Building Blocks

blackboard > building blocks

These extra tools were added through Blackboard's Building Blocks® program. Building Blocks enable extensions and integrations of developer solutions with Blackboard's software. These tools can be commercially-developed applications, open source solutions, or in-house customizations. Based on faculty and student input and feedback, each extension will be reviewed for implementation at the University of Texas at Austin.

Click here for a list of Building Blocks being tested here at UT.

Click here for a wishlist of Building Blocks based on input and feedback or to submit an enhancement.

The following Building Blocks have been added to Blackboard:

Advanced Group Management

added May 2004

Florida State University has developed this course tool extension. It includes the same functions as Blackboard's built-in group management tools, with the following additional features: (1) summary display of all groups, their membership count, and enable features in one matrix; (2) ability to view/modify membership assignments to all groups in one display page, and thus more easily balance group assignment tasks; (3) random assignment of students to groups, whether overlapping membership or disjoint; (4) simultaneous multiple deletes of groups.

AOI Science Toolkit

added May 2004

The Science Toolkit includes area-specific disciplines including: Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, as well as general Metric Conversion Tools. Students will be able to solve problems from anywhere now, with these web-based conversion tools.

Blackboard Link Checker

added May 2004

Blackboard developed a tool that can validate the Web Links within the "External Links" area of your Course.

Document Unpackager

added September 2006

The Document Unpackager, built by Joliet Junior College: Distance Education, allows you to upload a zip file containing folders and files to Blackboard. It is then unpackaged and course content items are created with the files attached. The directory structure within the zip file is translated into folders within Blackboard. All content created by the Building Block is usable even if the Building Block is removed at a later time.

Power User Enrollment

added March 2006

Florida State University has developed this course tool that appears in the instructors control panel and provides an alternative to the Blackboard built in user enrollment and role assignment. It provides the following features: (1) Enroll users and assign roles (e.g. instructor, TA) in a single step; (2) Search for multiple users to add by a comma separated list of keywords searching by last name, username or email; (3) Control paging, the number of users to display per page of search results; (4) Select all functions for both the list of displayed users and role assignments.

DIIA Scanned Score Import Tool

added February 2007

The University of Texas at Austin has developed a tool that imports the DIIA scanned score results (scantron grades) into Blackboard's gradebook.

Click here for step by step instructions.

Browser Tester

added September 2006

This browser tester, developed by Durham University, uses a portal module that runs some JavaScript tests on the user's browser to see if it is correctly configured for Blackboard. It is also a pop-up tester using sample files for downloading attempts. It was designed to help staff on an IT Helpdesk diagnose end-user problems.

Podcasting

added May 2007

Baylor University has created the new podcast building block. This is an easy-to-use building block that allows instructors to create podcasts for their classes. It creates a new content type ("Podcast"). The podcast shows up along with other course "documents". Student can either download/listen to individual files or subscribe to the podcast using their favorite podcast client (such as iTunes).

Click here for step by step instructions.

Calendar Appointment Scheduler (CAS)

added November 2006

Singapore Polytechnic created the CAS. The University of Texas at Austin has modified it to fit our purpose. The building block uses the Blackboard calendaring to create an appointment scheduling system. It allows user enrolled into a particular course to book an appointment to see their instructor/TA. The instructor/TA is able to manage his/her weekly appointments with students.

Click here for step by step instructions.

Final Grade Submission (FGS)

added April 2007

The University of Texas at Austin has developed the FGS building block. It calculates a letter grade using the Total or Weighted Total column and creates a file that can be uploaded to the Registrar's Final Grade Submission system.

Add Users By Role - 7.x (includes List All Users)

added July 2007

This course tool for Bb 7 allows Instructors to add multiple users to a course or community at once, AND directly assign them all a role such as Instructor or Leader, without having to click through the GUI many times. It differentiates between courses and communities and offers you the appropriate list of roles. You can specify a DSK to use for these enrolments, limit the list of possible roles, and indeed constrain access to this tool by course role. A new search tool has been added which gets around the userPicker (Browse... button) security issues introduced in Blackboard 7. As a bonus, a second tool has been added which lists all users in a course or organization, even those set as unavailable or blocked by snapshot (row status field).

Sign-up Tool

added July 2007

A custom content type, which allows students to sign up to events (e.g. tutorials) where places are limited. Instructors can add and remove users and use the list to populate new or existing groups in Blackboard.

Safe Assign

added July 2007

SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention service, offered by Blackboard to its Blackboard Learning System™ Enterprise, Vista Enterprise and CE Enterprise clients. This service helps educators prevent plagiarism by detecting unoriginal content in student papers. In addition to acting as a plagiarism deterrent, it also has features designed to aid in educating students about plagiarism and importance of proper attribution of any borrowed content. SafeAssign is available for Blackboard enterprise clients at no additional cost. SafeAssign is a part of the Blackboard Beyond family and is centrally hosted by Blackboard, like the rest of the Beyond products and services. Although it is a new Blackboard service, it is based on a mature and proven technology that Blackboard acquired from Sciworth Inc. (MyDropBox) and enhanced to offer even better stability, performance, and integration with other Blackboard products. SafeAssign is delivered and integrated via a Blackboard Building Block or Blackboard PowerLink. Once installed and enabled, SafeAssign will be available within the courses for instructors to start using right away.