2 Students upload file(s) into the appropriate Assignment area. Step 1: Instructor Creates an Assignment in Blackboard

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1 USC Marshall School of Business Marshall Information Services Blackboard 9.1 Collecting and Grading Assignments A Blackboard "Assignment" allows students to upload files into Blackboard that the instructor can then grade and provide feedback that the student can view. Note that this guide covers "Blackboard Assignments" - not "Turnitin Assignments". Both can serve a similar purpose but the steps to creating and using them are different. The flow of how Blackboard Assignments work is shown below: 1 Instructor Creates an Assignment for each item to be graded. Blackboard automatically creates a corresponding column in the Grade Center for each assignment 2 Students upload file(s) into the appropriate Assignment area. 3 Instructor types feedback and grades the assignment. 4 Students view the feedback under "My Grades". Step 1: Instructor Creates an Assignment in Blackboard Because Blackboard creates a separate column in the Grade Center for each assignment, the instructor should create a separate Blackboard Assignment for each item a student will be graded on. For example, if the students are given three different grades for three different cases then the instructor needs to make three different assignments. 1. Access the course you are making assignments for. 2. From the left menu, click an area you wish to place the assignment in. This is where the student will find the assignment. Most instructors typically place them in the "Assignments" area of the left menu. 3. From the horizontal menu, click "Assessments" and then "Assignment". 4. Type a name for the assignment. If desired, type instructions for your students in this area. You can also post images, videos, hyperlinks, files, etc. If desired, attach any files you would like to provide the students with. 5. Type the number of points the assignment will be worth. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 1 of 14

2 6. Specify the number of times a student can submit a new version of a file. If desired, you can use these options to control when the assignment is available to the students. If desired, you can use this to mark any assignment uploaded after a specific date as late. Unless you are using groups, leave this at "All Students Individually". (If your students are working in groups and you have created the Groups in Blackboard, checking. "Groups of Students" allow a single student to submit the file for all members of the group. The uploaded file will display in each group member's row in the gradebook but you can still grade students individually.) Note that Blackboard does not automatically notify students when you create an Assignment. To make students aware of a newly posted Assignment, post an "Announcement". 7. Click "Submit". Blackboard will automatically create a corresponding column in the Grade Center. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 2 of 14

3 Step 2: Students Upload Files into the Assignment Area At this point, it is up to the students to upload their files into the assignment created by the instructor. Students will navigate to the content area where you have created the assignment and click the name of the assignment. Students will click "Browse My Computer" for the files they wish to upload. If desired, students can type any comments that they wish the instructor to read here. Students will click "Submit". In the final step, Blackboard will give students a preview of the file they submitted; they must click "OK" to complete the submission process. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 3 of 14

4 Step 3: Instructor Reads the File, Grades, and Provides Feedback Instructors access the files uploaded by students from within the Grade Center. They have several ways of working depending upon how much feedback is given. For example, some instructors may wish to just read the papers offline and then enter a score within the Grade Center while others might wish to make annotations on the paper electronically and return those to the students. Some of the different approaches an instructors can take are listed below. SCENARIO Annotate Printed Papers Instructor wants to print out the papers; annotate the printouts, then pass them back to the students physically. Annotate Downloaded File Electronically then Upload the Annotated Files Instructor wants to download the files, annotate the downloaded files using an application on their computer, and then upload the annotated file back into Blackboard as feedback. Annotate Papers Electronically within Blackboard Instructor wants to annotate the papers within Blackboard electronically (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF Files only). Accessing the Grade Center Regardless of which method above you intend to use, your first step is to access the Grade Center. 1. Login to the Blackboard course containing the assignment you wish to grade. 2. Click "Control Panel" from the left menu to expand its options. 3. Expand "Grade Center" to see its options. 4. Click "Assignments". Scenario A: Annotate Printed Papers Under this method of working, the instructor will download, print, and mark up the printed assignments. Once marked up, the instructor will enter the score in the Grade Center and pass the marked up hard copies back to the students. 1. From within the Grade Center, click the assignment name's drop down arrow. 2. Click "Assignment File Download". Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 4 of 14

