How to use myUSF's Gradebook
From Academic Computing
- Purpose
- The purpose of this document is to introduce instructors to the Blackboard Learning System™
- Prerequisites
- The document was designed for instructors who are first time users of Blackboard. This document assumes the instructor has basic computer knowledge and internet skills (IE 6-7, Mozilla, FireFox, Safari).
Contents |
[edit] The Grade book
This section discusses how to use Blackboard’s grade book to post grades and use the weighting features to automatically generate a final grade. If you are new to Blackboard or are transitioning to using Blackboard’s online grade book, we recommend you start-off using the grade book to just display the scores of quizzes and exams; hold-off using the weight grades until you have become comfortable with the grade book. The first part of this section will focus on how to post grades, the second part will focus on weighting grade book items, and last we will show how to properly download and upload grades.
[edit] Posting Grades
The Blackboard grade book allows you to post student's grades. When you post grades only the individual student will see his or her own grade, so they will not see the scores of the other students. The instructor grade book is accessed by clicking on the Gradebook link in the assessment area of the Control Panel.
When you enter the grade book you will see a screen with tool bars on the top and a spread sheet view with the students’ grades on the bottom. Before you can start entering grades you need to first add an item for grading.
[edit] Adding a Grade book Item
The first step in posting grades is to create an item column for grading by clicking on the 
button from the tool bar at the top of the main grade book screen.
This will take you to the Add Modify Gradebook Item screen. This screen lets you provide a name, set a weighting category, set maximum points possible, and display method.
In the first field we will give this item a unique name. You can name it whatever you want; for this example we will use the name SampleTest for our Item.
The Category field lets apply a weight to the item. We will discuss weighting items later, but for now we will just leave this set to the default “Assignment” for now.
The next fields are optional; we will leave them blank in our example.
The next field lets you set the maximum score range for the item.
Please note: This is not the items weight!!! This only controls the score range. For example, if the test was on a scale from 0 – 100 then we would enter 100 as the maximum points possible.
The next section controls how grades are presented. We strongly suggest using “Score” as the display method. The other display methods are Complete/Incomplete, Letter, Percentage, and Text (this option is for arbitrary text, no value will be assigned).
The last two options let you set viewing and calculation options.
After you are satisfied with the setting, click the submit button at the bottom of the page to return to the main grade book screen.
[edit] Entering Grades
After we create a grade book entry, our grade book spread sheet will look similar to the one below:
Grades can be entered 1 of 3 ways depending on the situation:
- Method #1 – Multiple Grades for Multiple Students
To enter multiple grades at one time click on the name of the item you want to grade. In our example we will click on the item named SampleTest.
On the next screen you will see a list of options; click on the Item Grade List option to modify the students grades.
On the next screen you will see boxes next to each student’s name. Simply fill in the boxes with the corresponding student grade. We recommend that you use numerical scores instead of letter grades when entering students’ grades.
Below is an example of a column with scores entered using method #1.
- Method #2 – Multiple Grades for a Single Student
To enter multiple grades for a single student, begin by clicking on the student’s name in the grade book.
On the next screen click on the User Grade List to modify the student’s grades.
On the next screen you will see boxes next to each item in the grade book. Simply fill in the boxes with the corresponding grade for that item. We recommend that you use numerical scores instead of letter grades when entering students’ grades.
Below is an example of a column with scores entered using method #2.
- Method #3 – Entering a Single Grade for Only One Student
The third method is used when you have to update one grade for a single student. To modify only one grade, click on a cell which is either blank or which currently has a grade.
The next screen will allow you to enter the student’s grade.
Below is an example of a column with scores entered using method #3.
[edit] Deleting Grades
To delete a grade, first click on the score you want to delete.
On the next screen you will see the individual grade for the student. To delete the score, click on the clear attempt button.
Below is an example of how the grade book would look after removing a score.
[edit] Managing grade book items
Adding Items for grading and entering their grades were basic features of the grade book. In this section we will demonstrate how to modify, reorganize, and remove items from the grade book. These features are accessible through the Manage Items screen. To access this screen, click on the 
button on the main grade book tool bar.
This will take you to the manage items screen:
Earlier we showed that you could add an item though the main grade book screen by clicking on the Add Item button. Additionally, you can also add items to the grade book from the manage items screen by clicking on the 
button at the top left-hand side of the screen.
To modify an existing item click on the 
button next to the item. After clicking on either the Add Item button or Modify Item button, you will see the Add/modify item screen (see page 64).
The manage items screen also allows you to re-arrange items by clicking on the ordered number drop-down box next to the item.
To remove an item and all of their associated grades from the grade book, click on the Remove button. Please note that this action is irreversible. Once you have removed a column all of its contents cannot be recovered.
[edit] Weighting Grades
There are 2 methods to weighting grades; the first method is to weight by item, and the second is weight by category. If you weight by item you will have to calculate all of the weights by hand, if you weight by category Blackboard will do most of the calculation for you.
[edit] Weight by Item
The advantage to weighting by item is that you can quickly apply a weight to items that you have already created in the grade book. To weight by item, first click on the Weight Grades icon.
On the Weight Grades screen click on the Weight by Item radio button, and enter the desired weight for the item in the box. Note: The sum of all the item weights must equal 100% !!!
In our example we only have one item in the grade book, so we will enter a value of 100 for now. If we had multiple items in our grade book we would have to enter a weight for each item.
After we click the submit button we will have a new weight applied to the item.
[edit] Weight by Category
The advantage to weighting by category is that you can add and remove items without having to re-calculate the weights by hand. Weighting by category works by assigning a weight to a category, and then you set that weight category to the item. To weight by category first click on the Weight Grades icon on the main grade book menu.
This will take you to the weight Grades screen. On this screen choose the Weight by category option and enter a weight for a category.
In our example we will use a value of 100 for the exam category.
After you click submit you will be taken back to the main grade book screen. Any gradebook items under the categories you selected will be applied a weight. In our example below the item SampleTest is set to the Assignment category which is equal 0%, Let us assume we want SampleTest weighted under the Exam category.
The weight category are different and so are their weights.
If you are creating a new item click on the Add Item button (see page 64), if you already created an item and you want to set it to a different category click on the modify items button (page 7x). This will take you to the Add/Modify Grade book items screen.
Under the category section change the current value to the value of a weighted category. In our example will change the default value from Assignment to Exam.
After we apply the changes, the weights for QuickTest and SampleTest will be distributed.
Two items of the same category with their weight distributed
[edit] Adding more weight categories
The grade book offers only a few weight categories. To add more weight categories click on the Gradebook Settings button from the main grade book menu bar.
This will take you to the Gradebook Settings screen. On the gradebook settings screen,click on the Manage Gradebook Categories link. This will take you a screen where you can create new categories.
To add a new category click on the Add Category button on the upper left-hand corner of the screen. After you create your new category, it will appear in the weight by category screen as a selectable option.
[edit] Resources
Online tutorials
Creation Date: June 2004, Creator: Robert Oates
Categories: MyUSF | Savant | Assessment | Gradebook
