Student Preview
New Feature for Educators
Previously, Blackboard Learn Edit Mode On/Off control approximated what a student who had access to everything in a course might see. The new Student Preview feature provides the capability for an Instructor to see the course exactly how a student would see it. It accomplishes this by allowing the Instructor to easily transition into and out of a system-managed preview account that is automatically enrolled in the course as a Student. This provides all the advantages of a “dummy” account while absolving the Instructor and System Administrator of the management overhead. The Student Preview creates efficiency for Instructors by providing them the ability to confirm the design of their course content and course behaviors (e.g. grade calculations, adaptive release) from the perspective of a student. In particular this is useful for confirming behaviors such as time/date availability, adaptive release criteria, grade weighting, and other course behaviors that control what a student sees in the course or require some particular interaction from the student to be triggered.
The Student Preview feature provides a new button that appears in the breadcrumb bar next to the Course Themes and Edit Mode buttons and is shaped like an eye.
Clicking on the Student Preview button moves the Instructor into Student Preview mode. While in Student Preview mode the Instructor can interact with the course as if a student, including taking quizzes/tests, submitting assignments, posting to forums, posting to blogs, etc.
While in Student Preview mode, the instructor can control the settings related to how the data created as the preview student is handled upon exiting Student Preview mode by click the Settings button. By default, the instructor is prompted upon exit as to whether the preview student and all of the data created as the preview student is deleted (the default) or kept.
An instructor would keep the data to be able to check grade calculations, for example, or verify other behaviors that requires the instructor to view student activity — in this case, the preview student’s activity. After exiting Student Preview mode and keeping the data, the Instructor can navigate to areas of the course where they can view that preview student’s activity, such as the Grade Center. The preview student is clearly identified by the appended “_previewuser” text on the username and last name.
To delete any retained data, the instructor must re-enter Student Preview and exit again, this time choosing “Delete the data” at the prompt. Choosing to delete the data unenrolls the preview student from the course (and, if not in use in any other of the instructor’s courses, deletes it from the system). All activity conducted or created as the preview student is removed from the course permanently. This includes attempts, submissions, grades, posts, etc.
Learn more about the Student Preview on the Blackboard Help site.