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Blackboard allows instructors to import and export grades from Blackboard
so that a course grade book can be maintained external to Blackboard using
Microsoft Excel or some other spreadsheet program. The Grade Book
spreadsheet must be formatted in a specific way to work with Blackboard.
Blackboard compatible spreadsheet format:
- Row 1 must contain a valid title for each column
- Rows 2 and beyond must contain student data
- The Blackboard UserID field is critical and must be included
for each student
The easiest way to setup your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet initially is to
download the student data from
Blackboard
and import the student data into Excel.
This will setup the Excel spreadsheet correctly with column titles in row 1
and student names and UserIDs in rows 2 and beyond. Once the grade book
spreadsheet has been setup, you may add columns and perform calculations as
needed as long as you maintain row 1 as the title row and maintain the
student UserID column.
When you are ready to distribute the course grades in your excel
spreadsheet to your students via Blackboard, simply
export the student data from excel and
import the student data into Blackboard.
In order for a new column to be viewable in each Student's Grade Book, it
must be set as follows:
-
Gradable
-
Released
-
Numeric—if
it is to be used in calculations
WARNING: Avoid using
special characters (
@ # % & ; )
in filenames and titles.
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- Login to your
Blackboard course.
- Under the Teach Tab, click on Grade Book.
- Click on Export to Spreadsheet.
- Make sure the following settings are set, then click Export.
- Members to Export: All Members
- Export Format: Tab-Delimited
- Save the file to a location on your hard
drive where you can find it.
-
Win XP Note: If you have
Service Pack 2 installed, the download may initially
give a
warning at the top of the browser. It is safe
to allow the download.
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- Open Microsoft Excel.
- Select File > Open.
- Change Files of Type to All Files (*.*), and
navigate to your saved grade book.
- The Text Import Wizard will open.
- Step 1 of 3, press Next.
- In Step 3 of 3, select the Student ID
column
- Set the Column data format to Text
- Then press Finish
- Add new columns, each with a title in the first
row, as needed.
WARNING: Avoid using
special characters (
@ # % & ; )
in filenames and titles.
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NOTE: The Blackboard Grade Book
is case-sensitive. This means that if the username is
listed in lower case letters, you must import it with lower case
letters.
Before importing the student data into Blackboard,
create new placeholder columns for each column in the Excel
spreadsheet that does not yet exist in the Blackboard Grade Book.
When a new column is created through Blackboard, it is setup
automatically as Gradeable, Released, and Numeric.
However, if a placeholder column does not exist, new columns will be
created by the import process which automatically sets up columns as
Ungradable, Not Released, and Text—forcing you to
change these settings before students can
see their grades.
- Under the Teach Tab, click on Grade Book.
- Click on Create Column and select the type of
column. Choose
Numeric for all columns that will be used in a
formula (for example, if the column is used in the formula for a
calculated or letter grade column).
- Fill in a Column Label.
WARNING: Avoid using
special characters (
@ # % & ; )
in filenames and titles.
- Fill in the Maximum Value.
- Be sure the Grade-related column and the Released
to Student boxes are checked.
- Click Save.
- Repeat these steps for each new column before continuing.
Import
- Click on Import from Spreadsheet.
- And Browse… to locate that TXT file on your
hard drive
(1)
- Set Separator as Tab
(2)
- Press the Upload button
(3)
- Match the fields under the Import Column (from the
Excel Spreadsheet) to fields under the Grade Book Column
(newly created placeholder columns). You also have the option to
create a new column or ignore a column from the imported file.
- Press the Import button
- If you created Gradable and Released
placeholder columns in the setup above, then you're
done. Otherwise continue with the process of releasing the
grades to your students.
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Note for Excel Users: New
columns created by Blackboard's import process are automatically setup as
Ungradable, Not Released, and Text. These settings must be
changed to Gradeable and Released before students can see
their grades.
Note: Students may view
their own grades, but not
the grades of other students.
It is important to change the type of column to
Numeric if it will be used in a calculation formula.
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- Add the My Grades tool following the
Adding a New Tool
tutorial if you haven't already. This will be how your students access
their grades.
- Under the Teach Tab, click on Grade Book.
- Click on Grade Book Options and select Column Settings.
- Check the Check Box at the top of each column you wish
to change. (1)
- Click on Release to change the Released to Student
setting to Yes. (2)
- Click on the Grade drop down, select Yes,
and press the Go green arrow icon.
(3)
- If you need to use your column in a calculation you may click the
hyperlink on a column's current type (e.g. Text) to
change it to Numeric. Set the Convert Column Type
Value to
Numeric. Press Save.
(4)
- To return to the Grade Book, click on the
Grade Book breadcrumb available at the top of the screen.
(5)
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