Using Student Preview Mode

Many times in Blackboard Learn, you want to see how your course looks to students.  Blackboard now has a Student Preview Mode that creates a new username for you as a student, and shows you exactly what students see.  This is useful when students say they can't see a test that should be available or they don't know how to access something or they don't understand something in their gradebook.  This mode also creates a new student entry in your Grade Center that you can use to verify your total points, for example. Your view as an instructor is significantly different than their view as a student, so using Student Preview Mode is an important tool.

To access Student Preview Mode, enter your course as an instructor.  At the top right of your screen, you will see an icon composed of two arced arrows and a green dot - it looks sort of like an eye. Click that icon to enter Student Preview Mode:

When you are in Student Preview Mode, you can interact with your course exactly as a student does. You will see exactly what a student does, you can try out your tests and assignments to make sure they work the way you want, and you can see how your course navigation works.  Tne only difference between what you see in Student Preview Mode and what your students see is the orange bar at the top of the screen.

When you are ready to exit Student Preview Mode, click the Exit Preview button in the upper right corner on that orange bar.

The first time you do this, a window will pop-up.

To keep the Student Preview User ID in your gradebook, select the Keep the preview user and all data option.  To avoid this pop-up in the future, check the box at the top.

Keeping the preview user and data adds a student row to your Grade Center.

You can use that row to enter the maximum points for each assignment to verify that your total column works correctly.  You can also use it to make sure you have the right columns visible in your grade book, and that you have not hidden active columns from student or from you.

If you want to delete that user, you can access the Student Preview Settings window at any time by entering Student Preview Mode, then clicking the Settings button to bring up the Student Preview Settings pop-up window, and finally, selecting Delete the preview user and all data.