Grading Student Submissions
This page details how to access student submissions and enter feedback on manually graded assessments in Blackboard.
Viewing student submissions can be done in two ways based on whether you are using the Grid View or List View in the gradebook. In this documentation, you will find information on accessing student submissions in both views.
Grid View vs. List View
Grid View
Grid view is helpful when instructors want to prioritize a visual overview of individual students and corresponding grades. This view is helpful to quickly assess specific student submissions that may be missing or ungraded.
List View
List view is helpful when instructors want to quickly assess a specific assignment and receive system feedback about the number of submissions that need to be graded or posted for a particular assignment.
Viewing Student Submissions
Grid View
To view a student submission in grid view, locate the column for the assignment/assessment that is to be graded. In that column, click the respective box in the student's row whose submission you wish to view; this will trigger a drop down menu to appear. If a student submission is available for that student and assignment, there will be an option in the drop down menu that says "View"–click this to open the submission.
List View
To view a student submission in list view, locate the row for the assignment/assessment that is to be graded. You will see the number of ungraded submissions in the "Grading Status" column. Click the link located in this column which will open a page with a list of student submissions that are ungraded. Click on the row for the student submission you wish to view.
If you wish to view a student submission that you have already graded, use the drop down menu located under "Grading Status" on the student submission page to select submissions in statuses other than "Needs Grading."
You will notice that, ultimately, navigating to the submission from either the Grid View or the List View will end in the same location. From this viewing location, you can easily navigate to any other students' submissions by simply clicking their name on the left hand side menu.
Entering Grades while Viewing Submissions
A Warning about "Final Grade"
WARNING
When viewing a student submission, two form fields appear in which you can enter a grade for the submission. The form field next to "Final Grade" will be entered as an override. Unless you specifically need to override a student's grade for a submission, we strongly suggest that you enter the grade in the form field next to the student's name at the top of the submission.
Providing Feedback
To provide feedback on a submission, click the left arrow button
to open the side panel that contains a text field for Overall Feedback.
Be sure to click the "Save Changes" button below the text field before exiting the submission.
Batch Grading Questions
When an instructor creates a test with multiple questions, an option to view submissions by individual question will be located on the lefthand side of the grading interface (as shown in the image to the right).
When this option is selected, a list of questions from the test will be available to view. When a question is selected, the Instructor can then scroll through all student submissions for that question.
This is a helpful option when student answers' may have been marked incorrect by the system, but you still wish to award full or partial credit to students for another answer.
In some instances, a test may have a majority of questions that are graded automatically by the system, but may also include essay questions that need to be manually graded by the Instructor.
Changing the "Grading Status" to "Needs Grading" can be of use in this situation so that the Instructor can easily scroll and grade all essay questions without the need to navigate to different student submissions.
Deleting Student Submissions
Rare circumstances may require you to delete a student submission. This action is completed in the grading interface.
To delete a student submission:
- Double check that the proper student's submission is open in the grading interface
- Select the three dot menu (...) next to the student's Final Grade.
- Click "Delete attempt" when the options menu opens.
- Confirm the deletion of the submission by clicking the black "Delete" button when the pop up confirmation appears.
WARNING
Note that deleting a student submission is a permanent action and cannot be undone. Exercise caution when performing this task. For alternative ways to change an individual student's submission status, see Gradebook Exceptions and Exemptions.
A note on grading Offline Submissions
When you create an assignment marked for offline submissions, a tab titled "Grades" replaces the "Submissions" tab that you would see for assignments requiring an online submission (as picture on the right).
Open this tab and select the student name for which you would like to provide a grade a feedback.
When you select a student, a sidebar menu will open that requires you to provide a date and time that you received the offline submission in order to mark an attempt in the Gradebook.
Once you "Save" the submission date and create the attempt, the Grading View will open just as described in the documentation above.
At this point, you can refer to the "Entering Grades while Viewing Submissions" section of this Answers page.
