How to Create Achievements in BlackBoard Learn
- 1. How to Create Achievements in BlackBoard Learn In the left hand navigation panel, scroll down to the Course Tools Section. Click the dropdown chevron and then select Achievements. In the Achievements windows, select the option to ‘Create Achievement’. There are three types of achievements: (1) Course Completion, (2) Milestone, and (3) Custom. Course completion is used primarily to give a certificate of completion at the end of the course. Milestone is the most common achievement and is awarded for anything from completing an assignment, navigating to the correct page in BlackBoard, scoring a certain score on assessments, and more.
- 2. First, name your achievement Next, select an achievement location by selecting the browse option. This will be where the achievement is located within the actual BlackBoard page. Add a short description telling the students what the achievement is for. Go to the next step by selecting ‘Define Triggers’ In this section, you will tell BlackbBoard who can receive the achievement and the requirements for completing the achievement. Leave the membership as default if the achievement is available for everyone. There are two ways a student can obtain an achievement (other than course completion). The first is by Grade. From the ‘Select a Grade Center column’ dropdown, select a test, homework, or different testing parameter. Next you can select if the student only needs to attempt the item (assignment, exam, etc.), score a certain grade or percent, or score a certain range of points or percents.
- 3. Alternatively, you can skip the grade section and choose ‘Review Status’. Browse for an item for the student to review and select it. Go to the next page by clicking on the ‘Select Reward’ icon. In this section you will need to input the issuer’s name, typically yourself or the instructor. You can select an expiration date or valid for date(s) here as well. Next, you will be selecting a badge. You can use one of the six pre-defined badges or upload your own. The caveat here, is that uploaded badges may need to be re-uploaded for any courses that are pulled forward. Save and exit. To help motivate the students, we will want to make it so a list of all the achievements in the course is available for the students to see. Locate the plus sign on the upper left corner in the navigation menu and click on it to display the options on the drop-down menu. From the drop-down menu, select Tool Link.
- 4. Once you click on Tool Link, the system will ask you to choose from many different options. Pick ‘Achievements’ from the Types. Here, you can rename this link if you would like. Once you hit submit, the link will be populated in the Navigation menu and may be reorganized as desired.