DL Tip of the Week - Setting Test Availability Exceptions on Exams

This week’s tip is about "Setting Test Availability Exceptions on Exams".

When deploying a test in Blackboard, instructors may create exceptions to the already established settings. This may be used to provide an exception to individual or groups of students. Exceptions may be created for: number of attempts, test timer, auto submit, availability dates, and force completion. Exceptions may be set up at any time.

Setting test availability exceptions may be handy if you have been recently notified about students with an accommodation plan requiring double or triple the time you have set. You no longer have to create an extra test and deal with the extra column in your grade center.

How-to Video

If for any reason the links appear broken, if you need help, or if you have an idea for a DL Tip of the Week, please email us at HCTC-DL@kctcs.edu.

Remember if you need assistance, please let a member of the DL Team know.

• Brad Roberts, DL Specialist (Faculty/Student Support) – Lees
• Paul Currie, DL Specialist (Faculty Support) – Hazard, Knott, Leslie, Tech
• Wendy Davidson, LoD Program Coordinator (LoD support and Student Support) 

Students, Studying, and Multiple-Choice Questions

Multiple-choice questions are not the pariah of all test questions. They can make students think and measure their mastery of material. But they can also do little more than measure mastery of memorization. Memorizing is usually an easier option than thinking and truly understanding.

Biologist Kathrin Stanger-Hall wondered what would happen if she changed the exam format in her large introductory biology courses. Would a change in format, specifically the inclusion of short-answer questions, affect how students studied? Would having to construct responses improve scores on the final exam? And, perhaps most important, would it improve performance on multiple-choice questions that tested higher-level thinking skills? Read more...