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Grade Schemas

Excerpt

Grade schemas control how

an assignment, category, or overall grade is

assessment scores are displayed to students in the gradebook. This page shows how to create and edit schemas, and how to apply them to control how an assessment grade appears in the gradebook.

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Entering Grades

All graded assessments in Blackboard must have a numerical points value defined in the assessment settings. All grades entered into the gradebook are recorded in the format ([student score] / [assessment points value]). Both terms can go up to two decimal places, i.e. (9.25/10.00). By default, students will see grades displayed in this format, but instructors can apply a grade schema to translate the underlying (xx.xx/yy.yy) grade value into another format to reflect their course grading policies.

Default Schemas

The following grade schemas/display options are included in all SU Blackboard courses.

Percentage

This option will display the assessment grade as a percentage – for example a score of (9.25/10) will be displayed as 92.5%.

Complete/Incomplete

This option will display the assessment grade as one of two icons.

A grade will display as Incomplete, denoted by a circle with a horizontal dash in the middle, if it is either (a) blank (i.e. not graded yet) or (b) has an automatic zero because the due date passed with no submission from the student.

A grade will display as Complete, denoted by a circled check mark, for any other score value, including a grade of zero that is entered manually, (9.25/10), (5/10), a negative value, π*, etc.

* (please do not try to enter a grade value of π)

Incomplete and Complete Blackboard grade iconsImage Added

Warning

The Complete/Incomplete grade schema does not mean that an assessment is ungraded, or that it automatically receives full points for submission. The assessment grade is still recorded in the gradebook as a numerical value, and that numerical value, not the C/I status icon, determines how the assessment impacts the student’s overall grade.

To create an ungraded assessment with a C/I grade, you can set the points value to 0 in the assessment settings. A grade of (--/0), indicating that the student has not made a submission and/or the instructor has not posted a grade yet, will display as Incomplete, while a grade of (0/0) will display as Complete. Alternatively, you can simply disconnect the assessment from the overall grade calculation.

To create a graded C/I assessment where Complete is equivalent to “full points,” the assessment must be manually graded, or a manual override grade must be entered for any student who scores below full points on an auto-graded assessment.

SU Letter Grade

The “SU Letter” grade schema is included in all newly-created SU Blackboard courses. This schema represents a fairly standard percentage-to-letter-grade conversion table, but IS NOT an official university grading guide. There is no official university-wide letter grade calculation policy. Generally speaking, the process for determining students' overall final letter grade for a course is up to the individual instructor. If you need guidance on determining final letter grades at the end of term, reach out to your department.

The SU Letter grade schema is provided in all Blackboard courses as a default option for convenience. The schema converts the underlying score of (xx.xx/yy.yy) to a percentage and then to an A-F letter grade as shown in the table to the right.

Instructors can alter the grade ranges of the SU Letter grade schema or create their own custom grade schemas in the gradebook settings

. 

Accessing Grade Schema Settings

In

, as outlined in the next section.

Grade Name

Grade Range %

A

94% – 100%

A-

90% – 93.99%

B+

87% – 89.99%

B

83% – 86.99%

B-

80% – 82.99%

C+

77% – 79.99%

C

73% – 76.99%

C-

70% – 72.99%

D

60% – 69.99%

F

0% – 59.99%

Managing Grade Schemas

To create, edit, or delete grade schemas in your Blackboard course, open the Gradebook tab in the course navigation menu

.Find

, then find and click the gear icon

below "Student Preview"

settings gear iconImage Added in the upper right to access the Gradebook settings. 

Image showing the location of the Settings gear.Image Removed

The first section of the Gradebook Settings is

"

Grade Schemas.

" In this section, find the link that reads

Click "Manage Grade Schemas"

and click

to open the

Grade Schema

Managing Grade Schemas

Adding New Grade Schemas

settings.

Image showing the location of the link to Manage Grade Schema SettingsImage Removed

Manage Grade Schemas in the gradebook settings menuImage Added

By default, Blackboard will have the SU Letter grading schema already created and ready for use within your course.

If you wish to use a difference grade schema, follow the instructions below. 

