BB6 GradeCenter Part 2 Computing Course Grades Instructional Technology Support – SAC 284

1 – Use Firefox! 2 – Your grading scheme 3 – Seeing column “points possible” 4 – Adding a Weighted Calculated Total 5 – Quiz 2 graded as 23 points? (100?) 6 – Interpreting scores as percentages 7 – Testing your grade computation 8 – Null grades ignored, not = 0! 9 – Download grades to Excel 10 – Making the course grade visible BB6 – Table of contents This course takes only 1.5 hours or less. But you must first complete training course BB2, Introduction to the Grade Center. Using Blackboard to compute course grades depends on the basic information provided in BB2. 1

Serious deficiencies have been noted in both the Internet Explorer browser and Apple Safari when using Blackboard. For this reason it is especially critical that you use Firefox to access the Grade Center! Ignoring this advice can lead to serious frustration! Use the “OK” or “Cancel” or “Submit” buttons at the bottom of the Blackboard screen for navigation whenever possible. 1 – Use Firefox! 2

2 – Your grading scheme? Many faculty indicate in their course syllabus the percentage of the course grade attributable to each item such as homework, quizzes, midterm exam, participation, paper(s). This tutorial shows you how to grade any item with any convenient number of points, but to weight each item at the stated percentage. Blackboard actually simplifies your grading! 3

Accessing the Grade Center In the Control Panel, click on Grade Center 4

Typical Grade Center at term end Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod Karen Carl Michael Nancy Thomas Frank Allan Herbert Marion 5

What the syllabus said about % Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod Karen Carl Michael Nancy Thomas Frank Allan Herbert Marion 10% 10% 15% 25% 40% 6

Maximize visibility by hiding First Name Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod Michael Nancy Thomas Frank Allan Herbert Marion 7

Maximize visibility by hiding First Name Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel 8

3 – Seeing column “points possible” Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod Click in a cell in a gradable item column; see the “points possible” for that column 9

4 – Adding Weighted Calculated Total Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod Click Add Calculated Column, choose Weighted 10

Adding a Weighted Calculated Total 11

Adding a Weighted Calculated Total Highlight gradable items (hold Ctrl key down), click the right arrow, scroll down 12

Specifying percentage for each item 13

Hiding from view pending finalization More about this later: you will eventually have to set it to “No” 14

Course Grade column added Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley 15

Moving the Course Grade column Click on Manage, choose Organize Grade Center Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley 16

Moving a Course Grade column Click on the gray box and the black up/down arrow appears. Hold the left mouse button down and move the Course Grade line up to a point before the first graded item. 17

Moving a Course Grade column Don’t forget to scroll down and click Submit! 18

Setting Weighted Total as Course Grade Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod 19

Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod Green checkmark means course grade 20

5 – Quiz 2 graded as 23 points? (100?) Compare to the prior illustration; weighted total is the same! How come? 21 Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod

6 – Interpreting scores as percentages 22 Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod

Blackboard will compute percentage 23

Individual point structure doesn’t matter Compare to slides 20 and 21; same computed course grade! 24 Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod

7 – Testing your grade computation 25 Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod

Remove: Highlight, backspace, return, then OK here (Mac: “delete”) 26 Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod

Caution! With Quiz 2 = “-”, why this? ? OK 27 Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod

8 – Null grades ignored, not = 0! For proper grade totaling at end of term, you MUST set this to NO for the weighted total column. Use “Modify” like this to check and change the weighted total column if necessary! 28

Weighted total is now correct Your choice: You must enter 0 for items not submitted by a student, you cannot leave them as “-”, OR Change totaling column to NO at its “running total” specification. 29 Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley

9 – Download Grades to Excel 30 Albertson Baxter Carter Davidson Edwards Foster Gumbel Hinckley Ichabod

Downloading grades 31 No need to change any of these default settings to download the full grade spreadsheet, just click Submit.

Downloading grades When using the Firefox browser recommended for Grade Center access, click Download here, then OK at the Firefox prompt (not OK here). Clicking OK here actually cancels the download! 32 X

Open grade spreadsheet in Excel 33

Save in Excel

Save in Excel

10 – Making the course grade visible 36 Make sure you set this to No before using the computed course grades! This protects you from computing erroneously high grades in case you forgot to enter zero for any missing student work.

BB6 GradeCenter Part 2 Computing Course Grades END Instructional Technology Support – SAC