Assessments (Blackboard Exams and Quizzes) Study Skills:

Where to Take the Assessment

1. If you are taking your assessment in the computer lab or another public place, bring headphones or earplugs to help isolate you from the surrounding noise.
2. Be sure to take the assessment when you will be free from interruptions. Let your friends and family members know when you will be taking the assessment so they will not disturb you. Minimize interruptions while taking an assessment.
3. If you need to and are able, visit a campus computer lab to take your assessments. This will provide a quiet environment with fewer distractions than you may have at home. It will also provide a secure internet connection while taking the assessment.
4. If you experience ongoing connection problems, consider taking your assessment at a different location (a public library, the campus if it is close enough, a friend’s house, your office, etc.) where the Internet is more reliable.
5. Spyware may affect your ability to submit an assessment. You may use Spybot - Search & Destroy before beginning an assessment to ensure that you will have no problems submitting your assessment as a result of spyware on your computer. Ad-Aware is another tool you can use to prevent spyware from affecting your computer.

Preparing for the Assessment

6. If you have special needs, contact your instructor before taking the assessment to receive any special instructions.
7. Before you take the assessment, make sure you know what will be covered on the assessment, study and review the materials, take any practice assessments that may be offered, mark important pages in your textbook and in the course materials that you have printed out, and take a break before beginning the assessment to clear your mind.
8. Keep your study notes and materials in a place where they can be easily accessed if the assessment is open book.
9. Keep scrap paper handy to use while working on an assessment. Use it to keep track of your answers in case your connection times out.
10. Make sure you read any instructions given by your professor concerning your assessment.

Opening the Assessment:

1. Click on the name of the assessment.
2. Click OK to begin the assessment.
3. Read any instructions that may appear at the top of the assessment screen.
4. Do not begin answering any questions on the assessment until after it has fully loaded and you see the Submit button at the bottom of the screen.
5. When you click on an assessment to access it, only single click. Do not double-click on an assessment to open it. If you double click, it may think you have already taken the assessment once, and lock you out of it.
6. Saving the assessment is not the same as submitting the assessment. When you have finished the assessment, make sure you click Submit instead of Save.

Assessment Questions

7. Review your answers before submitting the assessment to make sure they are all marked as you selected.
8. Remember that in true/false questions, general statements are usually only partially true, and absolute statements are often false.
9. If you may choose between answering several essay questions, choose the one or ones that you feel most confident writing about first.
10. If there are short answers or essay questions on the assessment, be sure to write them in a word processor and then paste the answer into the text box of the assessment. This will give you a back-up copy of your work and an opportunity to run spell check.

Taking the Assessment

11. When you click to begin an assessment, make sure you have budgeted enough time to take the assessment.
12. Preview all the questions before you begin (this will also help ensure that the page loads properly), answer the questions you know first, read all possible answer choices, eliminate the choices you know are incorrect, and as a last resort, do not leave any questions unanswered.
13. Only change your answers if you can think of a concrete reason why a different answer is better than the answer you have already chosen.
14. If the assessment is set to force-completion (and most assessments are), you will not be able to exit the assessment and resume taking it at a later time. In most cases, you may only enter the assessment one time.
15. If the course is set to allow multiple attempts, you may take it more than once, but be sure you know how many attempts you are allowed before doing so.
16. Always double check your answers before clicking on the Submit button.
17. Do not open an assessment and then leave it unattended on your computer for any reason.
18. Do not wait until the last minute to take the quiz. If there is a problem and you are locked out, you may not be able to re-take it.
19. You must complete any assessments in one sitting, so do not click to start it if you do not think you will be able to finish it completely at that time.
20. Do not open the assessment until you are ready to take it.
21. Make sure you have enough time set aside to take the assessment before starting it.
22. If the assessment is timed, pay attention to the time limit.
23. Keep a clock or timer nearby to help you pace yourself in the event that the assessment is timed.

Technical Issues:

            Before the Assessment

1. Before you begin your assessment, close down all other programs that you are running on your computer. If there are essay questions, open a new instance of your word processing software.
2. Make sure you are using the latest version of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. Only take assessments on browsers supported by Blackboard.
3. Make sure Pop-Up blockers are turned off.
4. Do not use an unfamiliar computer to take an assessment. It is always better to use a computer that is familiar to you.
5. Make sure your Java is up to date. Go to http://java.com/en/ and download the most recent version.
6. Reboot your computer before taking an assessment. This will stop any background processes that the computer may be performing extraneously.
7. To help keep your ISP from ending your online session, keep a second browser open and from time to time make changes to it while you are taking your assessment. You may minimize and maximize this browser, but do not minimize or maximize the browser window that you are taking your assessment in. Make sure this second browser window is opened before you begin your assessment. Do not open a second browser after you have started taking your assessment.
8. Make sure you have the minimum Blackboard requirements on your computer before you begin taking an assessment.
9. Do not take the assessment while on a wireless connection if possible.
10. We recommend using a broadband connection as opposed to a wireless connection. However, if you must use a wireless connection, make sure you have good signal strength before you begin taking your assessment.
11. Make sure your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will not time out on you while taking the assessment if you are not on campus.
12. If you are taking an assessment from a computer with a firewall installed, you must disable it before choosing to take the assessment.
13. Make sure that the status bar on your computer has been enabled. This will allow you to see the timer on the Blackboard assessment if it has one.
14. Make sure that Java and cookies are enabled on your computer.
15. Clear all the cache memory and your temporary Internet files before logging into Blackboard and taking your assessment.
16. Turn off any web accelerators, such as the Google Web Accelerator or the Proxyconn Accelerator, which you may be using while working in Blackboard, especially on a Blackboard assessment.
17. While taking a Blackboard assessment, turn off any Instant Messenger programs.

