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There are some assignments that instructors distribute that are collected in person, and can't be submitted electronically through Blackboard. Instructors should still record the grades for these assignments through the Gradebook. This process may become tedious for instructors who teach multiple sections of a course with distinctly different groups of students. Downloading the Gradebook and re-uploading the Gradebook simplifies this process when working with Excel.
| Creating an offline assignment in Blackboard |
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2. Under Details & Information in the Assignment Settings ensure that you have the box Collect offline submissions checked off
4. Under Data ensure that Select columns is checked off, then click on the assignment you are collecting offline. Note, if you don't see your assignment in the list, click Show more. Optional: if you want to provide feedback in the Excel workbook, check Include feedback for the selected column. Click Download 5. Open the file in Excel and edit the grades. Save the file as either .xls or .csv. Important Excel's native filetype, .xlsx is not compatible to be uploaded into the Gradebook. It is important to upload either an .xls or .csv file type 6. Upload the .xls or .csv file to the Gradebook 7. Ensure that the column being uploaded is the name of the offline assignment you wish to assign grades. Click Upload 8. Find the assignment in the Gradebook and Post grades |
| Uploading new offline assignments scores from Excel |
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2. Under Data ensure that Full gradebook is checked off. 3. Open the file in Excel. 4. Click on Column A then hold the SHIFT key on your keyboard, and click on Column B, and Column C. All of the data in Columns A, B, and C (Last Name, First Name, Username) should be highlighted.
5. Click on the Edit menu, then Copy 6. Create a new Excel worksheet. Click on the File menu, then New 7. With the new worksheet open, click on the Edit menu, then Paste 8. With Row 1 as column headers, create assignment names in cell E1, F1, G1, etc. Award points to students per desired assignments. Save the new workbook as a .csv. 9. Upload the .csv file to the Gradebook 10. Ensure that the column being uploaded is the name of the offline assignment you wish to assign grades. Click Upload 11. Find the assignment in the Gradebook and Post grades |
Changing the Points of the Assignment
By default, offline assignments are worth 100 points. This can be changed before the instructor posts grades by locating the assignment in the Gradebook, clicking on the three dots on the far right, then clicking Edit. The category weight of the assignment can be changed from this menu as well. Click Save when finished.
Referenced FAQs
Tip: Upload Multiple Excel Files to one Column
Suppose a lecture course with multiple lab sections have the same assignment that is turned in as a physical copy at the beginning of the lab that is graded by TAs.
After Creating an offline assignment in Blackboard and/or Uploading new offline assignment scores from Excel, the TA can delete the rows of students not enrolled in their section from the Excel workbook, and upload the grades to the Gradebook.
The Gradebook will be ready to post the grades of the students that were uploaded from the Excel file.
These steps can be repeated by the other TAs of the other sections. Then, all of the grades can be posted at once, using Post grades.
Warning: Don't Overwrite Your Grades!
If the rows of student names are not deleted, the grades will be overwritten. If a student name appears in the workbook, they must be assigned a grade. If a grade is not entered, they will receive a 0. If a student name does not appear in the workbook, then no grade will be uploaded to the gradebook.
If you are using this tool, make sure you delete student rows to prevent from losing your grades!