Setting Up Overall Grade

Setting Up Overall Grade (Weighted) in Blackboard Ultra

+ navigation instructions

Before You Start

• Have your mark breakdown handy.
• It’s best to set up your overall grade once you have all items listed in the mark breakdown created in your course content.
• Tip: You can create place holders (instructions to follow).

3. Assigning Weights

2. Organizing Items and Categories

1. Creating Overall Grade

Setting Up Overall Grade

Creating a Placeholder Item

Example Mark Breakdown

Before You Start

Index

Example Mark Breakdown

+ Tip

Must Total100%

• Technical Style Exercise (5%)
• Visual Aid Exercise (5%)
• Routine Correspondence Exercise (5%)
• Technical Definitions Quiz (5%)
• Plagiarism and APA Citation Quiz (5%)
• Research Quiz (5%)
• Summative Quiz (10%)
• Infographic & Presentation Assignment (15%)
• Project Plan (10%)
• Annotated Bibliography (5%)
• Project Worksheet (5%)
• Research Report (15%)
• Modules Completion (10%: 10 modules x 1%)

Mark Breakdown (Example)

Creating aPlaceholder: Demo

Select to watch Creating a Placeholder in a new tab

1. Go to Content page
2. Select the + icon to add an item
3. Create a new Assignment
4. No Due Date (to be updated later)
5. No content (to be updated later)
6. Make sure it is hidden from students

Creating an Placeholder (Assignment)

Setting Up Overall Grade: Demo

2. Organizing Items and Categories

3. Assigning Weights

1. Creating Overall Grade Column

Steps to Setting Up Overall Grade

Setting Up Overall Grade Demo

01

CreatingOverall Grade

Select to watch Step 1: Demo in a new tab

1. Go to Gradebook page
2. Create Overall Grade
1. Select the settings (gear icon)
2. Scroll midway and select Set Up Overall Grade
3. Select Weighted, and select Next
4. Select the checkbox on the right if you want the Overall Grade visible to students
5. Select Save

Step 1: DemoCreating Overall Grade

Setting Up Overall Grade Demo

02

Organizing Items and Categories

Overall Grade: Default Organization

• Blackboard Ultra has many default Grade Categories that may be irrelevant to your course.

• By default Blackboard Ultra equally distributes the 100% across ALL Grade Categories.
• This means, even if you do NOT have any graded items in the Homework Category, it will default still assign it a %.
• By default, items nested within a Grade Category will receive equal % of the assigned weight.
• Example, if the category Tests is worth 20% and there are two items nested within, each item will be worth 10%.
• However, if one test is worth 5% and the other is worth 15%, the items will need to be unlinked from the Grade Category.
• Here we suggest that you unlink all items from the Grade Categories so they are visible and easy to assign the appropriate weight.

+ info

Select to watch Step 2: Demo in a new tab

1. Go to Gradebook page
2. Select Overall Grade (to edit)
1. In List View, select Calculation Details
2. In Table/Column View, select Edit
3. Expand all Grade Categories by selecting the downward chevron/arrow to the right of each category
4. Unlink all items from each Grade Category

Step 2: DemoOrganizing Items & Categories

Setting Up Overall Grade Demo

03

Assigning Weights

Select to watch Step 3: Demo in a new tab

1. Edit Overall Grade
2. Exclude all irrelevant Grade Categories and items (e.g., optional assessments)
1. Remember to exclude Grade Categories with zero items
2. Reason: Blackboard Ultra equally distributes 100% across all items and Grade Categories that are not excluded
3. Assign weights to each assessment item
1. It MUST total 100% in order to save
4. Select Save

Step 3:Assigning Weights

Congratulations!You have set up your overall grade in Blackboard Ultra.

Visit the Teaching and Learning Centre's webpage

Visit our Blackboard Ultra Resource webpage

If you have any questions, please reach out to the Teaching & Learning Centre at teaching@senecacollege.ca

Thanks!

Overall Grade MUST Total 100%

When setting up the Overall Grade in Blackboard Ultra, you can ONLY save what you have set up WHEN it adds up to 100%. Therefore, it is best to have all assessment items created (with or without content) in the Content page before setting up the Overall Grade in the Gradebook section.

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