Challenge (Joey Lawrance): Using Blackboard for coding assignments

I’d like to use Blackboard the way I use Github, Bitbucket, or Gitlab: by using git, a version control system used widely in industry. Computer science students benefit from learning git and version control through experience, but since Blackboard does not support git or any other version control system (as Github, Bitbucket or Gitlab do), I avoid it.

Blackboard does have a content system that has versioning. At present, we have not implemented it widely. However, while we might be able to use it for this application,  it may make more sense to use Github, Bitbucket, or Gitlab. There is a benefit to students to use the tools used in the industry they will work in.

Blackboard assignments are geared toward text documents – MS Word and PDFs. For these assignments, Blackboard assignments work. For other types of assignments, video, audio, images, other tools work better. Some of these have tools that can be integrated into Blackboard – for example Turnitin has an integration that allows students to submit assignments that are plagiarism checked using the Turnitin tool. Instructors grade the assignment in the Turnitin interface within Blackboard and the grade is sent to the Blackboard Grade Center.

Could Github, Bitbucket, or Github be integrated into Blackboard? It’s possible. Submit a suggestion to Blackboard at: http://suggestions.blackboard.com. Tell Blackboard what tools you need integrated into the system to make it work for you and your students. Blackboard uses the frequency of suggestions to prioritize adding new features to the product. Input from faculty using Blackboard or who would use Blackboard if it had the needed features is given weight. So encourage other faculty in your subject area to submit suggestions for desired tools to increase the likelihood that the tools you need are incorporated into a future release.

Challenge (Beth Ann Cooke-Cornell): Gradebook versus Excel

In Excel can have a different formula for each student to accommodate those individual circumstances, can drop the lowest two quiz grades easily, have multiple grading sheets that are readily available, have all the assignments listed at the top and and a clean sheet with just numbers and dropped quiz grades and extra credit, and can’t upload Excel spreadsheets or columns to Bb.

Part 2: Grading in Blackboard

Blackboard has tools that allow you to drop lowest grades, have different views for homework, papers, exams, and other categories. Blackboard can even handle extra credit.

Whether you use Blackboard for tests and assignments will determine whether you need to manually create columns. When you deploy tests in Blackboard or create an assignment, a Grade Center column is automatically created for the assessment item. The same is true for discussion boards, journals, blogs, and wikis or other gradable items created through building blocks or LTI add ins.

If you want to drop grades, assign each column to a category. Some categories already in the Blackboard grading system include, tests, discussions, and assignments. You can add custom categories as well. More information on creating and managing categories is available on the Blackboard help site.

Calculating Weighted Grades

Use the default “Weighted Total” column to calculate the grade. The default weighted total does not have any columns or categories selected. Edit the default “Weighted Total” column by clicking on the item menu and selecting Edit Column Information:

Select how you want the grade to display in the grade center in section one of the “Edit Weighted Column” page.

 

Under Select Columns, on the left side highlight which categories to use to calculate the grade and click on the selection button to move them to the selected “columns” pane:

On the right side of this section you can also select which grades to drop. You can also select whether to weight columns within the category proportional to the points possible or equally.

Next select whether you want the column to calculate as a Running total or not. The running total only includes columns that have an attempt. If you choose to display a running total you may also want to create a second column that is not a running total so students can see what their grade would be if they submit no additional gradable items.

Extra credit can also be included in Blackboard calculated grades. More information on creating extra credit columns is available on the Blackboard help site.

To control what columns display in your grade center use SmartViews. Smart Views can include a subset of the columns to show, for example, only homework, only exams, or components of a project. More information on creating and managing Smart Views is available on the Blackboard Help site.

Challenge (Beth Ann Cooke-Cornell): Gradebook versus Excel

In Excel can have a different formula for each student to accommodate those individual circumstances, can drop the lowest two quiz grades easily, have multiple grading sheets that are readily available, have all the assignments listed at the top and and a clean sheet with just numbers and dropped quiz grades and extra credit, and can’t upload Excel spreadsheets or columns to Bb.

Part I: Grade with Excel, upload to Blackboard

If using Excel is the best option for you to calculate grades by leveraging Excel’s unique capabilities, you can upload a file from Excel to Blackboard. You can’t, however, upload an Excel file. The best procedure for using Excel with Blackboard is to download the student information from Blackboard and then periodically save comma-separated-values (CSV) files and uploading those to Blackboard.

First, download the student information by clicking on the work offline contextual menu and selecting “Download”:

 

 

 

Next, in the download Grade Center page, select “Student Information Only” from the data options:

 

 

 

Under file type, select tab-delimited for an Excel formatted file. (Remember, you need to upload a csv file to Blackboard but you can use an xls file in Excel to calculate grades.)

Select “My Computer” as the save location and click the “Submit” button to create the download file. On the next page, click on the download button and note where the file is saved on your computer.

You can now use the Grade Center Excel file as you use any Excel file, including formulas. Remember, however, to leave the information in the file when you download it intact. Blackboard needs the student information in the same format when you upload the grade data.

Before saving for upload, save the file in Excel format. To save the file for upload to Blackboard, select “Save as” from the file menu in Excel. Choose comma-separated values (csv) for the file type and save. When Excel asks do you really want to save in this format, choose yes/continue.

The csv file is a one use only file that you can delete when you’ve uploaded the column(s) that you’ve updated. If prompted to save the file before exiting Excel, make sure you’re saving as an xls or xlsx file to retain formulas.

Upload the csv file: To upload the file with new grade columns, select “Upload” from the Work Offline contextual menu. When prompted, browse to the file and select it. Click the submit button and you will be prompted to confirm which columns to upload:

By default, every column that is new will be selected. If you have some columns you don’t want uploaded, deselect them before submitting.

When you return to the Grade Center, scroll to the right to see the new columns and the grades that have been added.

More information on grading offline can be found on the Blackboard Help site.