eCampus Ultra Gradebook Overview
- Shana Blackshire
- Kathy Pepple
This training guide will walk you through using the eCampus Ultra gradebook and related tools. In addition to basic grade entry, tests, and grading with a rubric, you’ll also see how to monitor grades from the Retention Center tool, work in an offline spreadsheet, and create weighted calculations.
Accessing the Gradebook
Navigating to the Gradebook
After logging into eCampus, click Courses in the navigator menu.
Click to open one of your Ultra eCampus courses (with a colored bar).
Click the Gradebook tab at the top of your course page.
If there are items that need grading, the number of items will appear in a circle on the Gradebook tab.
The initial view of the Gradebook is the Overview, which shows how many items need to be graded or posted. You can switch between Gradable Items, Grades (spreadsheet), and the Students view of the gradebook.
Gradable Items shows a list of all the Gradable Items (and calculated items).
Grades is a grid view that displays a traditional spreadsheet version of the gradebook, with columns for each graded item or calculation and rows for each student.
Students shows a list of all students and their overall grade.
The Overview appears the first time you open the Gradebook. Subsequently, the Gradebook opens to the same view that was open the last time you viewed the Gradebook.
Gradebook Views
Overview
The Overview shows items, such as tests or assignments, that need to be graded or posted.
To grade an item, click the name of the item or the Grade Now button.
To Post an item, click the name of the item or the Post now button. You will then have a chance to verify that you are ready for the students to see their grades.
Gradable Items View
The Gradable Items view shows a list of all gradable work you have assigned and your grading progress.
The Item column shows the Overall Grade and the names of all gradable items (Assignments, Tests, Discussions, etc.)
The Overall Grade will not display an actual grade or any details here, since its purpose is to show each student’s grade in the course. Click Overall Grade to see each student’s grade.
Clicking a number in the Grading Status column (x to grade) opens the item that needs to be graded.
Clicking the Post x grades button in the Post column will reveal the grade to the student and add the item’s grade to the Overall Grade calculation.
Clicking the ellipsis (…) allows you to send a reminder to students, access the settings for the assignment or delete it.
Clicking the item/assignment name opens the gradable item to the Submissions tab, which displays a list of all students, their submission status, grade on the assignment, and posted status.
Clicking the ellipsis at the far right of the column for a student enables you to grant an exception or exemption for this student.
Grades View
The Grades view displays the overall grade for each student and the scores students have received for each assignment, test, or other graded item in a spreadsheet. Click in the header of any gradable item to send a reminder, edit the item, download submissions, view item statistics, or delete the column. You can also sort on any column by clicking the double-arrows next to each column’s title.
A purple banner icon to the left of the name indicates the student has an accommodation.
Clicking New Submission enables you to view that student’s submitted item and grade it.
Clicking a student’s name brings up a list view of that student’s work. This view also contains links in the upper right corner to:
Student Activity: a timeline showing the student’s hours per week in the class by date.
Accommodations: a panel on which to set an accommodation for the student.
Send Message: a panel for sending a message within eCampus.
Students View
The Students list displays an overall picture of each student’s work. Click a student’s name to see all of their grades.
A purple banner icon in the Full Name column indicates that the student has been granted an accommodation.
The Overall Grade column pill (the oval) is color-coded to show the student’s level in the course.
Clicking the ellipsis (…) enables you to set an accommodation for the student or to send an email to the student.
Accommodations can eliminate due dates for the student or grant the student additional time during timed assessments.
Messages from the Gradebook will be sent within the eCampus Messages tool.
Monitoring Student Grades and Performance at a Glance
The Gradebook offers ways to monitor student’s performance at a glance.
In the Grades and Students views, the overall grade oval is color-coded to show the students' grades:
Green = A
Lime green = B
Yellow = C
Orange = D
Red = Fail
Also in the Students view, grades for individual items are color-coded.
Grades for Discussions include analysis of students' responses according to sentence complexity, lexical and word variation, and critical thinking level.
Flexible Grading
When you have deployed tests with a definite answer as defined by you (such as True/False or Multiple Choice questions), eCampus automatically scores the test as soon as the student submits the test. The student score is placed in the Grade Center. When the test has questions that require you to grade manually, such as Essay questions, eCampus places the student responses in the Gradebook. Within the Gradebook, you can:
Grade responses one student at a time or one question at a time. Click the tabs in the upper left corner of the grading screen to switch between students or questions.
