A discussion or journal can be added anywhere you see the (+) create icon.
Select 'Discussion' or 'Journal' from the area 'Participation and Engagement'.
Both the journals and discussion tools feature the 'auto generate' option. This provides access to the NILE AI assistant which can help draft your instructions. See here for more details: https://libguides.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/staff/nile-guides/ai-design-assistant#s-lg-box-16218003
Once you have selected to add a discussion you will see a window in which you add the title, and start the discussion. On the right hand side click the 'Cog' icon to view the discussion board settings.
The Discussion Settings menu includes options to 'mark the discussion' or assign the discussion to groups.
For more information on creating a Blackboard Ultra Discussion see this guide: https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Ultra/Interact/Discussions/Create_Discussions
Once you have selected to add a journal you will see a window in which to add instructions. On the right hand side click the 'Cog' icon to view the journal settings.
Click the 'cog' icon to view the 'journal settings'.
For more information on setting up a Blackboard Ultra Journal see this guide: https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Ultra/Interact/Journals
Many tutors choose to use Journals or discussions as part of a patch-work assessment where the students review their posts before combining them into one document and submitting to a Turnitin assignment. A key benefit of this approach is that Turnitin has a similarity checker.
It his however possible to grade both discussions and journals directly within each tool.
The options for adding grades to a discussion or journal are in the settings menu on the right-hand side of each.
The process of grading a journal is the same as grading a discussion.
In Discussion Settings click the text Discussion isn't marked to open the side panel options, when Mark Discussion is selected additional settings will show including the date and time required for participation.
The points possible should be set to 100 to align to the University grading schema. Change the "Mark using' dropdown to either 'UnderGrad Letter' or 'PostGrad Letter' to display the letter grade to the student. (depending upon the level of your cohort)
