When to Use?
This article will walk you through creating manually graded Gradebook columns. Manually graded columns can be created for assignments that don't require a submission in Blackboard such as class participation, extra credit, and in-class graded assignments. To learn more about tracking attendance, see Attendance Tracking Directly in the Gradebook
Procedure
When you create a gradable item in your course, an entry for it is automatically created in the Gradebook. If you want to add grades for an item that doesn’t require submissions, such as extra credit, you can create a manually graded item. These grade items are also called manual grades, manually created items, or offline items.
You can't add files, rubrics, goals, or groups to manually added items. If you want to add these options to assessments without submissions, consider setting up an Offline Submission Assignment.
Creating a Manually Graded Column
1. An item can be manually added to the Gradebook from either List View or Grid View by selecting the purple plus sign wherever you want to add an item, then select Add Item.
Image: Manually Adding an Item in List View
Image: Manually Adding an Item in Grid View
Image of Add Item in purple plus menu:
2. In the Side Panel that opens, add a title such as Class Participation or Extra Credit, determine visibility preference to students. NOTE: The title has a limit of 255 characters. If you don't add a title, "New Item" and the date appears in the list.
Provide the details, such as a description and a graded unit. You can choose points, percentages, or letters. If you choose points, specify the maximum number of points possible.
NOTE:
- If a specific Due Date is not needed for the activity you are building the column for, highlight the due date, then Delete. It is beneficial to remove a due date from a columns used for such things like Attendance or Participation where nothing specific is turned in and there is no due date. Removing the Due Date in these scenarios will prevent an Automatic Zero from being added to the column you are creating.
- If you are using this column for extra credit, set the points possible to 0. Should a student not opt to take the extra credit opportunity, their grade will not be negatively affected.
Optionally, add the new item to a category to use when you create weighted grade calculations.
Click Save. Now you can click on the newly created column and begin entering students' grades by clicking in the blank fields under Grade. You can also add feedback for each student.
