External Examiners have the ability to access the Blackboard courses for their modules. This access will allow External Examiners to view content that has been added to the Blackboard course by the instructors, such as course materials, module handbooks, assignment briefs etc.
How will I see the courses I can access
When you log into Blackboard, you will see the Blackboard activity stream. However, Accessing the External Examiner tool (Tools/External Examiners) will provide you with a list of modules that you are attached to as external examiner. Click on the module name to enter the Blackboard course.
Please note that for every module run, there is a corresponding Blackboard course. Some modules have multiple runs and so you may see multiple Blackboard courses for the same module but the different runs of the module.
Why are some courses prefixed with ‘Archived’
Blackboard courses are prefixed with the word ‘Archived’ when the module has passed the resit run Field Board date.
What will I see in a Blackboard course?
The content of each Blackboard course is managed and controlled by the course instructors and so will differ from course to course. Some faculties have specific course templates to guide their instructors on course content and layout.
Your External Examiner access allows you to view any content added by the instructors even if that content is not available for students to see. It will also allow you to view activity in certain Blackboard tools that the instructor has used.
The Course Menu
The left hand course menu is your navigation to the content of the course.
If a content area has a grey square icon, this means that there is no content in the content area.
If a content area has a white square icon with a strike through, this means that the content area has been hidden from students.
Click on a content area link and the content will be displayed in the right hand pane. There are various types of content an instructor can attach such as Office files, images, videos, links to other websites. Depending on how the instructor has set a content item up, the item may display in the Blackboard frame or it may open in a new browser window.
Collaboration Tools
Some course instructors may have used student collaboration tools such as discussion boards, wikis, journals etc to support their teaching. You may come across links to these tools in either the left hand course menu or within a content area. You can also access these tools from the Course Tools area of the Control Panel.
Assessments
There are two main types of assessment used in Blackboard: Assignments and Tests.
Assignments
Blackboard Assignments are currently used for online assessment submissions. If an online assessment assignment has been created in a course, it will be in a content area named ‘Assignments’. Please note that even though the ‘Assignments’ area is created automatically, some instructors may edit the name of this area. The student makes their submission by clicking on the link shown in the ‘Assignments’ content area and attaching their file.
With the External Examiner role, you will only be able to see the assignment instructions. You will not be able to access the student submissions or the marking.
Tests
Blackboard tests can be used by instructors to check student understanding. The instructors can set various types of questions such as multiple choice; fill in the blanks; true / false etc. Questions can be set with a points value plus student feedback for correct / incorrect answers.
With the External Examiner role, you will only be able to view the test if it is still available to students. You will not be able to access the test results.
The Control Panel
The bottom left hand control panel is mainly for use by instructors and administrators. The external examiner role will be able to see and access some functions here but our advice would be to use the Course Menu above to navigate the course content and tools used.