Grading Tips in Blackboard Ultra

When to Use?

 The following tips will assist faculty with using the gradebook in Blackboard Ultra more efficiently. Follow up with your eLearning Liaison if you have more questions.

Procedure

Posting Grades

When you create an assignment there is a settings option that allows you to “Post assessment grades automatically.” When you click this option Blackboard will automatically post a student’s grade when the assessment is graded. The feature covers automatically and manually graded assignments, and tests with auto-graded question types. Keep the setting turned off, this is the default, if you want to manually control grade publication.

Post assessment grades automatically option in the grades setting for the assessment.

 

In the Gradebook. you also have the option of posting all grades at once. In the list view navigate to the assignment and click the “Post grades” button and then select “Post All Grades.”

Post grades button in the list view of the gradebook.

 

In the grid view click on the assignment column’s header and select “Post” from the dropdown menu and then select “Post All Grades.”

Post option in the column of the grid view of the gradebook.

 

Overriding Grades

There are several ways to override a student’s grade. If the following method does not work for your grading workflow then we can look for an alternative method. You can perform this task directly in the Gradebook by navigating to the assignment column and selecting the student’s grading cell.

Grade cell in the gradebook showing a score for an assignment. Clicking on the score opens the View and Post options.

 

There you can change the student’s current grade/score by entering a new value and clicking “Post” or pressing the Enter key.

Changed grade in a student's grade cell showing it has been posted.

 

If you then open the student’s submission for review you will see the option to “Undo” the override.

Undo override option for student assessment submission.

 

Submission Outside of Blackboard

If you add a “Due Date” to an assignment’s setting and then manually grade all of the submissions after the due date has passed the Gradebook will automatically display the “Not submitted (late)” notification for each student.

Not submitted notation for a student when the assessment is graded after the due date.

 

In order to remove the notification, you must click on the student’s name and then enter a submission date/time that is prior to the due date.

Submission date for an assignment. Remove the date to remove the submission notification.

 

The student’s attempt will then be updated and the late notification will be removed.

Same student as shown above, but with the submission notification removed.

 

Rearranging the Gradebook

You can arrange the Gradebook in your Ultra course at any time. You have the ability to change the order of items, move items to match the order on the Course Content page or the order you want students to complete the work. In the gradebook list view, press the Move icon in the row of the item you want to move.

Move arrows for a column in the gradebook.

 

Drag the item to the new location and release. The order you choose also appears in the grid view and on students' Grades pages.

List view of the gradebook showing the moved column.

You can also easily add calculations to your course gradebook. A calculation is a formula that produces a numerical result used to view or assign grades, usually based on other graded items. You can create your own formulas and use common arithmetic operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and use group operators (parentheses). The weighted column can be hidden from student view until you’re ready to display it.

Calculate Grades - Ultra Course View

Impact of Zeros in the Gradebook

The TOTAL operation in Blackboard Learn Ultra effectively calculates a running total. This means that grade columns that haven’t been attempted yet are ignored when calculating the total or overall grade for the course. As a result, an instructor should turn off the “Automatic Zeroes” operation to ensure that zeroes are not added to a grading cell if they want to exempt a student from a particular assignment.

A. Open the Gradebook.

B. Click on  the Settings icon.

Gear icon for adjusting settings

 

C. Uncheck the “Automatic Zeroes” option.

Option to assign automatic zeros for past due work.

 

D. In the pop-up window choose the appropriate option that you want, and then select “Confirm.”

Popup window showing the options when not assigning automatic zeros (keep or clear automatic zeros)

Was this helpful?
0 reviews

Details

Article ID: 10113
Created
Fri 9/23/22 2:22 PM
Modified
Wed 5/31/23 2:32 PM

Related Services / Offerings (1)

Ask a question about how to do specific tasks in Blackboard or it's many integrations and tools.