Here's a selection of functionality we think you might find useful. There's more you can do with the Grade Centre. If there's something in particular you'd like to do, contact us via the IT Services Desk and we'll see if it's possible.
Students can be emailed a reminder to submit items to Minerva/post to blogs etc. To send a reminder, go to the Grade Centre and select the column header's action link:
Then select Send Reminder:
You will see a prompt to confirm that you want to send the email.
Students are now emailed a receipt for submissions they make to the Assignment tool (this is different to the Turnitin tool). Staff can view receipts via the Grade Centre. Go to the Grade Centre and select Reports and then Submission Receipts:
You can search by student or switch the search by field to not blank to see all students' receipts:
Go to the Grade Centre, select the rows of the students you wish to email and then click Email, Email Selected Users (ignore the observer options, we don't use this role at Leeds).
You can select all students in the table by using the check box at the top of the column:
The Send Email page will open. Type in your message. Check Include list of recipients to have a list of who the message was sent to in your email. (The recipients don't see who it was sent to).
Click Submit to send.
The filter option allows you to switch quickly between smart views, categories and status (or combination thereof). If you are dealing with large numbers of students the filter can be particularly useful. Open the filter options by clicking the filter button:
Then select fields as relevant:
You can hide students from the Grade Centre - useful if you have some who are just sitting in on the class.
To hide, you can select the action link next to the student's name and then select Hide Row.
If you have multiple to hide or need to unhide rows, go to Manage and then Row Visibility
Select students as relevant using the tick boxes. Click Hide Rows or Show Rows as relevant and then click Submit.
Be aware that any changes you make will affect your colleagues' view of the Grade Centre.
Most categorisation happens automatically, if you decide to create your own columns in the Grade Centre, it's a good idea to categorise them too as it will improve Filter and Smart View options.
Create new categories by going to the Grade Centre and then Manage, Categories.
Next select Create Category.
The only information you need to add when creating a category is an appropriate name and, if you wish, a description.
You can also edit categories you've created on this page by selecting the action link next to the relevant category. System generated categories can't be changed.
Once you've created categories, you can add categories to columns quickly by going to Manage, Column Organisation:
Select columns as relevant and then Change Category to....
Make sure you click Submit when you've made the changes.
All of these options are available via the Manage option.
Grading Colour Codes apply background and text colour to items in the Grade Centre that meet specified criteria. This can be useful to highlight:
Colour is disabled by default. On the Grading Colour Codes page first enable the tool, then change colours defined for items which are In Progress, Needs Grading or Exempt. On the same page you can also add colour codes for mark ranges. To do this select the Add Criteria button, fill in the criteria and add colours. Remember to Submit your changes.
Create Grading periods to help sort Grade Centre columns according to due date. This may be useful if using smart views.
You will see the Blackboard default schemas. If you wish, you can edit them for your module.