During the Assessment

18. While taking an assessment, do not click outside of the assessment area on the student menu and lock yourself out. Doing so could cause you to lose your assessment, especially if you accidentally click on other areas inside of Blackboard on the student menu (such as Course Schedule, Course Material, Check Grades, etc.).
19. Maximize the assessment screen before starting to answer any questions. Maximizing the screen at a later time could result in losing data. To maximize the screen, press the F11 key on your keyboard.
20. If your mouse has a scroll bar, using it could change the answer in a multiple choice, true/false or matching type question. After selecting an answer, always click on a blank area before scrolling down on an assessment.
21. Remember that Fill-in-the-Blank questions are case sensitive.
22. Even if the assessment has no time limit, complete the assessment as quickly as possible. The longer an assessment is open, the more likely the possibility of being locked out of the assessment or losing your internet connection.
23. Do not refresh the Internet browser during the assessment. Do not resize the screen because doing so may cause the browser to refresh and could lock you out of the assessment.
24. Do not click the Refresh button while in an assessment. It will lock you out and you will lose your answers.
25. If you are disconnected while taking a quiz, establish an internet connection before clicking submit.
26. Always make sure your internet connection is established before clicking to submit an assessment. To do this keep another browser available and make sure it can move from one internet page to another before clicking the submit button on your assessment.
27. Do not press Alt+Tab when inside an assessment. Such action could result on the assessment to automatically close for you.
28. Do not open new web browser sessions, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, while taking an assessment.
29. Do not put a new URL address in the address bar of the Internet Browser while you are taking an assessment.
30. Do not select any of your bookmarked or favorite sites in the browser that you are using to take your assessment.
31. Never press the enter key while taking an assessment. Always use the mouse to click on the appropriate buttons. This will help ensure that you do not accidentally submit the assessment to be graded before you are ready.
32. Remember that Blackboard will end your session and log you out if you leave the assessment open for 3 hours without doing anything else in Blackboard.
33. If you receive an error message while taking an assessment, write it down word-for-word. Take note of the time and the date that the error occurred. Email this information to your instructor. Having this information will best help the office of Online Education determine what error occurred and how you can keep from having the same error appear again.
34. Do not stop your quiz while taking it.
35. If you keep another Internet window open while taking an assessment, and the connection times out, use the other browser to re-establish connection before clicking submit on your assessment.
36. When checking your grades to make sure the assessment was submitted, if you see a lock symbol, contact your instructor immediately, because you have become disconnected from the assessment.
37. Do not double-click on any links or buttons while taking an assessment.
38. If you are worried about losing connection for inactivity with your ISP provider, you may want to play music softly on the computer from an Internet radio. The streaming will keep the ISP active.
39. Do not accidentally close your Internet window while taking the assessment.
40. If you are locked out of the assessment, email or call your instructor immediately. Waiting to inform your instructor that you were locked out of an assessment may cause the instructor to suspect that you were cheating. Also call the Help Desk immediately at 1-866-264-1560, as they can reset the assessment for you.
41. Save frequently (every 3 or 4 questions or approximately every 20 minutes) but not after every question (that will delay your time). Use the save button at the bottom of the page, not the one beside each question.
42. If you lose internet connection while taking the assessment, do not close the window. Wait until the ISP is back up and then submit the assessment.

After the Assessment

43. You may wish to print the receipt showing that the assessment was successfully submitted for your records.
44. After you submit your assessment, always check to make sure the submission went through without any problems.
45. After completing the assessment, check your grades to make sure that the assessment was properly submitted. If the assessment has an exclamation point (!) on it in your grades, it submitted correctly, and the teacher just needs to grade a portion of it manually.
46. After you have finished taking the assessment, be sure to click on the Submit button. Only click on this button once. Do not double-click on the Submit button.

Resources:

1. Academic Success Center - Mission Statement
2. Learning Innovation Division - Taking Assessments in Blackboard
3. Blackboard Pedagogical Tips
4. Garrett College - Blackboard Support Assessment Taking Tips
5. MonsterMarketplace (Provides links to assessment creating software, etc.)
6. Las Positas College - Online Learning FAQs

Last Updated: 2/20/2015