Organizing the Gradebook
| Excerpt |
|---|
In addition to delivering feedback on individual assignments, Gradebook features including Calculations, Categories, Calculations, and and Grade Schemas can be used to communicate course expectations and track student progress activity at the level of assignment categories or course units/modules, to build a more detailed and informative picture of students' competencies, progress, and areas for improvement. |
Adding and Arranging Items in the Gradebook
All graded items created in Blackboard (including assignments, tests, and discussions and journals if they are graded) automatically generate a corresponding column in the gradebook. By default, gradebook columns are ordered by creation date , with newer columns appearing at the end of the gradebook, on the right-hand side in grid view, or the bottom in list view. Instructors can use the gradebook filter and search tools to locate specific grade columns, but students do not have these tools, so arranging the full column list in a meaningful way is an important part of making the gradebook more useful for students.
To reorder columns, put the gradebook into list view and then click and drag the up/down arrow icon on the right side of the list to move an item to a new position. The new order will be saved and applied in grid view as well.
To add a new item directly in the gradebook, such as a manual entry or calculated column, hover the cursor on the line between existing items columns where you want the new column item to go. A purple 
icon will appear; click it to create a new gradebook item in that location. NOTE Note: this method will not create a corresponding assignment submission area for students, and is only intended for creating independent columns that the instructor fills in directly.
Thoughtful organization of
of gradebook columns, together with use of calculations and grading schemas to display additional information, can help improve the quality and accessibility of grading feedback and give both instructors and students a clearer picture of overall class progress and any individuals or items that need closer attention.
Refer to the relevant Answers pages for more detailed instructions on how to create and manage calculations, grade categories, and grade schemas for recording and displaying grades.
Also see the page on the Overall Grade column for relevant information about applying grade weights and other special grading rules.
Sample Course
The examples below show different ways to organize the Blackboard gradebook. Each example gradebook is based on an identical course with the following curriculum:
- 4 course modules each containing the following assessments (200 points per module):
- 2 discussions (30 points each)
- 1 paper assignment (50 points)
- 1 unit test (75 points)
- 1 dance-off (15 points)
- 1 final paper (100 points)
- 1 final exam (100 points)
The value all assessments totals 1,000 points, grouped into the following grade categories:
- Tests (4 unit tests and 1 final exam) - 400 points / 40%
- Papers (4 module papers and 1 final paper) - 300 points / 30%
- Discussions (8 discussions) - 240 points / 24%
- Dance-Offs (4 dance-offs) - 60 points / 6%
| Panel | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||
Idea 1: Organizing byAssignmentGrade CategoriesOne common way to organize a the gradebook is to sort items by grade category. This example has columns grouped by category (i.e. tests, papers, etc), and also uses calculations to display the running grade average for each category.
|
| Panel | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||
Idea 2: Organizing by CourseUnitsUnit/ModulesModuleTlumn is by cate, e.g. teIn some cases, it may be more valuable to base student grade calculations and feedback on course units or content modules rather than byby typypes s of couf coursseworkwork. Gradebook columns can be arranged by module
|