Upgrade to Blackboard 7 - Adaptive Release
Adaptive Release is a concept which already existed in Blackboard 6, where instructors had the option of releasing content to students based on date and time criteria. For example, it was possible to make an assignment available to students on a given day, and to make it unavailable again 24 hrs later.
Blackboard 7 takes this concept further. It is possible to release content based on 4 types of criteria (or any combination of these):
- date and time
- username or group membership
- a certain type of score or entry for a gradebook column
- the review status of another content item
Some possible use cases for adaptive release:
- create a group for graduate students and a group for undergraduates, and release certain pieces of content only to one of these groups
- release the list of topics for the first paper only to students who have indicated that they have reviewed the honor code principles, uploaded elsewhere in your site
- release chapter 2 materials only to students who have completed a review quiz for chapter 1
It is important to note that adaptive release rules are not copied when you copy a course. This means that if an instructor teaches the same course again, and imports his or her materials from a prior version of the course, any adaptive release logic would need to be rebuilt in the new course.
To create an adaptive release rule, go to the Control Panel, and from there to any of the content areas for the course. Note the new Manage button sandwiched between the Modify, Copy and Remove buttons. Click on the Manage button.
On the next screen, note the following options:
- Adaptive Release
- Adaptive Release: Advanced
- Adaptive Release and Review Status: User Progress
To create a simple basic Adaptive Release rule, click on Adaptive Release. Now, you will be able to restrict the release of the content item based one or several criteria, such as date, user identity, review status of another item, or gradebook activity.
To create multiple Adaptive Release rules, click on Adaptive Release: Advanced. You can now add several rules for the content item. To gain access to the item, students have to satisfy only one of the rules, though each rule can have multiple criteria. For example, you could create one rule which gives access to a piece of content to only the graduate students in your class. You could create a second rule which would give access to anyone who scores above 90 on the midterm. This would mean that anyone who is either a graduate student, or who did well on the midterm, has access to the content.
To keep track of who has access to a content item, click on Adaptive Release and Review Status: User Progress. This will bring up a screen which lists all the students in the course. Next to each student's name is an icon representing whether the student can currently view the content item or not (a closed eye icon represents no access; an open eye represents access).
