Every course in Blackboard has its own gradebook to calculate grades for the course. The gradebook can be accessed by entering the course and selecting gradebook in the top navigation of the page. You can manage items and post grades from four views (overview, gradeable items, grades and students), as well as establish your gradebook settings. 

Using the Overview View

The Overview tab displays grading tasks for you to complete: 

• Needs reconciling lists all items for reconciliation where the Instructor needs to review grades and feedback from others before determining the final grade. This section only appears if you are an assigned grader for parallel grading. It is hidden when you have no items for reconciliation. 
• Needs Grading lists submissions ready for grading with the oldest ungraded submissions at the top of the list. 
• Needs posting lists graded assessments that are ready to be posted. Grades need to be "posted" for students to see them. This allows the faculty member time to complete and release all grades at once for students.  

Using the Gradeable Items View

The Gradable Items view displays all gradable items in your course. You can view due dates, grading status, and item categories. You can also post grades and adjust the overall calculation from the course. 

• Items with missing submissions past the due date display in red. 
• Use the move button (the inverse arrows) to drag and drop items in a new order. We recommend placing these items in due date chronological order for easier navigation. 
• Select an item name to go to review the submission status by student for that assessment. 
• Select the value in the grading status column to go directly to the assessment's submissions page and start grading. 
• If all assessments are graded, a post now button will appear to post the grades for the students to view. 

Using the Grades View

The Grade View displays each student's grade for a specific assignment, with one student per row and one gradable item per column. Use the arrow buttons to sort columns into ascending or descending order. 

In the grid, you can select a student's gradable item to open a menu with these options: 

• View: directly go to the assignment and start reviewing the submission. 
• Feedback: enter feedback for submitted work and automatic zeros. 
• Post: post a grade that's been assigned and should now be visible to students. 
• Add or edit exemptions: settings that can be setup to allow student access to an assessment at alternate time or is authorized to submit multiple attempts. 

When you select a gradable item at the top of the Grade view, a menu opens with options to edit or delete the item or send a reminder. Additional options include Question Analysis, Download Results, Statistics, and Download Submissions are available based on the type of gradable item and whether students have made submissions. For a more efficient grading experience, you can customize the grade view: 

• Use sort options on each gradable item's column to view the information in ascending or descending order. 
• With the filter button, located in the top right, you can narrow the information displayed in the grid to exactly what you need (students, groups, gradable items, assessment type, or categories). 

Using the Students View

The Students view lists the names of all your students with their date and time of last access to the course and the overall grades. Overall grades will only appear if you've set up the overall grade for the course. Students with grading accommodations have a purple flag with their name. 

• You can directly message students and add accommodations.
• Search for particular students by name, username, or student ID. 
• Select a student's name to go to their student overview. 

Establishing your Gradebook Settings

You can use the gradebook settings to customize your gradebook to match your teaching style and course goals. Select the settings button (the gear icon) underneath student preview to open the gradebook settings panel.  

• Grade Schemas: map assessment scores to percentages, letters, or some other notation for reporting performance. 
• Student Performance: receive alerts in your activity stream about student performance and activity. Set an alert for the number of days a student is inactive. If you've set up the overall grade for our course, you can also receive an alert when a student's overall grade percentage drops below a certain point. 
• Automatic Zeros: choose to automatically assign zeros to missing work past the due date. If allowed, students and groups can still submit there work after automatic zero is assigned to improve their score, and you can grade as normal. 
• Overall Grade: the overall grade is a calculated item displaying a running tally of all the items you grade and post that counts toward the overall course grade.
• Students Visibility: use the student visibility setting to hide or show un-enrolled students. 
• Grade Categories:  used to link gradable items to categories to calculate the overall grade . You can add custom categories to the grade book.