Course Map: The redesigned Course Map displays icons for each item or tool, but shows only the content available to the students based on the Adaptive Release criteria. The Course Map loads quickly and automatically refreshes every 20 minutes.
Refresh button: When you add a menu item, change the availability of a menu item or remove a menu item you will need to refresh the menu to see your changes. To do this, return to the main course page and click the Refresh button at the bottom of the course menu.
- Smarter Gradebook Calculations
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In the gradebook, with a new option, you can replace the Total and Weighted Total columns with new named: Running Total and Running Weighted Total. These new columns do not include grades from assignments or tests that the students have not taken or that have not been graded.
This new feature has no effect if you use the total and weighted total columns for scores; rather, it is only useful if you use the total column for percentage or letter grade.
- Multi-language (or locale) Support
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In addition to English there is now built-in support for German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch.
- Adaptive Release and Review Status
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Adaptive Release: This new feature allows instructors to create custom learning paths through the course content using criteria including releasing the content by date and time, to particular users or groups, or based on grades on gradebook items, or based on attempts or review status of items.
Review Status: If Review Status is enabled for a content item by instructors, students can notify instructors when they review the item so instructors can view student progress.
- Syllabus Builder
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The Syllabus Builder provides a template for creating syllabus in a modular fashion. There are six design styles for instructors to use, which makes creating a syllabus easy. This is an optional tool. You still have the choice to upload your existing MS Word or PDF format syllabus to a Content Area as you upload a regular file to a content item.
- Enhanced Assessment Features
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Download Assessment Attempts that Include All Questions: Instructors can export and download survey or test attempts as a .csv file to perform statistical analysis in a spreadsheet application (e.g. Microsoft Excel). Downloaded assessment attempts now include all question types. In earlier versions only certain question types were included.
Assessment Question Completion Status: This feature shows the student the status: which questions she has completed and which not as she progresses through a question-by-question assessment.
Randomize Multiple Choice Answers: This feature, (automatically available when instructors create answers) allows instructors to randomize the answers in multiple choice questions.
Partial Credit: Partial credit is now available on many question types
Individual Feedback: Individual feedback for essay questions is now available.
Advanced Assessment Questions: Advanced Assessments can include calculated questions, numeric response, file response, hot spot graphic, multiple fill-in-the-blank, jumbled sentence, short response, and quiz bowl-style questions.
- Performance Dashboard
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The Performance Dashboard tool allows instructors to see student performance information such as Review Status for content, grade list, and content availability to students based on Adaptive Release criteria.
- Surveys
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New question types: Likert scale, a.k.a. opinion scale (e.g., “Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree, Not Applicable”.)
Export complete dataset to Excel: In previous version not all data were exported.
- Not New, But May Be New to You?
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- Assignment item – we highly recommend the Assignment item instead of using the Digital Dropbox. The Assignment item:
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- Is faster to upload/download
- Allows batch downloads of student assignments by instructor
- Provides a way for instructor to provide several levels of feedback to student through: mark up and return document; comments directly in the gradebook; private comments only seen by instructor
- Journal tool – it can be found under Course Tools. It is a tool similar to a web log (blog), which provides an online forum, diary, or journal. An entire class or groups can access, add new entries and comments when these settings are enabled.
- Teams Site tool -
- it can be found under Course Tools. It is a tool similar to a Wiki, which provides an interactive and collaborative website. An entire class or groups can add text, graphics, files, and links to build the content of the site when if these settings are enabled.