Performance-Based Release Conditions
Performance-Based Release Conditions
This page offers some instructional design examples for using the release conditions function in Blackboard Ultra course view to create dynamic content that responds to student performance on specified graded assignments or grade center columns.
By their nature, performance-based release conditions should generally be used in conjunction with a grading policy that allows students to re-attempt or make up missed work, to avoid creating a situation where a student could get 'locked out' of progressing through the course because they cannot meet the conditions to access necessary content.
For details on how to find and set release conditions, see the Instruction page on Content Visibility and Release Conditions
For details on how to create and track Gradebook columns, see the Instruction page on the Ultra Course Gradebook
Example 1: Using Quizzes to Lock/Unlock Course Modules
In this example, you can use performance on the concluding assessment of each course unit or module to lock/unlock the next module. This can be used as a participation check (by simply requiring that students submit something to unlock the next module, regardless of grade) or as a performance check (such as requiring a score of at least 80% on a unit quiz before students can unlock the next unit).
This can help prevent students from missing/skipping important information in your course and ensure all students demonstrate necessary foundational skills before moving onto more advanced applications.
To set a performance release condition, go to the content item you wish to lock, open the visibility settings dropdown menu below the title, and open the release conditions pane.
Check Performance under the additional conditions options, then select the Graded item you wish to use as the 'key' to lock/unlock the content item. You will need to use an existing graded item; at present there is no way to create a new graded item from this pane.
Under Grade Requirement, the menu will automatically populate with scores from 10-90% at 10% increments, rounded to the nearest point, or you can select "custom range" to manually set minimum and maximum points thresholds.
Once you have entered the graded item and grade requirement values for your key, scroll to the bottom of the pane and click Submit to save your settings.
This screenshot shows an example of a locked item from the student perspective.
Items with release conditions can be visible or invisible while locked. If visible, the item header will appear with a lock icon next to it and show "Content isn't available" below the title. Students can click that message to see details on the release conditions for the item.
In this case, the release conditions for Module 2 require students to receive a score on the Module 1 Capstone Quiz of at least 1/20 points (this is avoids interfering with the automatic 0 that is entered for a missed/overdue item that is part of the Ultra course view default settings). This example is designed as a simple participation check, to ensure that students have reviewed the contents of Module 1 and attempted the key quiz before unlocking the next part of the course content. Alternatively, this could be set up as a proficiency check, requiring a score above a certain threshold on the key quiz before the student can unlock Module 2.
This screenshot shows an example of a locked item from the student perspective.
Items with release conditions can be visible or invisible while locked. If visible, the item header will appear with a lock icon next to it and show "Content isn't available" below the title. Students can click that message to see details on the release conditions for the item.
In this case, the release conditions for Module 2 require students to receive a score on the Module 1 Capstone Quiz of at least 1/20 points (this is avoids interfering with the automatic 0 that is entered for a missed/overdue item that is part of the Ultra course view default settings). This example is designed as a simple participation check, to ensure that students have reviewed the contents of Module 1 and attempted the key quiz before unlocking the next part of the course content. Alternatively, this could be set up as a proficiency check, requiring a score above a certain threshold on the key quiz before the student can unlock Module 2.
