Setup Grade Book

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Overview

The My Grades tool allows students to see their own grades online without seeing the grades of other students. As the instructor of the course, you will access the Grade Book under the Teach Tab to assign and view the grades of your students.

The Grade Book is divided into tabs. These tabs present different groupings of Grade Book columns, to give you different views of member information:
  • Grades tab: displays all default columns and the grade-related columns that you create
  • Members tab: displays some default columns and the non-grade-related columns that you create
  • View All tab: displays all columns.
  • Custom View tab: displays all columns and lets you hide columns to create your own grouping of columns
  • SCORM Grades tab: displays some default columns and the columns for gradable SCORM modules

You have the option of using this tool as a standalone or using it in conjunction with an Excel spreadsheet. The tool offers the added advantages of automatically recording assessment and assignment grades, and also allows you to use simple formulas similar to those found in Excel. You may also export or import the grades of your students to and from a Microsoft Excel document, allowing for greater control with managing your students' grades. For more information on this, see Transfer Grades to/from a Spreadsheet.

 Please Note:

  • First, add the My Grades tool following the Adding a New Tool tutorial. This will be how your students access their grades.
  • Students may view their own grades, but not the grades of other students.
  • Column settings must be set to Gradable and Released before students can see their grades in their Grade Book.
  • Students see their Grade Book columns ordered in the same view as the View All tab column order.
  • The Grade Book is NOT directly tied to Vandal Web. Grades must be manually transferred from Blackboard to Vandal Web at the end of the semester.
  • WARNING: Avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; ) in filenames and titles.

Access the Grade Book

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The Grade Book will show a roster of all of the individuals who have access to your course.

  • Under the Teach Tab, click on Grade Book
  • Select the View All tab to display both gradable and non-gradable columns
    Note: Your Students will only be able to see gradable columns through their My Grades tool.
  • If you don't see all your students listed, use the Page Chooser at the bottom of the grade book
    • Select the number of students you want to view
    • Press the Go button

  • Alternatively, you may use Next Page and Previous Page icons located next to the Page Chooser icon to navigate through the list of students. Permanently increase the number of students displayed per page with the Grade Book tool's Page Preference Page Preference icon—also located at the bottom of the window. (The Grade Book tool uses a separate paging preference setting and does not use the global Bb's Paging Preference setting defined in Bb's My Settings.)

Create, Delete, and Manage Columns

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  • Under the Teach Tab, click on Grade Book.
  • Click on Grade Book Options and select Column Settings.

Create Columns

Grade Book columns are automatically added for Blackboard generated assessments and assignments. To add other types of Grade Book columns:

  • Click on the Create Column button.
  • Select the type of column (Alphanumeric, Calculated, Letter grade, Numeric, Selection list, Text, Grading Form). Choose Numeric for all columns that will be used in a calculated formula.


 

  • Enter a Column Label.
    WARNING: Avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; ) in filenames and titles.
  • Fill in a Maximum value.
  • Check the box for Grade-related column.
  • Check the box for Released to Student.
  • Click Save.

Delete Columns

Warning: You cannot retrieve a column of grades once it has been deleted.

  • Select the Check Box at the top of the column that you want to delete.
  • Click the Delete button.

NOTE: If you are not able to delete a column, it's probably because it is tied to an existing assessments, assignment, or discussion. You must first delete the activity, and then delete the column in the grade book.
 

Manage Columns

Manage the Grade Book settings for a column by clicking on the hyperlink of the item you wish to change. Enter the change and click Save. Alternatively, click the check box above a column and select one of the actions at the bottom of the screen to make a change. Advantages to this are that changes to multiple columns can be made all at once by clicking the check box over each column.

  • Label: Keep column titles fairly short and avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; )
  • Type: Alphanumeric, Calculated, Letter grade, Numeric, Selection list, Text, Grading Form
  • Alignment:  Left, Center, Right
  • Released to Students: Yes, No
  • Grade Column:  Yes, No (Note: Students do no see Non-Grade Columns)
  • Decimals: Number of decimals displayed
  • Maximum value: Students score will be displayed "Out of #"
     
Note: Showing/Hiding columns in the instructor view, as well as Column Order, are managed through the Reorder Columns button on the main page of the Grade Book.

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Still have a Question? Click Help in the top right corner of your Blackboard course.