This article will explain how to grade and provide feedback on assessments in Blackboard Ultra. If you require advice and guidance on how to access Blackboard before grading, please read our How to access Blackboard guide.
Prior to grading, the Medical School’s Programme Delivery and Assessment team will contact you with specific details about the assessment. This will include the location of the assignment (the Blackboard course the assignment sits in), the grading and feedback requirements and a list of the assignments you’re required to grade.
If you’re unsure of your requirements, please contact the relevant Phase team.
When marking under no circumstance should you post grades to students – please note, this action is irreversible and means that students will be able to see their grades immediately.
Navigate to submitted work
- From the Courses page in Blackboard, open the relevant course to start marking student assignments.
- Select Gradebook from the Blackboard course menu. This will open the Gradebook and display all the assessments for the course.
- By default, the Gradebook will show you the Assessments in List View. You also have the option to view the Gradebook in Grid View. This view displays every graded assignment and lets you know when you have assignments to grade.
- Under Markable Items, find and select the relevant assessment. You will be redirected to the Submissions page.
- At the top of the submission page, you will see how many students have submitted and how many submissions there are to mark.
- Underneath this information, the Student Status and Marking Status filters provide a convenient way of viewing all submissions that require marking. You can also use the search box to find student submissions.
- Select a student with submitted work to mark. This will take you to the Grading page for that submission.
Providing grades and feedback
On the Grading page, you will be able to see the student navigation menu, a submission and the feedback panel. On the left-hand side of the screen, you will see the student navigation menu. This panel allows you to move between student submissions without going back to the Submissions page or Gradebook. You can collapse this menu to allow for more screen real estate when marking.
At the top of the grading page (top right-hand corner), you can see the students name and the number of submission attempts they have made for this assignment.
If a student has submitted more than once, it will default to their latest submission on the Grading page (see image above – attempt 2/2). However, before you start marking we recommend you check that you are marking the latest submission attempt.
Underneath the student information, you will see the students submission.
If content does not preview correctly on the grading page, it is possible to download content via the download arrow icon on the tool bar. If you do download a student assignment, please be mindful of data protection. Delete any content from your device after you have finished marking.
This tool bar also allows for inline grading. Providing grades and feedback via this tool bar is not part of the standard workflow used at the school.
Follow these simple steps to grade the submission:
- In the Feedback panel (which appears on the right-hand-side of the screen), you can provide some overall feedback to the students based on their submission and performance. If you do add feedback here, you need to make sure that you Save Changes.
If the assignment is assessed using a marking rubric, this will also be visible in the Feedback Panel.
With a rubric you will be able to enter a grade and feedback for each criterion.
Once you have graded each criterion in the rubric, an overall grade for that assessment will be calculated. This will be displayed at the top of the Grading page.
- To add a grade to the assessment, you need to go back to the top of the grading page. The grade you are required to enter will be dependent on the type of assignment you are grading. As mentioned above, the grading information will be provided to you by the Programme Delivery and Assessment team.
- Once you have added a grade and some written feedback, go back to Gradebook (or submissions page) to mark your next assignment.
Once you have finished grading, contact the Programme Delivery and Assessment team so they can proceed with the next step in the assessment workflow.
Under no circumstance should you post grades to students – please note, this action is irreversible and means that students will be able to see their grades immediately.
The Programme Delivery and Assessment team are responsible for posting the grades and feedback to students. This will only be done once all marking and moderation has been completed.
If you accidentally post marks early, please inform the Programme Delivery and Assessment team immediately.