Blackboard has updated its assignment grading tool to Bb Annotate.  This tool has several features not present in the Box View tool that was formerly used in Scholar's Original View.  These features include:

• Compatibility with touch-screen devices
• Banks of comments that can be re-used across assignments and course shells

• Many more drawing and annotation tools

Remember just like in the previous inline grading tool, students will not see your annotations until you post a grade for the attempt. 

Table of Contents

Accessing Assignments

You can view students' assignments by clicking on the student's name from inside the assignment in the Grading Center. If the student has made multiple attempts on an assignment, a dropdown will appear next to the Enter Grade field allowing you to select the attempt. 

That will bring you to the screen that shows the assignment and allows editing with Bb Annotate

Navigating the Document

You can page through the document by clicking the arrows next to the page number in the toolbar.  You can also enter a page number in the box to go directly to that page.

The hand tool allows you to "grab" and move the text like in Adobe Reader.  Click the hand tool.

Then, click and drag on the document to move it.

You can control how large the paper appears with the Zoom icons.

You can also fit the paper to the page with the fit menu.

Searching for Text

You can search for specific text in the student's paper, not the annotations, by clicking the magnifying glass on the right side of the toolbar.

Annotating Specific Text

The first way that you can interact with the student's assignment submission is to use your mouse to select specific text  When you do that, several options for interacting with the text will pop up.  

These options are, from left to right:

• Highlight: Puts a light-colored (yellow by default) background to the text.
• Strikethrough: Crosses out the text
• Underline: Underlines the text with a plain black line
• Wavy Underline: Underlines the text with a wavy red line
• Comment: Highlights the text in yellow, and pops out a comment box on the right side of the screen.  Type your text in the box and click Reply to save the comment for students

General Annotation Tools

Bb Annotate also provides a number of annotation tools that aren't associated with the text in the paper.  These are located on the right side of the toolbar on the top.

Point Commenting

To leave a comment at a specific place in a student's paper without selecting text, use the Point Comment tool.

Click on the paper where you want to place the comment.  Type in your comment in the box that pops up and click Reply to save the comment for the student to view.

Text Boxes

If you prefer to have your comments appear not as boxes on the side, but directly on the student's paper, you can use text boxes. To do so, click on the textbox tool.

You'll get textbox options.

They are, from left to right:

• Text color
• Background color: The background color of a rectangular box containing the text
• Transparency:  100% is completely opaque, 0% is invisible.  This applies both to the text and the background
• Font
• Font Size
• Horizontal Alignment (left, center or right)
• Vertical Alignment (top, middle or bottom of the text box): This only applies if you resize the textbox later

You can then click anywhere on your document to begin typing with these settings.  The textbox will expand as you type.

Drawing

Bb Annotate also allows you to draw directly on the student's paper.  This works well if you have a touchscreen monitor or graphics tablet.  The drawing tool auto-smooths lines, so if you have very small handwriting, you may have to make it bigger to be legible.

You can access the different drawing tools by clicking on the dropdown next to the pen on the toolbar.

• Drawing is a pen tool.  It is fully opaque and defaults to a relatively small size
• Brush is a highlighter.  It is relatively large and transparent.  Advanced users can apply different effects when the brush is used.
• Eraser will erase portions of annotations that you draw.  The only option that you can modify is the size of the eraser

Select a drawing tool.  Once you do, you'll see a list of options that you can change.

They are, from left to right:

• Pen/Brush color
• Background color: puts a rectangle of the selected color around your entire annotation.  This is rarely useful
• Transparency: 100% means fully opaque on pen, maximum opaqueness on brush, 0% is completely invisible
• Line Size: Controls the width of the line.  This is the only option for eraser mode.
• Effects: This controls advanced effects.

After you draw on the page, a delete icon is added to the far right of the page.  Click it to get rid of your annotation.

Lines and Shapes

You can also draw lines, arrows, or shapes on the document using the Shapes tools.  You can see all of the available tools by clicking the dropdown next to the line/shape tool. 

There are two categories of tool within this one, lines/arrows, and shapes.

