Grade Schemas - Additional Uses


This page contains ideas for other uses of the Grade Schema beyond a typical letter grade scale.



Please note that the following sections discuss "adding a new grade schema" and "applying grade schemas."

If you do not know how to complete these actions within your course, please see "Adding a New Grade Schema" and/or "Applying a Grade Schema" on the "Grade Schemas" Answers page.


Complete/Incomplete

Blackboard Ultra contains a system option for "Complete/Incomplete" built into each Assignment's grade settings. To access this option:

  1. Open the "Assignment Settings" for the assignment you wish to apply the Complete/Incomplete schema
  2. Scroll down to the Grading & Submissions section of the settings
  3. Click on the drop down menu under "Grade using" and select "Complete/Incomplete"


Important things to note about the "Complete/Incomplete" schema:

  • You will still need to assign a maximum amount of points for the assignment.
  • The assignment will show as Green check mark pill in the Gradebook once the assignment has been graded, regardless of how many points the student received (even if they received 0 points).
  • If the assignment has been submitted but has not yet been graded or if the assignment is not submitted by the due date, a Grey pill box will appear in the gradebook for that graded item.


Yes. The points from a Complete/Incomplete assignment will still factor into the Overall Grade. The "Complete/Incomplete" schema option is more about preference for how you would like graded/ungraded/unsubmitted work to appear in the Gradebook.


An Instructor may prefer the appearance of a Complete/Incomplete assignment within the gradebook as a visual aid for their students to quickly see which assignments have received a grade/feedback and which assignments need attention.

Alternatively, this scheme may be used for something that is graded but that grade is only meaningful as a component of another grade - i.e. a required rough draft submission X weeks ahead of the final draft deadline. 


Pass/Fail

There are times when an Instructor may want an assignment (or Overall Grade) to be deemed "Pass/Fail." 


In order to apply a "Pass/Fail" schema, you will need to start by adding a new schema to your course. 

When creating the schema:

  • Edit the Grade Names to be titled "Pass" and "Fail
  • Create the Grade Range % to "60%-100%" and "0% to 60%" respectively


Apply the Pass/Fail schema to the graded item of your choice.

Once the Pass/Fail schema has been applied to the graded item or "Overall Grade," you will see a green "Pass" pill or a red "Fail" pill displayed in the gradebook to indicate each student's standing for that assignment. 



Participation

There may be times when an Instructor wants to incorporate a grade for the level of participation a student shows in class. For this type of grading, the use of a custom grade schema is helpful.


For this Participation grading example, there will be three categories of Participation level:

High: 80-100%

Moderate: 60-80%

Low: 0-60%


When creating the schema:

  • Add a third row to the table
  • Edit the Grade Names to be titled "High," "Moderate," and "Low"
  • Create the Grade Range % as shown above to correspond to the Grade Names


Please note that when you go to apply the "Participation" schema to an assignment, it is important to check "Collect submissions offline" within the Assignment Settings. This will ensure that students in the course are not required to submit any material for the assignment. 




Additionally, you will need to set a Maximum number of points for the assignment, even when using the Participation schema. For the High/Moderate/Low schema that was created, assigning three points will easily translate the participation grade to the three levels of participation:

3/3 = HIgh

2/3 = Moderate

1/3 = Low



One the schema has been applied to the Participation assignment, grades will now appear within the Gradebook as "High," "Moderate," or "Low" participation when grade points are entered for each student.