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Grade Center - Edit/Create a Custom Grading Schema

  • In the Grade Center, when an item is graded, a numeric score appears in the students' cells by default. You can choose to display grades in other ways with grading schemas. A schema takes the points scored on an item and compares it to the item's total points possible to derive a percentage. This percentage is mapped to a range of scores and displays a grade, such as a letter (A, B, C) or Pass/Fail. This information is presented in a table format.
  • The Grade Center includes a copy of a default grading schema based on assigning letters to the percentages. Your institution may edit this schema to reflect a general grading schema used for all courses. The grade schema is based on raw scores that are assigned, and may differ from the rounded-up grades shown in the Grade Center grid.
  • You can associate the default grading schema with one or more columns in the Grade Center. When you grade items, the grade values (letters) appear in the cells in the Grade Center grid and to students in My Grades. You can choose not to show grades to students when creating or editing a column.
  • You can make the uppermost value in a grading schema greater than 100%. For example, if a student earns 100% or more, you can assign A+ to those scores.
  • After creation, a grading schema is included as an option in the Primary and Secondary Display menus when you create and edit columns in the Grade Center.
  • This answer will show you how to Create a Grading Schema, Edit a Grading Schema, Copy/Delete a Grading Schema, and Associating Grading Schemas.

Go to Full Grade Center

  1. Under Control Panel in Course Management on the left side of your course, click Grade Center.
  2. Click Full Grade Center.

Go to Grading Schemas

  1. Hover on the arrows in the Manage tab.
  2. Click Grading Schemas.

Create a New Schema

Create Grading Schema

Click Create Grading Schema at the top of the page.

Schema Information

  1. Name the Schema and provide a description if you would like
  2. In the Schema Mapping section, two default rows appear with ranges of percentages. You can edit the two ranges to customize a Pass/Fail schema. You can create other types of grading schemas with these options:
  • Select Insert New Row Here to insert more rows for additional values. For example, if you use A, B, C, D, and F for your grades, you need five rows in the table.
  • Select Delete Row to remove a row from the table. At least one row must remain.

3.   In the Grades Scored Between boxes, type percentage ranges for the grade values. The percentage range for each grade value must be unique and begin with the lesser value listed first. Also, the values must overlap to avoid gaps that occur when a score falls between two numbers in a range. The range of 80 - 90% includes all grades up to, but not including 90%. The top range does include 100% or whatever your top value is.

4.   In the Will Equal boxes, type the grade values:

  • A, B, C, D, and F
  • 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
  • Pass and Fail
  • Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory
  • Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor
  • Note: Duplicate grade values are NOT allowed.

5.   In the Will Calculate as boxes, type the percentage values to use if you provide a grade manually. The percentages must fall between the corresponding range of percentages in the first column. For example, grades you score manually as A (90 - 100%) will be calculated as 95%. For an item with 100 points possible, if you change the grading schema from letter grades to numeric scores, 95 appears as the grade in the cell instead of A.

6.   Click Submit when you have finished adjusting your schema

Edit an Existing Grading Schema

  1. Click the down arrows next to the Schema you want to edit.
  2. Click Edit.
  • You can edit an existing grading schema and save the changes within your course. For example, you can lower the percentages needed to achieve the letter grades. New schemas and edits to existing schemas only appear in the course you are in.
  • If you want to retain the default grading schema, you can copy it and edit the values. Your institution may edit this schema to reflect a general grading schema they want instructors to use.
  • If your institution makes changes after you edit the default grading schema, your institution's changes aren't reflected in your course.
  • When you edit a schema, start from the top and edit the values for the first grade value and move to the next row. Then, delete or insert rows. If you navigate to another course area before you save a grading schema, any unsaved changes are lost.
  • If you associate a grading schema with columns in the Grade Center and edit the schema, the changes appear automatically. For example, you can edit a text grading schema and change Excellent to Superior.

Copy/Delete an Existing Grading Schema

  • You can copy and delete existing grading schemas in the Grade Center. For example, if you want to make minor changes to the default letter grading schema, you can retain it by copying it and editing it.

On the Grading Schemas page,

  1. Click the down arrows to access a schema's menu  
  2. Select Copy or Delete.
  3. A copied schema appears in the list with a number appended to the name, such as Letter(2).
  • You can delete the default letter grading schema only if you haven't associated it with a Grade Center column. If no letter grading schema exists, Letter isn't an option in the Primary or Secondary Display menus.
  • If no check box exists for a schema, you have associated it with a Grade Center column and can't delete it.

Associating Grading Schemas

When you create or edit grade columns, you can select a grading schema in the Primary and Secondary Display menus. The schema you select as the Primary Display is the grade value in the Grade Center and what students see in My Grades. The Secondary Display appears in parentheses only in the Grade Center, next to the Primary Display. Students don't see the secondary value.

  1. Access the appropriate column's menu and select Edit Column Information.
  2. On the Edit Column page, make a selection in the Primary Display menu. If you created customized grading schemas, they appear in the list. Five default options appear:
    • Score: A numeric grade is the default setting. If you don't make a selection, the score appears in the grid.
    • Letter: A letter grade appears. The default grading schema is used to assign letter grades. For example, a score of 21/30 equals 70% and appears as a C.
    • Text: Text appears in the column when you create and associate a text grading schema. 
      • Examples of text values include: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor -OR- Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory. 
      • If no text grading schema exists, and you select the Text option, you can type text in the column's cells. 
      • If you choose to share the column results with students in My Grades, they see the text values for their grades.
      • When you convert a numeric score to text without creating a custom text grading schema, and then return to numeric scoring, values that can't be converted display a zero after conversion. 
      • If you want to include text as grades, We recommend that you create a text grading schema and associate it with the appropriate columns.
    • Percentage: A percentage appears. For example, a score of 21/30 equals 70%.
    • Complete/Incomplete: When a student submits an item, a Completed icon appears in the column regardless of the score achieved.
  3. Optionally, make a selection in the Secondary Display menu. The default setting is None. The same options appear in this list with the exception of the option chosen as the Primary Display and Text. The default Text option doesn't appear for grade columns as you can't edit a secondary value from a grade column's cell.
  4. For self-assessments, you can't define a Secondary Display because the Primary Display is Complete/Incomplete.
  5. Select Submit.

Success!

You have successfully worked with Grading Schemas in Blackboard.

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