Using Digication Within Blackboard Building Block: A Faculty Guide

Preparing Your Course

Accessing Digication for the First Time

When you access Digication in Blackboard for the first time, you will be connected to your existing Digication account. 

If you do not yet have a Digication account, you will be greeted and see a prompt confirming that you would like to create a brand new Digication account account that links to your LMS account. Click the Confirm button (1) to create your new linked account and access Digication.

To finalize account creation, you will be asked to click the checkbox to accept the Terms and Conditions, and then click I Agree (2).

Be Aware: If this is NOT your first time accessing Digication with this Blackboard account, please navigate to your course home page and contact Digication Support at support@digication.com for further assistance to prevent any potential data loss.

On the Welcome page, feel free to watch the introductory video for an overview of New Digication. Then, click "Define Templates For Students"(3) to access the Library and share ePortfolio Templates to your course. Please note: The template screen will open in a new tab. 

Sharing a Course Template

If a Template has not yet been shared with your course, you will be prompted to create a new Template based on an existing Template or ePortfolio you have access to. Select any of your Templates and click "Use This Template" (1) or select an ePortfolio and click "Save As Template" to review the Template or ePortfolio content before applying settings.

After you have reviewed the Template, you can select this Template for your course and advance to configuring settings by clicking Save & Share Template (2).

The next screen allows you to set your Template Settings and customize your Template Info such as the title, URL, description, and the content license. If you are unsure which content license applies to your template, keep the option as "Not specified". When you are finished setting your Template info, click Continue (3) to advance to the next step.

Similar to ePortfolios, you can manage visibility of your Template by setting permissions under Who Can See The Template. Permissions set on this screen will determine who can use this Template to create an ePortfolio. The permission settings for ePortfolios created from this Template can be set during the next step. If you would like to know more about how permissions work, you can click here to read our article about ePortfolio Settings! When you are finished setting your Template permissions, click the Continue button(4) to advance to the next step.

The Template Default Settings are a collection of settings that can be applied to any ePortfolios created from this Template. Toggle the slider next to "Require this template's settings on adopted ePortfolios"(5) to reveal and customize the list of settings that can be applied to ePortfolios created from this Template. When you are finished with the settings under Template Info, Who Can See the Template, and the Template Default Settings, click the Save Settings button(6) to finalize your template settings and share the template with your course.

Managing Your Templates

After a Template has been shared with the course, you will be brought to the Template Management screen.

If you would like to add additional Templates to your course, you can click Add A Template (1) to select and add more Templates.

You can also review the content of Templates currently shared with your course by selecting the Template and clicking Preview (2).

You will also be able to manage Templates you created and shared with other courses under Draft Templates. When you select a Draft Template, click Edit (3) to view the Template and then if you decide, you can click "Save & Share Template" to share it with your current course. 

When you are done managing your Templates, click "Save & Continue" (4) to navigate back to your Digication dashboard.

Connecting to a Course in Digication

Once your template has been shared with your course, you can connect your LMS course to a Digication course by clicking the “Connect to a course in Digication” link at the top of the page.

Once you click this link, you’ll be prompted to either create a new Digication course or connect to an existing Digication course. Select the option for your course.

Digication Homepage within Blackboard

In the My ePortfolios area (1), you'll be able to see all of the ePortfolios you have shared with the course.  Click Show All My ePortfolios (2) to see all of the ePortfolios created to date.

ePortfolio Assignments

"ePortfolio assignments" is a new area where you have the ability to create assignments within the course to which students can submit their work.

 

All ePortfolios (Shared with this course)

Below the assignment area, under "All ePortfolios" you'll find all ePortfolios created by other users (students) that are shared with the course.

Creating an Assignment

Click on the "+ New Assignment" button to add an assignment.

Gradebook

Entering Grades

Simply click on the cell for the student and grade to be entered. Clicking on the tab key on your keyboard will bring you to the next assignment for that student. For large classes, there is a "Search" field that will allow you to filter by a students by name as well, for easy grading.

Adding Comments to Grades

A small text bubble icon will appear whenever clicking in a grading field; this is for you to add comments. Clicking on it will give you a pop-up window to enter your comment and click "Save changes" to save it. This can be done and redone as many times as needed.

Editing Assignments

Clicking on it gives you a pop-up that allows you to edit settings for the assignment which include:

• A "Make viewable?" checkbox, which allows students to see their grades.
• A "Maximum Points" field where you can set the maximum amount of points for the assignment.
• A "Relative Weight" field which allows you to assign a relative weight for each assignment. Weight is set to 1 by default.

Maximum Points and Relative Weight

Once all of the necessary changes have been made, you'll need to click on "Save changes" for them to be reflected in both systems. Please note that all grades entered will push automatically to Blackboard. 

Warning: If you change the name of an assignment in Digication externally, the assignments will no longer sync with the Blackboard grade book. Please be careful!

Grading in Blackboard

If you'd rather use Blackboard's grading functionality instead of the Grade Book within the Digication tool, you can do so easily! Creating an assignment within a course also creates an entry in the Grade Center. This is another way of streamlining the process of grading by allowing users to work in the ways they know best.