Lines/Arrows

The only difference between a line and an arrow is that the arrow starts out with an arrowhead on the end that you drag your mouse to.  When you click on either tool, you'll get the same list of options

They are, from left to right:

• Line color
• Background Color:  This doesn't do anything for lines/arrows
• Transparency:  100% is completely opaque, 0% is invisible
• Line Size
• Line/Arrow Style:
  • The first box controls how the end of the line/arrow where you first click looks
  • The second box controls the style of the line (dotted, wavy, etc.)
  • The third box controls how the end of the line/arrow where you finish dragging your arrow looks.

Then, click and drag on the screen to draw the arrow or line.

Shapes

Shapes function the same way. Select a shape, and you'll get a menu of choices for the shape.

They are, from left to right:

• Line color: The color of the borders of the shape
• Fill color: The color of the inside of the shape
• Transparency: 100% is completely opaque, 0% is invisible
• Line width: The width of the shape border
• Line Style: Whether the border of the shape is a solid, dotted or wavy line.

Click and drag to draw a shape.

Images/Stamps

You can also add images from your computer or pre-made "stamps" to the student's paper.  To add an image, click the image button.

You'll be asked to select an image from your computer.  Once it's posted, you'll have handles to resize it, and the option to make it transparent.

Stamps are pre-made images.  While there is an option to create custom stamps, these are not retained outside of the paper you're annotating, so we don't recommend it.  To use a pre-made stamp, click the dropdown next to the image button and choose Stamp.

Then, you can click one of the stamps to insert it.

Once inserted on the student's paper, it is just a normal image.

Content Library

If you have comments that you frequently use in annotating student papers, you can save these in the Content Library for later use.  Your Content Library comments will be available to you in all of your courses and for all assignments.

To access your Content Library, click the Content Library icon on the top toolbar.

To add a comment to your Content Library, click the plus sign at the top right.

A box will pop up.  Type your comment in the Body field and click Save.

It will then be added to your list of potential comments in the Content Library.  To use the comment click on the three dots next to the comment you want to place and choose "Place Comment".

You can then click anywhere in the document, and a comment will be started with the text from the Content Library.  Edit the comment if you wish, then click Reply to save it.

Currently, the Copy to Clipboard option does not work.

To edit a Content Library item, click the three dots and choose "Edit".

That will bring you to the same box that you used to create the comment.

If you don't need a comment anymore, click the three dots and choose Delete.

You'll be asked to confirm, then the content is gone from ALL of your courses.

If you have a lot of comments in your Content Library, you can search with the box at the top.

Editing and Deleting Annotations

To edit or delete an annotation, click on it.  Different choices are available depending on the type of annotation.

When you click on a comment, you can't edit the text.  You can add to the comment by typing in the box and clicking Reply.

You can also delete the comment by clicking on the trashcan label.

For highlight, strikethrough or underline, you can change the color or transparency using the menu that appears.

You can also click on the trash can at the far right to remove the annotation.

All other annotations give you the same set of options.  When you click on the annotation, you get blue dots that you can drag to resize it, and a Duplicate button to copy it. This may look strange if you've used the pen tool to draw on the page.

You also get the full formatting menu associated with the annotation.  See the section on adding that annotation for more details. One addition to the menu is the trash can at the far right that will allow you to delete the annotation.

Downloading and Printing

To download a copy of the annotated paper, click on the Download icon in the toolbar.

The file will download to your computer as a PDF.

To print the annotated paper, click the Print icon in the toolbar.

After a short delay, your web browser's Print dialog will open to allow you to print the annotated paper.

Navigation Sidebar

There is an optional navigation sidebar that you can turn on with a button on the far left of the toolbar.  There are four options for a sidebar, but only two are useful. 

To view thumbnails of each page of the paper (like Adobe Reader), click on the dropdown for the sidebar and choose Thumbnails.

You'll then see thumbnail images of each page in the document at the left side.

You can see a list of annotations by choosing Annotations from the menu.

You'll then see a list of annotations at the left side.  Click an annotation to be taken to it, or click the trash can icon to delete the annotation.