Steps:

Click

You can edit the SU Letter schema or create a new custom grade schema by following the steps below.

To create a new grade schema, click the "(plus) Add" button located

underneath the "Grade Schemas" title menu of the page.

in the upper left. When the pop up menu appears,

type your preferred title.Click the black "Add" button on the pop up menu to save

enter a title for your new grade schema. Click "Add" to confirm your title and create a table for the new grade schema. 

GIF showing the process to add a new grade schema tableImage Removed

GIF showing the process to add a new grade schema tableImage Added

Editing a Grade Schema

Once you have opened or created

a new

the grade schema template you wish to work on, you can now edit the table to fit your needs.

Let's create an example schema to adhere to the following grading scale:

A = 90%-100%

B = 80%-90%

C = 70%-80%

D = 60%-70%

F = 0%-60%

When you create a new Grade Schema, the table that is created will only have two

rows and the rows are defaulted

rows  with the Grade name "A" and "F" and the

grade

Grade Range % as "50%-100%" and "0%-50%" respectively.

The grading scale example above shows that you need five different rows in the table so you will need to add three rows, hovering the mouse between the two existing rows until the plus sign appears and clicking the plus sign three times to create three new blank rows.

 

GIF displaying the process of adding three rows to the grade schema tableImage Removed
GIF displaying the process of adding three rows to the grade schema tableImage Added

Once the rows are added, type the needed "Grade Name" for each respective row.

In our current example, we will name these rows "B," "C," and "D" (as rows "A" and "F" already exist within the table).

To edit the Grade Range %,

either click the three dots to the right of the row to open the "Edit" option, or

simply click on the percentage number that you want to edit and an editable text box will appear.

Please note that only the lower bound percent of the grade range can be edited.

 You will notice

The upper bounds will automatically adjust to reflect your changes, as shown in the screen grab

below that the upper bound percentages automatically change based on changes that were made in the previous row.

to the right. 

When all edits are made,

be sure to

click the black "Save" button in the lower right hand corner. 

Image Removed
GIF showing the process of editing each grade range value in a grade schema tableImage Added

Applying Grade Schema to

Gradable Items

a Graded Item

Once a grade schemas are schema has been created in the system, they are gradebook settings, it is available to be used and applied to any gradable items that you add to, or that already exist in, the Blackboard course.

Applying schema to new Content items

Select the type of gradable content item you would like to create. (More information on Creating Content and explanations of each Item type can be found here.)

graded items in your course. To apply a grade schema, follow these steps: 

  1. Select the item - this can be done either by opening the item in the Course Content area or clicking on the column header in the gradebook and selecting "Edit"

  2. Click the gear icon

on

  1. in the upper right

side

  1. of the screen across from "Assignment Settings."

  2. When the panel menu appears on the right side of your screen, scroll down to the "Grading and Submissions" section.

  3. Under the "Grade using" option, click the drop down menu (defaulted to say "Points").

  4. Choose the grade schema/display option that you would like to apply to the assignment.

  5. Click the black "Save" button in the lower right hand corner.

Applying schema to existing items

  1. Navigate to the Gradebook tab of your Blackboard course.
  2. Hover over the item that you would like to edit and click.
  3. Select the "Edit" option in the dropdown menu that appears.
  4. Follow the same steps as listed in "Applying schema to new Content items," unless you are editing the Overall Grade. If so, follow the next steps listed below
  5. In the right hand column titled "Overall Grade Settings," locate the dropdown menu under "Select how the overall grade is displayed."
  6. Choose the appropriate grade schema from the dropdown menu.
  7. Click the large blue "X" located in the top left corner of the course to exit and save.

  1.  

Grade schemas can also be applied to calculation columns, including the Overall Grade column. For more information, see the Answers page on the Overall Grade. 

Here is a video walk through of how to apply grade schema to gradable items in your Blackboard course: 

https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/p/2707131/sp/270713100/embedIframeJs/uiconf_id/45992501/partner_id/2707131?iframeembed=true&playerId=kplayer&entry_id=1_grsd1tp3&flashvars%5BstreamerType%5D=auto