Grading Assignments: Recording Grades Only

This help sheet assumes that you have created an Assignment in your Blackboard course either as a "standard" assignment (following these instructions) or as a "Safe Assignment" - in other words, as an assignment that automatically gets compared to Blackboard's database of previously submitted essays, to help detect plagiarism (following these instructions). We are also assuming that you have downloaded the student assignment submissions to your hard drive, following these instructions for standard assignments or these instructions for "Safe assignments." We assume as well that you have graded the assignments - either on paper or electronically. You are now ready to enter the assignment grades into Blackboard, so your students can see their grades, along with any feedback you might provide. To enter those assignment grades into the Gradebook:

  1. If you haven't done so already, log in to Blackboard (opens in new window), and click on your course among the list of "Courses you are teaching" in the My Courses section of the opening page. Within that course, go to the Control Panel by clicking on the Control Panel icon near the bottom of the left-hand navigation menu.

  2. In the "Assessment" area of the Control Panel (on the right-hand side, middle section), click on the Grade Center link:

    Grade Center Link

  3. By default, you will see the interactive Grade Center in spreadsheet form, with your students listed in the left column, and with all of your currently created assessments (assignments, quizzes, etc.) listed in the top row. If your assignment was truly created as an Assignment (and not just as an item in the Assignment section of your course), there will be an entry for the Assignment in the Grade Center. In the column for the specific Assignment, there will be a green exclamation point in the appropriate row of each student who has submitted his/her assignment, indicating that the assignment has been submitted and needs grading on your part.

    How you record student grades will depend on how you provide feedback to students. From here, follow the branch of instructions that pertain to you:

    1. Instructions for faculty members who provide feedback on paper and just want to record grades in Blackboard
    2. Instructions for faculty members who provide electronic feedback or want to record comments in Blackboard


    Instructions for Faculty Members who Provide Feedback on Paper and Just Want to Record Grades in Blackboard

  4. If you've graded the assignments and provided feedback on paper, and you just want to record the grades within Blackboard so that your students have easy access to the information, you can do so very efficiently using the interactive interface of the new Grade Center. If you click on the green exclamation point in the cell of the first grade you want to enter, the exclamation point will change to a hightlighted "0.00". While you have that cell highlighted, but before typing in the grade, look down to the Grade Information Bar just below the Grade Center spreadsheet, in the bottom-left corner. You'll want to double-check the "Points Possible" total to remind yourself of the grading scale you are using:

    Grade Info Bar

  5. While the 0.00 in the cell is still highlighted, type in the grade/score that you want to enter for the student, and hit the return key:

    Click to Enter Grade Click to Enter Grade Click to Enter Grade Click to Enter Grade
    1. Click on to enter grade. 2. will change to highlighted 0.00. 3. Enter grade/score, and hit return. 4. Blackboard will save the score and highlight the score in next row.

  6. You basically continue steps three and four in the figure just above to enter all the grades into the Grade Center spreadsheet, moving vertically down the rows of students.

  7. When you are done entering grades, you can click on the OK Button button to return to the Control Panel for your course.


Last revised May 19, 2008.  Please send questions or comments to itec@bucknell.edu.