Grading Overview
Blackboard provides flexible grading eliminates the labor-intensive and button-heavy process that can make grading a time-consuming and draining task for the instructor and instead provides an experience that prioritizes intuition and efficiency, streamlines navigation, eliminates artificial barriers, saving time and effort by allowing instructors to move easily and seamlessly from student to student. Each instructor has a unique approach to grading. Grading aligns with natural workflows and task-oriented navigation that focuses on the submissions and questions waiting for instructors to grade, creating an effective way to grade.
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See Also:
Grading Features:
- Grade by question or student
- Easily move between student attempt
- Sort submitted work in need of grading by submission date, student last name, student first name or by student ID.
- Filter on grading status of choice
- Navigate between students and multiple submission attempts
- Keep track of your grading process
- View both the attempt and the final grade for each assessment
- Provide meaningful feedback with or without a rubric
- Grade inline using Blackboard Annotate
- Collapse side panels to obtain more screen real estate
- Post all grades when ready
Supported Assessment Grading Configurations:
- Individual student test and assignment submissions
- Single and multiple attempts
- Grading with rubrics
- SafeAssign
- Other assessment configurations will continue to route through to the current grading experience.
Grading Options:
Accessing Grading
Grading can be launched from any of the tabs (e.g. Overview, Gradable Items, Grades, Student) in the Gradebook. Each instructor can determine their preferred starting point for grading.
Grading from the Overiew Tab
The Overview tab identifies submitted work in need of grading. Clicking the Grade Now button, launches the Grading interface. Clicking Post Now button, will post grades awarded for students to view.
NOTE: Attempts that have been excluded that the instructor does not intend to grade are not included in the Needs Grading workflow and any Gradebook calculations.
Grading from the Gradable Items Tab
In the Grading Status column on the Gradable Items tab, submitted work in need of grading is indicated. Please also note the ability to mark attendance from this tab. To launch grading, click on the To Grade indicator to open up the Submissions page, or if a Discussion post to grade, the Grades & Participation page.
Grading from the Grades Tab
The Grades of the Gradebook displays Grade Now in the cell where there is submitted work in need of grading. Simply click on Grade Now to insert the score earned. Grades entered via this method are override grades. The option to view the work submitted appears if a submission exists. The View option is disabled if no submission exists, such as for submissions collected offline.
When Grade Now is clicked, the below menu options appear. Instructors can select View to review the work submitted and award a score or Post the score awarded. From the Grades tab, scores can also be entered directly into the appropriate cell to complete grading.
Grading from the Students Tab
From the Student Tab, click on the name of a student to view the work submitted, scores earned thus far on assessments, and to find any submitted work in need of grading. NOTE: This first page view does not provide any indicators that grading is needed. You have to drill further into the student record to determine this. Because of this, launching grading from this tab is less than ideal.
Once a student name is clicked, the student record opens to the Grades tab and displays any work submitted that needs grading in the Status column:
Submissions in need of grading can be accessed from the Gradebook via the Overview, Gradable Items, Grades, or Student tabs. To grade submitted work, click on the title of the assignment you wish to grade, then on a student who has an attempt in need of grading:
Explanation of the Grading by Student Interface
1. Student Side Panel: The Grading Status filter located at the top, by default, displays all grading statuses for students with submitted work for this particular assignment. If the filter is changed to Needs Grading only those students who have work submitted that needs to be graded display. Clicking on a student (e.g. see Marnie Student) opens up the student work in the main screen (see #5). Students with a score awarded for their work already, display that score in the grading pill (see Beth Williams).
2. Header Information: The name of the student highlighted in the left Student Side Panel, displays at the top along with the date/time their work was uploaded into Bb. Center screen is the unique Submission Receipt number for this submission. On the right, the student's final grade, once awarded is displayed. The 3-dot menu to the right of the grading pill allows you to either post the score one awarded or clear the attempt.
3. Grading Panel: Located on the right is the grading and feedback panel. If a rubric has been attached to the assignment, criteria and ratings are shown.
4. Open/Expand Arrows: The arrow located on the left and right side panels, collapses or expands the side panels. When grading, it is optimal to have the student's work displayed prominently on the screen. Collapsing the left and/or right side panels, expands the center of the screen to display students' work.
5. Main Grading Screen: At the top, the Assessment Content area can be expanded using the drop-down arrow to open the assignment instructions provided to students. The black menu ribbon displays the tool selection for Bb Annotate. From this screen, inline grading is completed.
See Bb Annotate: Inline Grading Tool to learn more on using Annotate to grade.
See Grade Using a Rubric to learn more on using a rubric to grade.
Submitted work in need of grading can be sorted by submission date, student last name, student first name or student ID. From the Grading Interface, click the icon with the downward arrow. In the menu that opens, select the sorting option desired. Once selected, student names will be sorted according to the option chosen.
When assessments contain questions, grading can then be completed by the question, saving time by allowing you to focus on the same topic and desired answer for the question being graded. To grade submitted work, click on the title of the assessment you wish to grade, then on a student who has an attempt in need of grading.
While on the Students tab, the system shows the test questions the student highlighted in the left side panel received and the order they received them in. For assessment with randomized questions, each student is presented with questions in a different order. When a different student is selected, the test questions change to show which questions the student received and the order they received them in.
View of Questions Received on a Test for Student 1:
View of Questions Received on a Test for Student 2:
Explanation of the Grading by Question Interface
Clicking on the Question tab presents the Grade by Question Interface.
1). Question Display Side Panel: test questions display in the left side panel. All Grading Statuses is the default display in the Grading Status filter. Questions that have been graded display with a green checkmark.
To locate questions in need of grading, change the filter in Grading Status from the default to “Needs Grading”. Located in the center of the screen are the students who received this question and their answer.
The left side panel can be collapsed using the arrow in the top right corner of the panel, giving maximum screen space to student answers shown in the main grading section.
2. Header Information: The question being answered is provided at the top of the screen. The drop-down arrow to the right can be clicked to expand the question to see it in full.
3. Main Grading Screen: Student answers can be read in the main center screen. A score can be awarded by clicking into the grade pill and typing in the score. Then, proceed onto the next student answer to grade.
4. Multiple Attempts: If multiple attempts are allowed, you can easily switch between attempts by clicking the drop-down arrow under the student name, opening the Attempt Menu, then toggling between attempts.
As grades for the question are awarded, the count within the question card in the left side panel reflects the number of attempts that remain to be graded.
NOTE: There is no side panel located on the right side when grading by question. The score earned on the test question is entered directly on the grading screen with the student's response. If giving feedback is desired, click on the Student Tab, locate the student and add Overall Feedback in the right-side panel:
When a graded activity allows for multiple attempts, the instructor can view all attempts submitted from the drop-down menu in the upper right section of the Grading Interface. Here, the instructor can toggle between attempts to view the submissions made and grade accordingly.