5 2. Click "Show All". 3. Click this box to mark all student's files to be downloaded. 4. In most cases you will want to select "Last attempt file". The exception might be if the assignment required multiple submissions and a student did not submit them together. 5. Click "Submit". 6. Click the link. The student's files will be downloaded as a zip file to your computer's downloads folder. 7. Click "OK". 8. On Windows computers, you unzip the file by right clicking it and selecting "Extract All". 9. Once you have extracted the files, you can open them using whatever application they were created in; annotate them using the tools provided by the application; save them, or print them out and make your annotations using pen and paper. Note that Blackboard automatically inserts the student's usernames in the names of their files. 10. If you also wish to type scores in Blackboard, just type them the column rows pressing enter after each one. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 5 of 14

6 Scenario B: Annotate Downloaded File then Upload it into Blackboard Under this scenario, the instructor downloads the student's files, annotates them using the application that they were created in, saves them and then uploads them back into Blackboard. 1. Follow the steps in Scenario A to download all of the student files. 2. Open a student's file, make your comments in the file and then save. (I suggest saving it under a slightly different name. For example, adding "- feedback" to the end of it.) 3. Repeat the step above for all of the student submissions. The next steps cover how to upload your annotated files and specify a grade for each student. 4. Return to the Grade Center. 5. Click the column's drop down arrow. 6. Select "Grade Attempts". These arrows can be used to scroll between students. 6. Click the button to expand the feedback area. 7. Type any desired comments here. 8. Click this button to upload the annotated feedback file. 9. Type their score here. 10. Click "Submit" to save and move on to the next student. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 6 of 14

7 Scenario C: Annotate Papers Electronically within Blackboard (Recommended Method) Use this method if you want to annotate the papers within Blackboard electronically. Its advantage is that there is no need to download any files. Note that only Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF files can be graded electronically. For other file types, a download button will appear in place of the file's contents. 1. Access the Grade Center for the course to be affected. 2. Click the column's drop down arrow. 3. Select "Grade Attempts". Hide/Display the annotation toolbar. Next / Previous Page 2. Type score here. Next Student or Attempt 1. Use these buttons to annotate the page. If desired, type more feedback here or upload a file. Hide/Display the feedback area. 3. Click "Submit" to save the annotations and go to the next student. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 7 of 14

8 Step 4: Students go to "My Grades" to View the Feedback and Score Students should follow the steps below to read the instructor's feedback and see their score. 1. Students will open the course that contains the assignment. 2. From the menu, click "Tools" then "My Grades". Any annotations made from within Blackboard will appear here. The student's grade will appear to them here. Any feedback the instructor typed appears here. If the instructor attached a file, it will appear here. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 8 of 14

9 Assignment Related Tasks and Issues When using the Grade Center, there are always a few thing that come up that will require your attention. This section attempts to cover how to handle those instances. Enter a Score Directly in a Column / Changing an Existing Score Should you need to change a student's assignment score or type in one for the first time, follow the steps below. 1. Open the Grade Center. 2. Type a new score for the student and press "Enter". Deleting a Student's Assignment Score (Mark as "Needs Grading") Should you need to delete a student's assignment score, follow the steps below. 1. Open the Grade Center. 2. Highlight the student's previous score and press "Delete" then press "Enter". 3. Check "Mark as Needs Grading". 4. Click "Submit". The "Needs Grading" icon should appear in the column for the student. Viewing Attempts These steps allow you to view the file(s) uploaded by a student. 1. In the Grade Center, hover your mouse over the student's attempt to make the drop down arrow appear then click it. 2. Click "View Grade Details" to view a list of all attempts. To view a specific attempt, click it from the bottom of the list. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 9 of 14

