Blackboard Administrator - Next Steps

The Waypoint 2 Building Block has been installed on your Blackboard server - now what?

It all depends on your role at the institution and what your responsibilities will be.  In Blackboard you would commonly find three different types of main users; Students, Instructors (or Faculty), and Administrators.  In Waypoint, these roles (Students, Instructors, and Administrators) are loosely related to their Blackboard counterparts.  Instead, roles in Waypoint determine which tasks (software features) are available to which users.

• Please review the different types of tasks user roles can be associated with.

As a Waypoint administrator you have the ability to modify user roles for all users.  By default Waypoint Instructors are able to assess student work because their role has the Perform Evaluations task associated with it.  If all Instructors need access to creating rubrics, which is not a default setting, then as Waypoint administrator you will have to add the Design Rubrics task to the Instructor role.  Another option would be to create a new role containing the Design Rubrics task - Rubric Designer for example - for those users who will create the rubrics.

An individual account can contain multiple user roles.  This is helpful for distributing specific tasks to the appropriate users.

To manage user roles, log into Waypoint with your administrator account and navigate to the Admin tab > Roles page.

♦    After you've determined the tasks for users, a good next step is to begin building content.  This includes rubrics and competencies (if available). 

Depending on how your institution approaches the scenario found above, the work flow to follow may be slightly different:

→ If you plan to use assessors who are not Instructors or enrolled in a Blackboard course, then you will have to manually create their account to access Waypoint.

• Log into Waypoint as the administrator
• Click on the Admin tab
• Under the Users list, click on Add...
• Fill in the basic information; First Name, Last Name, Username, and Email
• The Remote Id is not required if this user is logging into Waypoint directly.  Otherwise, the Remote Id is automatically generated for each Waypoint account after the user has clicked over into Waypoint from Blackboard (during the single sign-on process).  If the user will eventually come over into Waypoint from Blackboard - do not create their account manually!
• Select the role which contains the Design Rubrics task
• Click on Save

Now have the user go to the Waypoint URL we provided to you (https://wp00.waypointoutcomes.com for example) and click on Log On in the top right.  Next have them click on the Forgot password? link and enter their username.  After clicking the Submit button, they will receive a link in their email to create the account's password and log into Waypoint.  Once in Waypoint, they can begin creating rubrics under the Design tab.

• Detailed instructions for creating rubrics can be found here.

→ If you plan to use Instructors enrolled in Blackboard courses, then they should access Waypoint by clicking on the Manage Waypoint Rubrics link found under Course Tools in the course Control Panel.  Once in Waypoint, they can begin creating rubrics.  Please note that the user will have to have a role that contains the Design Rubrics task in order to create rubrics in Waypoint 2.  As stated above the Instructor Waypoint 2 role, by default, does not enable rubric creation.  You will need to update the Instructor role to include this task or create a separate custom role entirely.

• Detailed instructions for creating rubrics can be found here.

♦    After rubrics have been published in Waypoint they can be connected to Assignments found in the Blackboard course by creating a Waypoint Assignment.

Again, depending on how your institution approaches the scenarios found above, the work flow to follow may be slightly different:

→ If non-assessors created the rubrics, then they will not have the ability to create a Waypoint Assignment in Blackboard unless they are enrolled in the Blackboard course as well.  Instead, they will have to share the folder containing the rubric(s) to the course's Instructor.  Both the individual sharing the folder and the Assessor receiving the rubric folder need an account in Waypoint 2.

• Log into Waypoint
• Click on Rubrics
• Locate the folder that contains the rubric(s) you want to share
• To the right of the folder, hover over Actions
• Select Share
• In the pop-up window, locate the Instructor's name on the left and click on the right-facing arrow to add their name to the right
• You may add multiple users to a shared folder
• Click Update Members

Now, the folder and the rubrics it contains are available for the Instructor(s) in Blackboard.  If the Instructor's name was not found in the list of names thent it may because their Waypoint account was not yet created.  Have them log into their Blackboard course and click on the Manage Waypoint Rubrics link found under Course Tools in the course Control Panel.  This will create their Waypoint account and then the steps above can be completed.

→ If Instructors created the rubrics or have had rubrics shared with them, then they will be able to create the Waypoint Assignment in their Blackboard course.

• Detailed instructions for creating a Waypoint Assignment in Blackboard can be found here.

♦    Once users have been entered into the Waypoint system AND content (rubrics) has been created, Instructors may begin student assessment once rubrics are in place and connected to Assignments in Blackboard.

• Detailed instructions for submitting student work can be found here.
• Detailed instructions for assessing student work can be found here.
• Detailed instructions for returning student work to Blackboard can be found here.

If you have any problems, please submit a Help Ticket.