Heidi Olson

If you are using the assignment feature in Blackboard where student’s submit their assignments to you using the assignment link:

>>View/Complete Assignment: Assignment Title

You may find that the bulk download option is very helpful when managing student files. This process gives you the opportunity to download multiple assignments from multiple students at the same time. The process creates one folder on your computer and helps keeps you organized.

To use this feature, go to the Gradebook (through the Control Panel) and click on the assignment column heading.

Now click on the Item Download link

Make your selection of the assignment you wish to download. If there is no box to check by a student’s name then this tells you that they have not yet completed the assignment. When you make your selection Blackboard creates a compressed (zipped) file made up of all the assignment files plus a separate text file for their comments. If your assignment requires more than 1 file – all files that were attached to that assignment will be included in the download.

After you’ve made your selection and click OK you’ll be given a link to either click on or right-click on to get the compressed file. Save it (or open it) to our desktop so you can begin to review the assignment files.

The folder will contain the files that were attached to the assignment and a file that holds the student’s comments.

The great thing about the bulk download feature if that you can come back to it multiple times to download students files.

When a quiz or survey is set up for a single attempt for student completion, you may find that certain circumstances occur that will require you to reset the assessment so that students can complete it.

Once a student clicks to enter the quiz if they click out of it, click submit, the power goes out, they close their browser, etc. then if they try to go back in to complete the assessment they will be “locked” out.

At this point they might contact you to ask what to do to complete their assignment or you might noticed a “lock” in the gradebook.

To reset the quiz so that student’s can continue, click on the lock. You will get the Modify Grade page where you can see that no points have been assigned. Click on the View button.

Here you see the student’s attempt to take the quiz or survey. Quickly scroll down through the quiz to see if they happened to answer any of the questions before their problem occurred that closed their quiz attempt. The best place to look is under the Given Answer.

If you see no answers then click on the Clear Attempt button to clear out the quiz and reset the student’s ability to retake the quiz.

If you see that students have answered some of the questions then you’ll have to make a judgement call on if you want the student to retake the entire quiz or just the parts that they did not get a chance to answer. At this point you’ll have to manual give points to the remaining questions.

Some Instructors find that weighting grades in blackboard is too complicated and prone to miscalculations and errors. I think the current version of Blackboard (6.3) has addressed some of these calculation errors but it can still be quirky. If you do choose to use the Weighted Grades, just remember that once you begin to use the weighting features it is hard to go back so please begin with caution.

If you choose not to weight grades then you do have some options that can help you to manage the calculations for final grades. Here are some suggestions:

1. If you choose not to weight grades then remove the Weight Total column from the student’s view:
   • go to the Gradebook through the Control Panel
   • click on Weighted Total
   • click on Item Information
   • click on No to Make item Available to Users
   • click Submit, click OK, click OK

When you go back to the gradebook you will see that the Weight Total heading has an “*” by the name – this means that the item is no longer in the student view.

2. Change the way the Total Column calculates grades. As a default the Total column keeps track of the points students have earned on their assignments. There are some modifications you can make on this column to better serve your purpose.
   • go to the Gradebook through the Control Panel
   • click on Total
   • click on Item Information – here you have some options.
     • If you click on the YES by Exempt items that have not been graded option the Total will change to Running Total. This will show how many points to date the student has completed. Just be aware that if a student chooses not to complete an assignment then a ZERO should be entered as their grade to keep the running total accurate.
     • You can also determine how the Total (or Running Total) calculation will be displayed: as a score of points, as a percentage, as a letter grade, etc.
3. If you choose to have the Running Total display as a percentage but do not use the standard 90–100=A, 80–89=B, 70–79=C, etc. then you can change the assignments. Do this by going to Gradebook Settings, Manager Display Options, and click on the Modify button by Letter. This matrix gives you the opportunity to customize your percentages and letter grades. Keep in mind that this modification will affect all letter grades (where you have elected to show the score as a letter grade) including self-assessments and final grades.
4. You can also create alternative letter grades for example an “Honor” could be 90-100%, an “Satisfactory” could be 70-90% and a “Needs Improvement” could be 0-70%. Do this by clicking on the Add Display Option in the Manage Display Options page. Insert and remove calculations as needed. To be honest, I’m not sure of anyone who has modified letter grades so I would suggest trying it out in a test course first before implementing it in an active class.

If anyone is interested in trying these last two option I’d like to participate in the planning.

Entering Grades in Blackboard can be a tedious task especially if you have a large enrollment. Here are some tips that might make this task easier. You access the gradebook through the Contol Panel of your course.

Single graded item: From the gradebook, look for the item you are grading. You might see a variety of symbols like two dashes ( –) or an exclamation point (!). Click on the symbol and enter the point value of that item. If the assignment was a test or survey, or was created using the assignment feature you will see a VIEW button in the last column on the right. You can click on the view button to review the submitted test or assignment.

Multiple assignments submitted by a specific student: you can enter grades for several assignments for an individual student quickly by selecting their name. From the gradebook click on the Student’s Name then on User Grade List. You’ll see a list of all the assignments listed in the gradebook. Enter the grades for the assignments you are grading.

Multiple students submitted for a specific lesson: You may have your students on a specific schedule with weekly deadlines for assignments. Enter the assignment grade for multiple students using one gradebook view. When you are in the gradebook click on the specific assignment and then on Item Grade List. You will get a list of all the students and can enter grades for that specific assignment.

If you use the assignment feature in your homework assignments, you can use the bulk download assignments function to download multiple files for a specific lessons. To do this from the gradebook click on the assignment then select Item Download. You then have a choice of selecting all files, checking only the ungraded items or just specific students file.

Do you have a tip that might help others use the Blackboard Gradebook? Please share with your colleagues by making a comment.