Grading in Blackboard: How to Use the Grade Center

What is the Grade Center?

The Grade Center is the new Blackboard 8 feature that replaces the Gradebook. The Grade Center is the feature of Blackboard where all grades, scores or performance ratings for each student in a particular course are stored and displayed. These scores or grades come from the various exams, quizzes, assignments and discussion board participation (if graded) that might be contained within a Blackboard course shell. Instructors may also add grades to the Grade Center for work that has been done outside the Blackboard. For example, if students manually hand in a project, the instructor may add the item as a column to the Grade Center and all of the corresponding grades. The Grade Center feature allows instructors to perform many different functions related to grading, including many new features not previously available.

Note: Students value the ability to use Blackboard to check on personal performance. Students can only view their own scores or grades; the system is secure and does not allow students to inadvertently view the grades of others.

Learn more about the Grade Center

• Getting Started Guide (PDF) - Four-page guide provides a quick-reference overview.
• How do I view the assignments that my students have submitted?
• Blackboard Grade Center Video Overview (90 seconds, Adobe Flash)
• Video Tutorials from Blackboard, Inc.:
  • Customizing the Grade Center (7 minutes, Adobe Flash)
  • Determining Grades and Exemptions (6 minutes, Adobe Flash)
  • Analyzing Grades (6 minutes, Adobe Flash)

Tidbit:
There is no audio in Blackboard's tutorials. If you find, as many do, that the captions go by a little too fast, just click the Pause button at the lower left or click/drag the white timeline square back a bit. Click the Start triangle to replay.

• Grade Center Webinar from Blackboard, Inc. (Web-Ex, 17 Minutes)
• Complete instructions and details: Blackboard Official Instructor Guide (PDF), beginning with page 269.