QUESTION: Students are asking me to post grades in Blackboard. I don’t know much about Blackboard, but I would like to do it if it’s easy for me and if it helps students to keep track of course work.
ANSWER:
More and more students are asking professors to use Blackboard for their courses. Blackboard is an ISU- supported course management system that offers many features that both instructors and their students find useful. Blackboard provides a space in which instructors can place handouts and course materials, conduct online discussions, administer online quizzes, and collect student work. One of the most popular features of Blackboard, however, is Grade Book. Grade Book provides a secure place to post student grades. When an instructor uses Blackboard Grade Book, students see only their own grades, but they can see them any time of the day or night.
In order to use Grade Book in Blackboard, you will first have to request a Blackboard course using two forms available on the CTLT website. The first form requests a course; the second requests a one-time upload of your course roster. (After the initial upload, instructors are responsible for any additions or deletions, but these are not difficult procedures.) Once a course has been created and the student names have been uploaded, the instructor can go into the course and start working on the Grade Book. An introductory handout is available to explain how to use the Grade Book, and CTLT offers workshops in Blackboard Grade Book as well.
If you already record grades in Excel or other grade book programs, you can import these grade books in to Blackboard. That way, you don‘t have to start from scratch if you want to take advantage of Black-board‘s security and access features. Instructions for importing grades can be found at this link. You can also import Opscan and Clickers reports into your Blackboard Grade Book.
