This session introduced the new institution-wide bulk import for Blackboard® Outcomes and covered a round of help documentation updates. The meetings are moved from Community to Microsoft Teams, and future office hours will stay on Teams.
•New competency-based education (CBE) data sheet. This new resource covers personalized learning pathways, mastery views, evidence of achievement, measuring mastery at the course, program and institution levels, and the Skillwell partnership. Attendees received it before account teams. It will posted with this summary.
Release: institution-wide bulk import of outcome statements
Site administrators can now import outcome statements into any unit across the institution from a single CSV file. Release notes and help documentation are live. This complements the earlier unit-level import, which is available to anyone with Creator access or higher on that unit.
•Where to find it: Settings, then Import outcomes. The page walks through each step: choose the academic year, prepare the file, upload and review.
•Preparation tools: A downloadable CSV template lists the required columns. A downloadable unit list exports every institutional hierarchy pathway with its unit identifier and type. The pathway helps tell apart units with the same name, such as identical departments at different campuses.
•Speed and size: Testing imported more than 100 outcomes in about 3 seconds. Files can be up to 10 MB, and larger sets can be split across files. Imports run in the background and send an email when complete.
•Error reporting: A downloadable report lists any rows that failed and why, such as a missing unit type. A new import history page keeps past reports available to site administrators.
•Limits to know: The import creates statements only. It does not edit existing statements or detect duplicates, so remove duplicate rows before re-importing. It does not import assessments or alignments.
The new mastery gradebook view, released in October, is not loading outcomes data. The team has identified a fix and expects it, with the back port, by the end of the week. A knowledge base article is being published. The team has also added the missed setup path to pre-release testing so similar issues are caught earlier.
Help documentation updates
Several Outcomes help topics that previously had video only now include full text documentation, which improves accessibility. Updated topics include a rebuilt User roles and permissions section with new visuals, Assigning and assessing the same outcome, and Creating related connections. Updates to other Institutional Effectiveness products are coming.
Q&A highlights
•Does importing revised statements overwrite existing ones? No. The import adds new statements alongside existing ones. Bulk editing is a good candidate for the Idea Exchange.
•How should a revised outcome be handled? This is an institutional decision. One approach is to mark the old outcome as not measured in its final term, skip copying it forward, and create the new statement. This keeps longitudinal reports free of empty rows. Avoid deleting assessment data.
•Can two programs assess the same shared course? Yes, through the Programs feature. A course is always owned by one department but can link to multiple programs. Programs can be piloted one or two at a time.
•Can program levels go beyond undergraduate and graduate? Not yet. Community colleges wanting transfer degree or certificate levels should submit this to the Idea Exchange.
•Can learners be separated by program enrollment within a course? Not in Outcomes, and this is not planned there. This reporting is expected once Outcomes data comes to Blackboard Illuminate, which is on the six-plus month roadmap.
•Can the Ultra Extension Framework (UEF) integration be turned off now that outcomes appear in the gradebook? Keep it on for now. Turning it off removes overall course outcome measures and taxonomy, which do not yet have native pages. The Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) connection must stay enabled.
•Can programs be associated through the Blackboard LMS feed files? Not yet. Associating programs to hierarchy nodes through the student information system (SIS) integration is scoped on the roadmap. Courses connect to subjects, and subjects connect to programs.
•Does Outcomes work with Canvas? Yes. A Canvas import process is available, and support can help set up the LTI connections.
