Blackboard Learn User Guide

Table of Contents

Overview

openEQUELLA is an advanced digital repository that can be integrated with Blackboard Learn™ (Blackboard). openEQUELLA incorporates a digital repository and content authoring tools which enable users to search, create and manage content such as images, audio, video, packaged content, web links, text, PDFs and Microsoft Office™ documents. From within Blackboard, users can create and add openEQUELLA resources to courses or contribute resources to the openEQUELLA repository.

The purpose of this guide is to demonstrate to users how to integrate openEQUELLA resources using Blackboard. Users will learn how to search for, create and manage available resources, and how to add these materials to courses.

Please note that this guide has been developed using openEQUELLA version 6.4 and Blackboard version 9.1 (SP16) and as such may differ in appearance to your own installation.

Additional details about using openEQUELLA with an LMS Integration can be found in the Integrated LMS User Guide

Blackboard My Institution page

Login to Blackboard. The Blackboard My Institution page displays. (NOTE: To return to the My Institution page at any point, select the My Institution link at the top of the page.)

Through Blackboard, openEQUELLA can be reached via a course page or, if your institution has this feature enabled, directly via the openEQUELLA portal on the My Institutions page.

All of the user’s courses are listed in the My Courses portal on the My Institutions page, as well as in the Course List pane on the Courses page. Click the Course link to display the Courses page.

Clicking the name of the course displays the course Home page where openEQUELLA resources can be added, edited and managed.

openEQUELLA portal

The openEQUELLA portal acts as an interface between Blackboard and openEQUELLA. Listed in the portal are a number of links to pages in openEQUELLA. Clicking these links will take the user directly to openEQUELLA and away from Blackboard.

This portal will only be viewable if it has been enabled by your institution’s Blackboard administrator.

The openEQUELLA portal may contain the following links:

  • openEQUELLA Home—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Dashboard page.
  • Search EQUELLA—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Search page.
  • Contribute to EQUELLA—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Contribute page.
  • All Tasks (x)—selecting this page will display the openEQUELLA Tasks page without filtering.
  • Tasks assigned to me (x)—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Task list Tasks page filtered for only tasks assigned to the user.
  • Tasks assigned to others (x)—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Task list Tasks page filtered for only tasks assigned to other users.
  • Unassigned tasks (x)—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Tasks page filtered for only tasks not assigned to any users.
  • All notifications (x)—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Notifications page.
  • Resources that were rejected (x)—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Notifications page filtered for notifications of rejected resources.
  • Items that went live (x)—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Notifications page filtered for notifications of resources that became live.
  • Items that went into review (x)—selecting this link will display the openEQUELLA Notifications page filtered for notifications of resources marked for review.

Accessing the openEQUELLA repository

Resources stored in the openEQUELLA repository can be added to any Blackboard course in the Course List. This is managed through the course Home page as outlined in the following steps:

  1. Select the relevant course from the My Courses portal or from the Courses page. The course Home page is displayed.
  2. Select either Information link, the Content link or any other content pages (e.g. Week 1), from the course navigation men. Content pages handle the addition of resources in the same way and have access to the openEQUELLA Object tool required to access the openEQUELLA repository. For the purposes of this guide, Week 1 page will be used.
  3. Select the required content page from the Course navigation menu (e.g. Week 1).
  4. Click the Tools drop-down to display a list of tools which can be used in the Blackboard course.
  5. Select openEQUELLA Object. The openEQUELLA Integration screen displays.

Managing resources in Blackboard

Once a resource is added to a Blackboard course, Blackboard functionality allows for a number of actions to be performed on the resource. Some basic functions are described below.

With the Edit Mode set to On, clicking the button alongside a resource reveals a menu of actions which can be used to manage resources.

The menu actions with specific relevance to openEQUELLA resources, include the following

  • Edit—edit the resource name and description, as well as certain display properties.
  • Copy—copy the resource to a different course and/or into a different course location (e.g. Week 2). The source resource remains in place after this operation.
  • Move—moves the resource to a different course and/or into a different course location (e.g. Week 2). The source resource does not remain in the original location after this operation.
  • Delete—removes the resource from the course location.

Playing QTI quizzes

When a QTI quiz link has been added to a course and that link has been selected, the quiz begins to play.

To play a QTI quiz

  1. Click the required quiz link from the course to launch the quiz start page.
  2. Click Start Test . The first question displays.

The question titles display down the left-hand side of the page, and a single question’s details show in the right-hand pane.

Note the following points:

  • Once a question has been answered, a blue bar displays to the left of the question name in the left-hand question list
  • Unanswered questions have no bar.
  • The question currently being viewed displays a grey bar to the left of the question name, until it is either answered or the user moves to another question.
  • Questions can be answered in any order.
  • Clicking on the Return to link (e.g. Return to Physiology 102) in the top right corner of the page returns the user to the course. NOTE: If a quiz is begun then aborted for any reason, when the same user reenters the quiz, their prior answers are stored.
    1. Once all questions have been answered, click the button to view the score acquired and any feedback available for that QTI quiz. Submitting the quiz also returns the result to the user’s gradebook within Blackboard. NOTE: Not all QTI quizzes are configured to display results or feedback once they are submitted.

Each question can be selected to view question level feedback, if included as part of the package.

To return to the results page, click View Results.

Edit resource details

To edit the details of an openEQUELLA resource

  1. Select the Edit link from the action menu to display the Modify Resource Content Object page.

This page includes the following options for editing openEQUELLA resources in the Content Information pane:

  • Name—edit the name of the resource. (NOTE: Blank entries in this field will revert to the previously saved value.)
  • Description—a brief description of the resource can be entered or edited.
  • Attachments—select this link to access the resource summary page.

Other editing options exist in the Options pane including: hiding the content, tracking the number of views, adding metadata and configuring the availability timeframe.

  1. Click Submit to save your changes and return to the course content page.

To view a resource

  1. Select the resource title link to display the resource with its default viewer.