Skills for Study

A Blackboard integration with Skills for Study allows you to link diagnostic tests and learning content from Skills for Study to your Blackboard module site. Please note that these links will need to be recreated following the annual Blackboard site rollover process.

 

To link to the Skills for Study resource

Step 1. Click on Support Resources in the site menu of any module you own. 

Step 2. From the Build Content menu select Skills for Study Homepage Link

Step 3. Enter a title, make it available to students and click submit.

 

To link to a specific section or test within Skills for Study

 

Gain admin permissions in Skills for Study

Important Steps 1-3 will only have to be completed once. These steps associate your Blackboard user profile as an instructor, with your Skills for Study user profile and elevate your permissions to those of ‘admin’ in Skills for Study.

Step 1. Click on Support Resources in the site menu of any module you own. 

Step 2. From the Build Content menu select Skills for Study Homepage Link

Step 3. Enter a title, make it available to students and click submit.

You will now have admin privileges in Skills for Study 

 

Find the URL for the section or test

Step 4. Navigate to Skills for Study though Blackboard using the link you added in Step 3. This will log you into Skills for Study automatically using Institutional Authentication. You can also log in by visiting the Skills for Study login page but you will have to register and verify your account first. 

Step 5. Click on the admin tab

Step 6. Select create LTI content links from the drop down menu

Step 7. Search or browse through the content links available. You can click through to view the learning content as it will appear to your students. Once you have selected the content you want to add to your Blackboard site copy the associated LTI content link.

 

Add the Skills for Study section or test to your Blackboard site

Step 8. In the Blackboard content area where you would like to add the learning content from the Build Content menu select External Link.

Step 9. Fill in the fields:

  • Provide a clear name for the link.

  • Paste in the LTI link you have copied. 

  • Tick the box for a ‘this is a link to a Tool Provider’.

 

Step 10. If the content you are adding is a test

  • Set Enable Assessment to Yes. 

  • Enter Points Possible for the task.

  • Choose whether to make it visible to students

  • Add a due date and time if desired

  • Add a description if you wish eg instructions

  • Add an attachment if you wish

  • Choose whether to permit users to view content

  • Choose whether to track number of views

  • Set date and time restrictions if desired

Step 11. Press Submit.

 

View the progress and grades of an individual student or download a report of a selected group of students

Step 1. Login to Skills for Study and click on the Admin tab

Step 2. Use the Admin options dropdown menu to select View student grades and progress

Step 3. This displays a long list of students. Use the filter by instructor or filter by group drop down to select an instructor or module. Click apply to apply the filter and refine the search results.

Step4. You can view the progress or gradebook of an individual student by clicking the view progress button or view gradebook button next to their name.

Alternatively you can click download report and then click here to download to view data for all the students captured by the filter. This will download as an Excel file. For each student you will be able to see:

  • the grade attained
  • whether an attempt has been made or not
  • the completion percentage if the attempt is in progress

 

Further Support

Further support for this tool is provided by The Skills Centre which offers inclusive academic skills development to all students at Sheffield Hallam. To discuss how using Skills for Study could enhance your student’s academic skills contact skillscentre@shu.ac.uk

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