10 Deleting an Assignment When you delete an assignment, all files, feedback and scores associated with it are also deleted. To delete an assignment, follow the steps below. 1. Access the area of your course that contains the assignment. (In most cases, this is the Assignments area on the left menu. 1. Hover your mouse over the name of the assignment to make the drop down arrow appear. 2. Click the down arrow and select "Delete". 3. Click "OK" to confirm. 4. Specify how you wish to handle any existing scores. 5. Click "Remove". Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 10 of 14

11 Clear / Ignore / Allow Additional Student Attempts If a student as submitted the wrong file or has exceeded the number of attempts allowed for the assignment, the instructor may wish to delete or ignore previous attempts or allow more attempts for the student. This will allow the student to submit more attempts. 1. In the Grade Center, hover your mouse over the student's attempt to make the drop down arrow appear. 2. Click the drop down arrow and select "View Grade Details". 3. Choose one of the three options below; all allow additional attempts. Clear Attempt Deletes the attempt and any grading or feedback associated with it. Allows the student to submit an additional attempt. Ignore Attempt Keeps the attempt but allows the student to upload more attempts. The ignored attempt do not affect the student's assignment grade. Allow Additional Attempt Keeps any existing attempts and allows the student to submit an additional attempt. Note that previous attempts do affect the student's assignment grade. If ungraded, they produce an exclamation mark in the column; if graded, you need to specify how scores on multiple attempts on the same assignment are handled (i.e. averaged, highest, lowest, etc.). Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 11 of 14

12 Handling Grading Multiple Attempts By design or accident, every instructor will be faced with how to handle a student making multiple attempts on the same assignment. How you handle multiple attempts can affect the students' final score. Your choices are: Grade All Attempts and Record the Highest / Lowest Score / First / Last or an Average of All Manually Select which Attempt to Grade by Selectively Ignoring Other Attempts Note about Assignment File Download with Multiple Attempts Should you do an "Assignment File Download", Blackboard will allow you to specify whether you wish to download all attempts or the most recent. Grade All Submitted Attempts and Specify which one to Record for the Entire Class Under this scenario, should any student in the class submit multiple attempts, the instructor must grade all of the attempts and then specify how the multiple scores should affect the final grade for the assignment. The choices are: Last Graded Attempt First Graded Attempt Average All Attempts Highest Graded Attempt Lowest Graded Attempt To specify how the scores of the multiple attempts will affect the assignment's final score, follow the steps below. 1. In the Grade Center, hover your mouse over the name of the column to make the drop down arrow appear. 2. Select "Edit Column Information". 3. Click the "Score attempts using" drop down and select the method you wish Backboard to use to determine the assignment's final score. 4. Click "Submit". Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 12 of 14

13 Manually Specify which Attempt to Grade Under this scenario, the instructor only has to grade one of the attempts and marks the others to be ignored. 1. In the Grade Center, hover your mouse over the student's attempt to make the drop down arrow appear. 2. Click the drop down arrow and select "View Grade Details". 3. Click "Ignore Attempt" for the attempt you will not be grading. 4. Click "Grade Attempt" for the attempt you will be grading. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 13 of 14

14 Handling Multiple Files in a Single Attempt When students submit multiple files within the same attempt, Blackboard reacts as follows: Grading - The instructor can electronically annotate both papers individually; however, it is not possible to electronically provide a separate score for each file. Downloading - Should the instructor perform an "Assignment File Download", all files within the same attempt will be downloaded into the zip file. To view the files for an attempt containing multiple files: 1. In the Grade Center, hover your mouse over the student's attempt to make the drop down arrow appear. 2. Click the drop down arrow and click the attempt you wish to view. Type the score for the assignment here. Any files attached to the attempt will appear here. Click a file to display it electronically (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, & PDF files only). Download a file by clicking these arrows. Marshall School of Business Blackboard9_Assignments.docx 1/27/14 Page 14 of 14