ITL Links • Getting Started With Blackboard • Designing Your Blackboard Site • Adding Users to Blackboard • Adding Content to Blackboard • The Gradebook • Using Quizzes • Online Discussions • Collaboration • Blackboard Tools
The on-line gradebook can be used to manage items and communicate grades to your students. Quizzes and Assignments created on the system are appended automatically to the on-line gradebook, but you can also use this tool to add grades for items administered in class. To begin adding items into your on-line gradebook login to your site and click "Control Panel>Gradebook>Add Item". You will be asked to provide a title for the item, as well as a description. You will also be asked to select a category and provide a "display type".
Category refers to the type of assignment it is - the system will provide a variety of categories for you to select from. If you can't find a category that suits your item you can create your own category by clicking on the button labeled "Gradebook Settings" in the main gradebook view.
Display type refers to how you'd like this item to display. You can control several aspects of the display by using the "Gradebook Setting" button in the main gradebook view. After you have specified all of the settings for this item scroll to the bottom of the form and then click submit.
After you have created an item in your on-line gradebook you will want to login and begin updating students grades. In order to begin entering grades login to the system and click "Control Panel>Gradebook". Now click on the column heading of the item you'd like to begin updating. This will open an intermediary interface:
Click on the link labeled "Item Grade List". This will open up a listing of all of the students in enrolled in your class followed by a text box. You can input a new value into this text box. and then click submit to update the gradebook. If you wish to change/modify grades you would follow these same steps.
**Please note, if you choose to have these grades display as a "letter" when adding the item, or managing the display options any numeric values that you type in will be converted according to the scale set in the "Control Panel>Gradebook>Gradebook Settings>Manage Display Options>Letter" portion of the gradebook.
The Blackboard gradebook provides a variety of different display settings and options. These settings can be controlled via two buttons. Login to your site and click "Control Panel>Gradebook" The buttons used to control the display options are 'Manage Items' and 'Gradebook Settings'.
Manage Items
To re-arrange the way items display in the on-line gradebook you can click on
the button labeled "Manage Items". This will call up an interface where
you can reorder items in the on-line gradebook, as well as modify their availability
and display options. You also have the ability to remove items that you added
into the gradebook via the "Add Item" button. **Please note** You are
not able to immediately remove a quiz, assignment, or survey. If you wish to remove
these types of items you would first have to remove the assignment, quiz, or survey
itself. After doing so you would then have the option to remove the item from
the gradebook. Be careful when removing items from the gradebook, as this could
cause loss of grades.
Gradebook Settings
This button allows you to re-arrange several other display options in the on-line
gradebook. The categories that you can manipulate are Spreadsheet Settings, Gradebook
Categories, and Display Options.
The Spreadsheet Settings link allows you to reorder the way that student accounts appear in the on-line gradebook. You can order these by last name, first name, User ID or Student ID.
The Manage Gradebook Categories link allows you to alter and add categories for the different items you will be adding to the gradebook. For example, if you have a series of scores for peer reviews then you can add a category into the gradebook labeled "Peer Review". Now, when you go in to add those scores to the gradebook you can specify the newly created category type when adding the item.
The Manage Display Options link allows you to alter the way letter grades will display on the system, or add in your own "Display Option" type that you can apply to an item when creating it. In order to manage the display options for the letter grade display type click on the link labeled "Manage Display Options" - in the subsequent screen click on the button labeled "Modify" that will appear next to the letter grade display option.
This will open up an interface where you can begin editing the curve that controls the display of letter grades for "Items" as well as quizzes graded automatically by the system.
The Blackboard gradebook provides two different options for weighting items - weight by category, or weight by item.
To apply a series of weights to your gradebook click on "Control Panel>Gradebook>Weight Grades". Choose a weighting option, and then specify a weighted percentage for the individual categories or items.
The Blackboard gradebook allows you to export and import a snapshot of your on-line gradebook at any time via the "Download Grades" and "Upload Grades" buttons.
The export feature will export the columns, rows, and values of your gradebook into a CSV file that can be easily opened and edited in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. It is strongly recommended that you take exports of your gradebook at regular intervals during the semester.
The import feature allows you to input grades into a CSV file and then re-upload that file into the on-line gradebook. The best way to accomplish this is to first create an "Item" for the column that you wish to update outside of Blackboard by using the "Add Item" button. Once you have created the item take an export of the gradebook and then open that CSV file on your local machine. Edit the new Item column that you just added in your spreadsheet program and save it when you are done. Once you have saved the file log back in to the Blackboard gradebook and click the "Import" button. Browse to the file that you just saved and then re-upload it into the system.
To view the results of a survey click on the column heading for the survey in question and then click the link labeled "Assessment Attempt Details". This will show you the aggregate results for everyone that has take the survey to date. You can tell who has or has not taken the survey in the on-line gradebook by referring to the green check marks in the cells next to user's names. Every green check mark represents a completed survey.
A common cause of this problem is that the item availability has been set incorrectly. Log back in and click "Control Panel>Manage Items". Find the item you just added to the gradebook and click the button labeled "modify". Be sure that the item you added is set to "available".
Yes. Students can only access their own grades in the on-line gradebook.
No. Students can only access their own grades in the on-line gradebook.
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Last Modified: July 8, 2005 - Instructional Technology Lab