Gradebook and Analytics Index

The Answers pages below contain information about specific Blackboard Ultra features and settings, including guides on how to locate and set up course tools, and troubleshooting information for common problems.

Ideas pages (listed at the bottom) contain overviews and discussions on more general online teaching and learning questions, and suggestions about how to select the best instructional tools and/or policies to meet your goals.

• Overall Grade — The Overall Grade column in the Blackboard Ultra gradebook is used to combine and weight all individual graded items into a single overall score. This guides gives an overview of the settings options available for calculating and weighting overall grades, and for displaying the overall grade to students. 
• Exceptions and Exemptions — Exceptions and Exemptions are gradebook tools that allow instructors to make a one-time change to assignment settings for an individual student, such as changing a due date or allowing an extra attempt to account for personal circumstances. 
• Gradebook
  • Gradebook Settings — The gradebook settings menu allows instructors to create and set course tool preferences that apply to all graded items within a course. 
• Attendance — The Attendance tool allows instructors to set attendance grading rules, enter attendance for each class meeting, and import attendance grades into the Blackboard gradebook. 
• Gradebook Calculations — Calculations (formerly "calculated columns") can be used to combine and display data from multiple columns, categories, or other calculations in the gradebook. 
• Grade Schemas — Grade schemas control how grades are displayed to students in the gradebook. This page shows how to create and edit schemas in the gradebook settings. 
• Grading Rubrics — A rubric is a scoring tool that helps evaluate and clearly defines the various aspects and criteria expected in a graded assignment. 
  • AI Design Assistant - Rubric Generator — Blackboard's new rubric generator is part of the Blackboard Learn "AI Design Assistant," which is now featured in Ultra view. This guide shows how the design assistant can generate full assessment rubrics from an assignment description.
• Grading Student Submissions — This page details how to access student submissions and enter feedback on manually graded assessments in Blackboard. 
• Posting Grades — Grading in Blackboard Ultra is a two step process. First, grades are entered into the gradebook, either manually or automatically depending on the nature of the assessment. Second, the grade must be posted to make it visible to students. This allows instructors to control when grade information is released to the whole class, independent of when an individual submission grade is entered.
• Progress Tracking — Progress Tracking is a tool that allows students and instructors to track a student's progress with respect to the student's interaction with content in a course.
• Gradebook and Analytics Ideas
  • Assessment and Grading FAQ — This page address common questions about creating, administering, and grading assignments & tests in Blackboard.
  • Accommodations, Exceptions, and Exemptions — Blackboard Ultra has multiple features which can alter course settings for individual students based on disability accommodations or other needs or circumstances. Three are highlighted here: Accommodations, Exceptions, and Exemptions. 
  • Grade Schemas - Additional Uses — This page contains ideas for other uses of the Grade Schema beyond a typical letter grade scale.
  • Performance-Based Release Conditions — This page offers some instructional design examples for using the release conditions function in Blackboard Ultra course view to create dynamic content that responds to student performance on specified graded assignments or grade center columns. 
  • Organizing the Gradebook — In addition to delivering feedback on individual assignments, Gradebook features including Calculations, Categories, and Grade Schemas can be used to communicate course expectations and track student activity at the level of assignment categories or course units/modules, to build a more detailed and informative picture of students' competencies, progress, and areas for improvement.