Respondus 4.0: Retrieval for ANGEL and Blackboard Learn

Most people think of Respondus 4.0 as a tool for creating an assessment and publishing it to a learning management system. But Respondus 4.0 also has the ability to retrieve (download) assessments so they can be printed, edited, or even published to another course. With certain learning systems, Respondus 4.0 can take it a step further and retrieve the data entered during an assessment by students, or download a set of reports for an assessment.

Retrieval for ANGEL 7.3 and 7.4
Until recently, it hasn’t been possible to retrieve questions or assessments from ANGEL 7.3 or 7.4. That’s because the ANGEL server didn’t have the web services needed for Respondus 4.0 to retrieve the data. That all changed when updates were made to ANGEL 7.3 and 7.4, followed by our own update for Respondus 4.0.

If running ANGEL 7.3, you must have at least the December 2009 update installed. ANGEL 7.4 servers require the February 2010 update. And in both cases, users must be running Respondus 4.0.1.03 or higher to see the new “Retrieve” tab. If Respondus 4.0 is already installed, you can get the update by selecting “Help” from the menu bar and then choosing “Check for Update.”

Retrieving Reports from Blackboard Learn
Respondus 4.0 (and earlier versions) include retrieval functions for Blackboard 6.x – 8.x (including the retrieval of questions, reports and data). But Blackboard Learn 9 required us to overhaul the retrieval task in Respondus 4.0. The latest version makes it possible to retrieve reports, which is a way of obtaining consolidated reports on an assessment for easy viewing offline. You must be running Respondus 4.0.1.03 or higher to get the newest retrieval features for Blackboard Learn 9. If Respondus 4.0 is already installed, download the update by selecting “Help” from the menu bar and then choosing “Check for Update”.

Originally published: March 3, 2010

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