Grade Schemas

Grade schemas control how grades are displayed to students in the gradebook. This page shows how to create and edit schemas in the gradebook settings. 

Accessing Grade Schema Settings

In your Blackboard course, open the Gradebook tab in the course navigation menu.

Find and click the gear icon in the upper right to access the Gradebook settings. 

The first section of the Gradebook Settings is Grade Schemas. Click "Manage Grade Schemas" to open the settings.

Image showing the location of the link to Manage Grade Schema Settings

Adding a New Grade Schema

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 different grade schema, follow the instructions below. 

Steps:

  1. Click the "(plus) Add" button located in the upper left.
  2. When the pop up menu appears, type your preferred title.
  3. Click "Add"  to save and create a table for the new grade schema. 


GIF showing the process to add a new grade schema table

Editing a Grade Schema

Once you have created a new grade schema template, 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  with the Grade name "A" and "F" and the 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. 

GIF displaying the process of adding three rows to the grade schema table

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

When all edits are made, click the black "Save" button in the lower right hand corner. 

Applying Grade Schema to Gradable Items

Once a grade schema is created in the gradebook settings, it is available to be used and applied to any gradable items in the gradebook. To apply a 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 in the upper right of the screen across from "Assignment Settings."
  3. When the panel menu appears on the right side of your screen, scroll down to the "Grading and Submissions" section.
  4. Under the "Grade using" option, click the drop down menu (defaulted to say "Points").
  5. Choose the grade schema that you would like to apply to the assignment.
  6. Click the black "Save" button in the right hand corner. 

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: