This article is intended for faculty and staff who want to create additional columns in their Grade Center on Blackboard. Instructors can create columns when adding something to the curriculum that they wish to grade. Certain tools, such as the items under Assessments, automatically create their own columns, and therefore columns should not be manually created for these items.
Creating Columns in Grade Center
- Access the Grade Center.
- Go to your Control Panel on the left hand side.
- Look under Course Management.
- Select Grade Center.
- Select Full Grade Center.
- In the top left corner of Full Grade Center, select Create Column to add a column that can display manually entered scores or text.
- Alternatively, you can select Create Calculated Column to add a column that will use existing columns in the Grade Center to compute an Average, Weighted, Average, Total, or find the Maximum/Minimum value.
- Enter the required information.
- For all column types, a Course Name must be entered. This is the name that the students will see when looking at their grades in My Grades.
A Grade Center Name is generally not advised as it makes it more difficult to compare the student view to the instructor view of column names.
There is also a Description Field. Text entered here will appear under the column title in My Grades, but students need to click on a down arrow to Expand Grade Details in order to see it.
- For all column types, a Course Name must be entered. This is the name that the students will see when looking at their grades in My Grades.
- Edit your Display Settings and your Column Settings.
- For more information about Display Settings and Column Settings, review the below section, Display and Column Settings.
Managing Display and Column Settings
Display Settings
- Both "regular" and calculated columns have two Display Settings – Primary and Secondary. Only the Primary Display will appear in My Grades for Students.
- If a Secondary Display is added, which is optional, it will appear in the Grade Center in parentheses after the Primary Display as shown in this example:
- The score in the example is out of 100, so the score and percentage are the same.
- This view will only be seen by instructors.
Both Primary Display and Secondary Display offer 5 options:
- Score: the most common and will display the number with two decimal places
- Letter: based on a Grading Scheme defined by the instructor
- Text: can be used to enter an alpha grade manually, or for other text
- Percentage: displays the result of dividing the score entered by points possible
- Complete/Incomplete: enters a check mark once a score is entered for a student
Column Settings
- For Regular columns:
- Points Possible: a required field where one must set the amount of points possible for a student to earn
Associated Rubrics: can add rubric that applies to the assignment that students can refer to
Note: You must create the Rubric first, using the Rubrics tool under Course Tools- Due Date: If a due date is entered, it will appear on the course Calendar, in Class Work Due Dates on the My Courses page, and under the column title in My Grades. This option is generally not recommended. Due Dates for Assignments, Tests, or graded Discussion should be entered in the settings for those activities.
- Settings for Average, Total, and Minimum/Maximum calculated columns:
- When selecting columns for calculation under the Select Columns section, there's two options; the default setting is All Grade Columns. For a more organized option, people usually choose the Selected Columns and Categories option.
- After selecting the Select Columns and Categories option, click on column title(s) at the left to select. Then select the arrow to move them to the Select Columns box.
- Specifically when making a Minimum/Maximum calculated column, under the Select Columns section, there will be the option of Calculation Type. You may choose if the column takes the minimum grade or maximum grade for an assignment.
- For the Calculate as Running Total setting option, there is a Yes option and a No option:
- If Yes, calculation only considers columns with values in them to compute each student's result.
If No, then all columns selected for calculation will be included to arrive at each student's result and any
- When selecting columns for calculation under the Select Columns section, there's two options; the default setting is All Grade Columns. For a more organized option, people usually choose the Selected Columns and Categories option.
- Settings for Weighted calculated column:
To create Weighted calculated columns, similarly to the other three types of columns, go under Select Columns, where you can choose what Columns and Categories to include in the weighted grade.
Select the columns and then use the arrow to move them over to the Selected Columns box.
Note: Make sure that the percentage distribution among the selected columns and categories totals to 100%.
There will be an Options section at the end of all the edit pages for all types of columns, both Regular Columns and Weighted Columns.
- For the first Options setting, selecting No will prevent this column from being an option when selecting columns to include in a calculated column.
- The Yes option is generally recommended.
- For the second Options setting, selecting No will prevent students from seeing this column when looking in My Grades.
- For the third Options setting, selecting Yes will enable students to see these statistics when looking in My Grades.
- For the first Options setting, selecting No will prevent this column from being an option when selecting columns to include in a calculated column.
Other
- Once the creation and settings of the column are finalized, click Submit in the bottom right hand corner
- To edit column settings again:
- Click the gray circle with the drop down arrow to the right of the column title to open the options menu.
- Choose Edit Column Information.
- To check if any content is accessible or can be viewed by students, select the Enter Student Preview mode option in the top right hand corner of the page
- In Student Preview mode, the instructor is able view the course as a "Demo User" in the role of a student, as well as make submissions for any assessments.
- To exit the Student Preview mode, select Exit Preview in the top right corner
- To exit the Student Preview mode, select Exit Preview in the top right corner
As an instructor, grades can be entered for the instructors "Demo Users".
- In Student Preview mode, the instructor is able view the course as a "Demo User" in the role of a student, as well as make submissions for any assessments.
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