500-Level Course Gradebook Set Up for Two Students Populations

500-Level Courses:  Graduate Component Needed to Earn Graduate-Level Credit

500-level courses are often built as a 'swing' course meaning both undergraduate and graduate students can enroll in the course. Grad students in a swing course should have additional course requirements to complete that allow them to earn graduate-level credit in the course.  See 500-Level Courses - Grad vs UG to learn more about what constitutes grad-level coursework or consult with a Teaching and Learning Consultant from The Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support for help in creating a suitable graduate-level graded activity in your course.

To ensure accurate setup of the Gradebook for both populations of students, instructors must first determine the academic level for each student and assign them to their respective group in the Bb course shell:

1) Identify which students in the course are undergrads and which are graduate students. An instructor can obtain this information by pulling a Class List. 

2) Exempting Undergraduate Students from the Grad-Level Activity

Undergraduate students, once identified by reviewing your class list, will need to be exempted from completing the Grad-Level activity. By exempting UG students, the Gradebook will reflect a more accurate standing to students in the course based on the requirements for their level. Use the Exemptions Tutorial to exempt undergrad students in your course.

Note: You can add a text-based column to the Gradebook to readily identify your UG and your Grad students.

Graded Activity Types

There are (2) Scenarios for the design of a grad-level activity:

One Assignment, All Students:  All students will complete the assignment, however the points earned on the assignment differ between undergrad and graduate students.

Grad-Level Activity Only:  A graded activity only graduate students will complete.

Set Up of Graded Activity by Type

 1. One Assignment, All Students

The course has one assignment all students will complete.  Points earned on the assignment could differ between UG and Grad students.  Graduate students could earn more points for additional work completed on the activity, OR the points earned could be the same, just distributed differently among graded components.  It does not matter if there are differing point values or rubrics used for each level.

Set Up Steps:

1. In the Gradebook, create a category for this activity that will only house the UG & Grad assignment.  From the assignment, click the gear icon to enter into the settings panel and ensure the category for the activity is set to the category created.
2. Using Copy Content, duplicate the assignment, and adjust the instructions to reflect the additional grad-level components and/or higher point value (if different).  Attach a rubric to each assignment (the original one for undergraduate students, the duplicated one for graduate students) that reflects grading for each level.
3. For each assignment submission link, clearly denote in the assignment title which group the activity is associated with to clearly identify it to students and to you in the Gradebook.
4. Go to the Gradebook, click the gear icon to enter into the Gradebook settings panel, ensure Automatic Zeros are turned ON.
5. Edit the Overall Grade column, locate the category for the UG/Grad activity and click Edit Calculation Rules to configure the category to drop the lowest score.  Each student population will automatically receive a score of "0" when they do not submit the assignment that is not for their level (e.g. Grad students will receive a score of 0 for the UG activity and vice versa).  The Drop Lowest Score calculation will automatically drop the score of 0 from the category to present the correct score earned for the assignment.

2. Grad-Level Activity Only

Should the course contain an assessment to be completed by graduate students only, follow these set up steps.

1. Create the assignment, clearly identifying the assignment for graduate students only.  Attach the Graduate Group Set only to the assignment.
   NOTE:  Undergraduate students in the course cannot see or access the assignment since they are not a member of the group to whom the assignment has been assigned. 
2. From the Gradebook exempt all undergraduate students from the graduate-level activity.  This ensures the Gradebook is accurate for each population of students.

Final Gradebook Setup: Overall Grades & Grading Schema

Because there are (2) populations of students in the course that could have differing amounts of total points available to be earned and two different grading schemas, additional steps must be taken to ensure an accurate Gradebook for each group.

1. Grading Schemas: From the Gradebook, click the gear icon to enter into the Gradebook settings panel > click Manage Grade Schemas > create a Grading Schema for the undergrad students, labeling it Letter - Undergrad and a Grading Schema for the grad students, labeling it Letter - Grad.
2. Overall Grade:  Next, edit the Overall Grade and select the grading schema for the predominant population of students in the course from the Select how the Overall Grade is Displayed drop-down menu on the right. Example: If the course primarily consists of graduate students, then select the Letter - Grad schema from the drop-down menu.
3. Secondary Total Calculation Column: Next, a secondary Total Calculation Column must be added for the second population of students in the course.

• From the Gradable Items tab, select the plus sign underneath the Overall Grade column which should be the very first item at the top and select Add Total Calculation. Enter a title for the calculation such as Overall Grade - Undergrad (this should be the population that is not represented by the Overall Grade column in Step 3.
• Ensure the appropriate grading schema for the population of students is selected in the Select how the Overall Grade is Displayed drop-down menu on the right.  Ensure the column is visible to students. 
• From the Gradebook categories that are displayed, click the circle/slash icon to UNselect the categories or activities within a category that are not applicable to the population of students.  The total points displayed at the bottom should equal the total amount of points that population of students can earn in the course.

4. Create Text Column: To readily identify your two populations of students, add a Text Column to the Gradebook. In this column, the instructor can denote whether a student is an undergrad or grad student. This column can remain hidden from student view since it is only for instructor use.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Each time you copy your course content forward to a new Blackboard shell, from the Gradebook, enter into the settings panel (gear icon) and select Manage Grade Schemas. Review the schemas in the course and delete the extra "Letter" schema that resides in the course.  When a course is created in Bb, it has this default Letter schema which needs to be eliminated.  Review the Overall Grade and secondary Total Column to ensure the correct schemas are in the Select how the Overall Grade is Displayed drop-down menu on the right.
 

Submitting Final Grades

When submitting final grades, the Overall Grade column can be pulled into Web Grades from Blackboard to upload student scores.  Instructors of 500-level courses must be diligent in reviewing the scores pulled into Web Grades for their second population of students -- these students will require their overall grade adjusted based on the letter grade displayed in the secondary Total Calculation column.