Goals and Alignments

Aligning course content and assessment to standards and goals makes it easier to demonstrate how a course meets those standards and goals and how course performance measures up to them.

Any type of content or Blackboard assessment can be aligned to goals by using the Add Alignments feature, including Grade Center columns, Assignments, Discussion Boards, Rubrics, individual Rubric rows, Tests, and individual test questions. The alignments can be either visible to students or hidden. Goal sets can be created by the Blackboard administrator and then are available campus-wide.

Goals and Alignments in Original Course View

Screenshot highlighting process to align content with goals

To create an Alignment: Navigate to the content or assessment in the course. Place your mouse cursor over the content or assessment, then click the Action Link to the right of the name, and select Add Alignments from the resulting drop-down menu. In the Discover Goals pop-up window, use the Browse Criteria side bar to select the Source, Goal Set Type, Goal Set, Category, or Goal Type for the desired goal. Then, click the checkbox in front of the goal to select it. Once all goals have been selected, click the Submit button to save the alignments.

There are two course reports that can summarize the results from the alignments. Run these reports by going to Control Panel > Evaluation > Course Reports. Then click the action link next to the desired report and select Run.

  • Course Coverage Report presents data on how a course's content aligns to goals
  • Course Performance Report shows how students' work that is aligned to goals measures against a target value supplied by the instructor

Goals and Alignments in Ultra Course View

Status: Available

In the Ultra Course View, you can align goals to multiple items in your course:

In a test, assignment, or discussion, select the Settings icon to add, edit, and remove goals. In the panel that appears, select Align with goals. The Goals & Standards page appears.

To align goals with an individual test question, open the test. Open the menu next to the question and select Align with goal.

Inside a new or existing rubric, select the Align with goals link that appears under a criteria row to add, edit, or remove associated goals.

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