Minerva Monthly Update - July 2024

The July update introduces improvements to Announcements, Blackboard Assignments and Tests. An issue which prevented IDs displaying in the Gradebook has also been resolved.

Announcements

When scheduling an Announcement (so that students see it at a future date), it is now also possible to select the email option. The email will be sent on the day/time the Announcement is available to students.

To find out more about Announcements, read our guide on Announcements.

Blackboard Assignments and Tests

Multiple Attempts

If you allow a student to have multiple attempts at a Test or Assignment, you now have options to specify which should be marked and how the final mark is determined (which appears in Gradebook).

This is controlled in the assessment settings in the Grading & Submissions section:

Adjust the Attempts to mark and Final mark calculation settings as needed. For staff who make use of the Needs Grading filter when marking, this will now also reflect the settings you have selected.

Printing Tests

Tests can now be printed with answer keys to help staff marking paper copies of Tests.

For more information, see our guide on Tests.

Feedback Options

Recently, the option to add recordings (audio/video) when giving feedback on a Blackboard Assignment/Test/Journal or Discussion was added. Now you can also add recordings to contextual feedback for a student's specific answer to a Test question.

To add contextual feedback, select the add feedback icon when viewing a student's answer.

The recording option is in the content editor.

For more information, see our guide on the recording tool.

Resolved issue

Staff reported that they could not see student IDs in the Gradebook. This has now been resolved.