Assessment

Assessment Tools Overview

There are of course many types of assessment and the appropriate assessment type for you module should not be dictated be the tools listed here. However the majority of assessments at Aston are submitted via either Turnitin or Blackboard Assignments. Below is a general rule of thumb guide to which of these 2 tools is best to use for your assessment. If you are in any doubt as to which tool to use, please get in contact with the Technology Enhanced Learning Team by emailing telsupport@aston.ac.uk.

Once you have decided which tool is best for you, follow the 1st steps guides below for the specific tool.

It is important to note that Blackboard also has a Tests feature which is often used for Formative and Summative assessments. There is a short 1st steps guide below on setting up Tests.

Within Blackboard there are a number of other tools that can be used to support student assessment. These include Blogs, Wikis, Journals and Discussion boards.

Policy

PLAGIARISM DETECTION SOFTWARE Policy guidance

General Assessment Regulations, Policies and Guidelines can be found in the A-Z of Academic Regulations, Policy & Procedures.

Which tool?

This decision chart is focused around submission factors. It is an overview to help you make the choice of which tool to use based on the type of submission that students are required to make. It does not deal with other factors such as the type of feedback you would like to give. For that sort of advice please get in contact with the Technology Enhanced Learning Team by emailing telsupport@aston.ac.uk.

Turnitin

Turnitin is independent of Blackboard, but is fully integrated. This integration extends the capabilities of Blackboard by offering additional e-submission, e-feedback and online peer assessment tools.

It is comprised of three main components:

Similarity Report

Text matching to assist plagiarism and collusion checks,

Feedback studio

Apply grades and feedback (including audio) onto scripts online

PeerMark

Comprehensive peer assessment tool

 

• Creating an assessment
• Creating a Grading Form
• Creating and Using Rubrics
• Accessing Submissions
• Interpreting the similarity report
• Grading submissions and giving feedback using Feedback studio

 

Blackboard Assignments

Assignments allow you to create coursework and manage the grades and feedback for each student separately. In an assignment, you can include a description, point value, and file attachments.

You can view, comment, and grade student-submitted assignment files without leaving the Grade Assignment page. When you view a document submitted in an assignment, that document is converted to a format that is viewable inside the web browser.

The converted document is displayed in a viewer on the Grade Assignment page. Formatting and embedded images of the original document are preserved in the conversion.

• Creating assignments
• Rubrics
• Grading Assignments
• Anonymous Grading

Blackboard Tests

For guidance on using Blackboard tests for credit-bearing assessments please contact the Quality Officer for your school. Details can be found on the Quality team website. Expand the “Who we are” section.

• Creating Tests
• Question Types
• Test Results

Before you deploy a test you are encouraged to contact the Technology Enhanced Learning Team by emailing telsupport@aston.ac.uk.

Feedback

Students often find it difficult to access electronic feedback.

For Turnitin please direct them to take a look at the Accessing Feedback Studio Guide and the Feedback Studio Overview.

For Blackboard Assignments please direct them to the My Grades Guide.