The Grade Center
Manually adding columns and grades to Grade Center
How do students view their grades in Blackboard?
Downloading and backing up a Blackboard Grade Center
Weighting grades in the Grade Center
Including extra credit in Grade Center calculations.
Submitting final grades to the Registrar
Performance Dashboard
Manually adding columns and grades to Grade Center
When an instructor deploys a test or adds an assignment using the Assignment feature in the course site these are automatically added as items in Grade Center. If you added a test, depending on the type of questions (barring short answer and essay) and whether or not the tests require instructor feedback, Blackboard will automatically grade the test and enter a score for each student who has taken the test. For items that are not included as part of the Blackboard course site tool set, such as Attendance or other items that will be graded outside of Blackboard, these can be added manually to Grade Center:
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From the Control Panel, click on "Grade Center" under the Evaluation section.
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Click on "Create Column".
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Name the item and use the drop-down menu to select a category.
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Enter the total possible points.
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Select how the grade should be displayed (percentage, letter, score, etc.). Primary display is how students see the score in MyGrades and it also determines how you will enter the grade. If you want the students to view their score as a percentage then when you enter numbers into Grade Center you must enter them as a percentage. Whatever the primary display is, that is how the grades must be entered into Grade Center. The Secondary View is optional and is not seen by anyone but instructors.
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Select the appropriate "yes" or "no" radio buttons under ‘Options'.
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Click "Submit".
How do students view their grades in Blackboard?
Students view their grades through the front end of a course site. In the Navigation Menu a student clicks on Course Tools (Student Dashboard). Among all the available tools, students have access to a link entitled "My Grades". All available items with their respective grades and instructor feedback are located here. It's important that, as the instructor, you don't hide the My Grades tool or disable the link through the "Tool Availability" section.
Downloading and backing up elements in Blackboard Grade Center
Let us be very clear about Grade Center: It is NOT recommended that you use Bb Grade Center as your only tool for recording students' grades. Blackboard is meant to be a communication tool. It is a great way to let the students know how their doing but it is not wise not to have a back-up., regardless of how you record students' grades. We highly recommend a hard copy of the grades. We all know, computers crash, technology stalls, and digital storage can accidently be wiped clean. Now, if you don't take our advice, it is highly recommended... in fact, let's make that a mandatory recommendation, that you back up your electronic Gradebook on a regular basis, (weekly, if not every time you add in student grades) and most definitely at the end of each semester as you close out your course site.
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From the Control Panel click on "Grade Center" under Evaluation
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Click on ‘Download Grades', leave the radial button set to the default delimiter file type of Tab.
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Click ‘Submit'
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On the next screen, click on the ‘Download' button, click Save and select a place on your computer or flashdrive to save the file. Blackboard will format the Gradebook into an Excel spreadsheet which can then be manipulated as needed in its presentation.
Weighting grades in Grade Center.
WARNING: There are inherent problems in the method used for determining weighted grades within the Blackboard Grade Center so instructors are advised to use weighting with caution. As per Blackboard Help - The Adjust Grade Center Weights page lists the points possible for each item [e.g. exam grade] - the weighting formula assumes that each item has the same points possible. If items have different points possible, for example a quiz may have 20 points possible and a test may have 100 points possible, weighting them will not give an accurate measure of student performance.
Grades can be weighted by Item or Category. To weight grades:
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From the Control Panel click on "Grade Center" under Evaluation.
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Click on Create Calculated Clomun and chose "Weight Grades."
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Select either 'Weight by Category' or 'Weight by Item' and apply the appropriate percentages to category or item. N.B. The total weight percentage must equal 100%.
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Click 'Submit'.
Including extra credit in Grade Center calculations.
Extra credit cannot be included if you are using weighted grades. If you are using the Total Score however you can include extra credit: From within the Gradebook, add a new item and name it ‘Extra Credit' or similar. Assign it ‘0' points and select display as ‘Score'. Manually add the extra credit points for each student. Those students who do not earn extra credit or for whom it does not apply will not be penalized.
Submitting final grades to the Registrar.
An instructor can easily submit final grades (at the end of semester) through Blackboard. The final grade submission process electronically dumps grades into Jenzabar, the management system.
To submit final grades through Blackboard:
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From the Control Panel of the selected course, select Submit Final Grades from under Course Tools.
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A student's total points score will be carried over from the gradebook. Using the Final Grade dropdown menu select the correct grade for each student. Instructors may select from A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, D, F, P. All other grades, including I (for incomplete) must be submitted in person to the Registrar, using the grade form.
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An instructor may save the entered grades without submitting them to the Registrar by selcting the Save button. This permits an instructor to come back and submit the grades at a later time.
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When final grades are ready to be submitted, check the check boxes under the Submit Grades column.
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Click on the Submit button. If grades have been submitted successfully a date and time will populate under the Submission Date column and the Submit Grades checkboxes and actual grades will be greyed out.
Instructors cannot resubmit grades electronically through Blackboard. If any changes need to be to a student's grade this must be done in person, with the Registrar.
Performance Dashboard
Performance Dashboard is a great tool that tracks student's participation and work progress. An instructor can view the last time a student accessed the course site; how many times they have used the Discussion Board and what Forums they have participated in; information on items that are defined by Review Status or Adaptive Release. From the Control Panel click on Performance Dashboard under Assessment to review such information on student progress.
