Journals are personal spaces for students to communicate privately with the instructor. Journals can be used as a self-reflective tool, to share opinions, ideas, and concerns about the course, or discuss and analyze course-related materials.
Add a Journal to Course Content
To add a journal,
- Click + icon in the desired location and then select Create.
- From the Participation and Engagement section, select Journal.
- Give the Journal a meaningful name.
- Change the visibility.
- Add a prompt, if desired.
- Select the cog in the top right to update the settings, including due date and grading.
- Select Save.
Auto-generate a Journal
Blackboard Ultra’s AI Design Assistant automatically generates journal prompts based on the course’s title and description. To ensure the journals align closely with instructional goals, faculty have multiple ways to customize the prompts:
Customization Options
To provide meaningful context for the AI-generated journal prompt, you can select specific course items. Simply check the box next to the desired course content item to include it as part of the journal’s context. If you want to include specific content within folders or learning modules, expand them to select the appropriate items. The context picker supports various file types, including PDF, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, text files, RTF files, and HTML.
After selecting items and adjusting the settings, click Generate to create prompts. Always review to ensure the prompt is accurate, relevant, and free from potential bias, then select the desired journal prompt and click Add to integrate it into your course.
View, Grade and Comment on Journal Activity
When a students contributes to a journal, a blue activity icon appears next to the title on the Course Content page. Select the title to open the journal.
When opened, the Journal tab displays the prompt and journal settings.
The Grades & Participation tab displays the students’ names organized alphabetically by surname. You can select how many items you see per page, up to 100.
- Unviewed posts are indicated by the blue activity indicator.
- By default, the menu is set to display all student statuses. However, the Student Status and Grading Status menus enable instructors to filter the view, allowing them to quickly and efficiently access specific information.
View Journal Entries
After selecting a student’s name from the list in the Participation tab, you can view all the student’s entries along with your responses. If the page contains numerous entries, you can adjust the number of items displayed, with a maximum limit of twenty per page.
Grade Journal Entries
Grade the journal directly by entering a grade in the grading pill. When an item is graded as Complete/Incomplete, regardless of the points allotted, entering any value will mark the journal as complete.
To provide feedback, click the Feedback icon, represented by a plus sign. After posting feedback, you can edit it at any time using the three-dot menu.
Comment on Journal Entries
In Blackboard Ultra journals, the Add Entry and Add Comment features serve distinct purposes for instructors.
Add Entry
- Purpose: Allows the instructor to contribute to the journal.
- Use Case: Use this feature to provide prompts, examples, or additional context for students to guide their responses.
- Content: Entries are typically more comprehensive and can include formatted text, multimedia (such as images or videos), and attachments.
Add Comment
- Purpose: Enables instructor to provide targeted feedback or engage in discussions on a student’s journal entry.
- Use Case: Use comments to give constructive feedback, ask follow-up questions, or acknowledge a student’s contribution.
- Content: Comments are usually concise and focus on interacting with a specific journal entry rather than introducing new material.
In summary, as an instructor, you would use entries to guide and add content to the journal, while comments allow you to engage directly with your students’ reflections and foster meaningful dialogue.