Hey, so we're pushing forth Mobile in the coming months. UNFORTUNATELY, we don't have it installed on our test server, so despite having downloaded and reviewed entirely the Faculty Guide to Mobile Tests and the "Best Practices for Mobile-Friendly Courses" documents, I have a few questions.
1. If a faculty member makes a test that has only mobile-friendly question types, is it possible for them to disable mobile test-taking?This is important, because I know some faculty will be extremely hesitant to use this function.
2. From the documentation, I gather that it is best practice to have everything either as a weblink or a file type. IF I created an item, it says that the "content editor" material will not be visible, which includes attachments. Is this all the information put into the text-editor box? In other words, if I created an item, what will be visible, and what will not, specifically?
3. Blank pages are basically an item on its own page. Will these be visible? Can I apply the answer for number 2 to blank pages as well?
Thanks in advance. I really appreciate it. :)
SUNY Cortland's instructional designer
John,
1) Do you mean that the faculty member is creating a "Mobile-Compatible Test", or that they are creating tests that only include the same mobile-friendly question types as those available on the MCT?
My understanding is that the Blackboard Mobile app will only display Mobile Compatible Tests and not regular tsts, but students are not necessarily prevented from taking the normal tests (not MCTs) on a mobile device using a regular web browser rather than the Bb Mobile app (though it may not work very well for them). At least, I could take a regular (non-MCT) test from my SP9 test server on my Android phone using Firefox. It was really, really small, but Blackboard didn't stop me...
2) I'm not seeing anything in the "Best practices" document that indicates that information put in the text editor box will not be visible on the Mobile app. Rather, the only thing I see suggests that for a "rich graphics" sort of content item (one with lots of graphics, presumably), the most mobile-friendly practice would be to create a file rather than try to create a content item with lots of images in it. I have no problem seeing regular content items with one or two images included.
But if you want to know specifically how a particular thing would look on a mobile client, you'll want to install/enable Mobile on your test server. The Mobile building block can be easily configured to identify your server as a test server and not to list it publicly when users are searching for their school. Is there some particular reason you don't want to set it up for testing?
3) I don't see any reason whey blank pages would not be visible.
Mike
Hmm...
My understanding of how MCTs are built is that once they're built, they can be edited with other, non-mct test questions (like essays).
I was led to believe that a faculty member who creates a regular test with only MC questions or other MCT question types could be opened up on BBLMobile. Was I misinformed, or did I read old documentation?
Once they are created, you can open MCTs in the regular test canvas, so it's certainly possible to add question types after the fact that would not normally be allowed in a MCT. However, you can't create a regular test and then deploy it as a MCT, and only tests that are designated as MCTs (via a flag on the deployed link from the content area, I think) are visible in the Bb Mobile application, in my testing.
The whole "Mobile Compatible Test" option is something that's only been added in the most recent versions of the Mobile building block and app, so it's only been available for a few months. What documentation are you looking at?
The documents I was going over are:
Like I said though, it's possible I mixed stuff up while reading, considering I've been working on this, Community, Content Collection, Portfolio documentation for students, and upgrading to SP8 all at the same time.We don't even have the building block for Mobile yet on our test-server, but there's plans to implement it by Fall semester.
Thanks Mike,
John
Ah, I see what you're saying about the documentation, and you may be right about regular tests with only compatible question types being visible using the Mobile app.
I'm afraid I didn't test all possible combinations of question types and MCTs vs. regular tests--I just looked to see if I could see a couple of regular tests in the Mobile app, and looked to see if I could add non-compatible question types to tests that had originally been created as MCTs.
All right. This is going to be a fun semester!