Annotate the student responses on their submissions.
View previous submissions to compare versions.
View the Blackboard/Anthology instructions.
Students will be able to view their test results according to the settings you chose in Assessment results when you created the test. View the Blackboard/Anthology instructions.
Grading with a Rubric
A rubric is a scoring tool you can use to evaluate graded work. When you create a rubric, you provide clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with various criteria, at varying levels of skill. For example, your criteria could be formatting, organization, grammar, and critical analysis. By default, the skill levels are excellent, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, and poor, but you can add other levels or delete one or more of the default levels.
Rubrics can be used with text items on assessments, only. If you use questions from the question types in Blackboard Ultra’s assignment or test builder, such as Multiple Choice, you cannot also use a rubric.
Creating the Rubric
You can create a rubric from the grade settings of the assessment itself, or from the settings in the Gradebook area of the course. From the assessment:
On the test or assignment Content and Settings page, click the Assignment Settings gear.
Scroll down to the Additional Tools group of settings to find the Use grading rubric settings.
Click Add grading rubric. You’ll see the Course Rubrics pane.
Note that you can Add an existing rubric to this assignment if any are listed.
Click Create to start a new rubric for this assignment.
Your cursor will be in the Title field. Enter a Name for this grading rubric.
Click the drop-down to select the Rubric Type. Choose to grade by:
Percentage
Percentage Range
Points
Points Range
Click the pencil icon in the first row (appears when you mouse-over the row titles) to enter and adjust the Criteria that you will use to judge each student’s performance on this assessment.
Edit the title of the first criterion by retyping the title for each row.
In the field below the row title, change the percent value or possible points value of the total grade represented by each criterion.
Add or remove criteria from the rubric.
Add criteria: mouse-over the area just above or below any criterion, and click the plus symbol.
Delete criteria: mouse-over the row title, and click the trash can icon.
Set the achievement levels for this rubric in the other columns. Be default, the achievement levels are Excellent, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, and Poor. Click the pencil icon (mouse-over to see it) in any column header to retype the achievement labels.
For each criterion row, click the pencil icon to enter the points or percentage scores and type a description of what meets each level of achievement for the assessment.
After you have set up the criteria for grading and the value for each level of achievement on each criterion, click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
The newly created rubric will appear in the list of Course Rubrics. Click the Add link to attach this rubric to the assessment.
View Blackboard/Anthology page on creating a rubric.
Applying the Rubric
You can add a rubric to an assignment or graded discussion at the time you create the assignment or discussion, or later from the Gradebook. (Remember that you can add a rubric only for assignments where eCampus question types, such as Multiple Choice or True False have not been used.)
While creating the assignment:
On the assignment, or discussion page, select the Settings icon to open the Settings panel.
In the Additional Tools section, click Add grading rubric, and then click Create to create a new rubric or Add to use an existing rubric.
Within the Gradebook:
In Gradable Items, click the ellipsis within the row for the assignment or discussion and then click Edit.
Select the Settings icon to open the Settings panel.
In the Additional Tools section, click Add grading rubric, and then click Create to create a new rubric or Add to use an existing rubric.
You cannot associate a rubric with an assignment/discussion if you have already graded the assignment/discussion.
Grading with a Rubric
Navigate to the grading page for the assessment with rubric by one of the following methods:
In the Gradable Items list of the Gradebook, click the # to grade link in the Grading Status column. Then click on a submission to start grading.
Click to open the Assignment where it lives on the main Content page of the course. Click the Submissions tab inside the assignment, then select any attempt to grade.
On the grading page, see a list of Students on the left. The selected student’s submission will appear in the middle of the page.
Read the student’s submission and use the markup tools above the submission to make comments directly on the student’s paper.
Click the grading rubric icon on the right hand side.
Click the slider to show descriptions of the criteria students should meet in their assignment submission.
Evaluate the student’s performance on each of the criteria by clicking to select which performance level you think they achieved. As you select an achievement level, the designated number of points or percentage amount will be filled in by the rubric.
Leave specific Criterion Feedback - in addition to the Overall Feedback at the top of the grading panel - by clicking the add feedback button next to each criterion.
Select the appropriate achievement level for each criterion in the rubric based on the student’s performance. Add feedback to each as desired.
Click the arrow to the right of each criterion to expand/collapse the details in the rubric.When a level of achievement has been assigned for each criterion, you can edit (override) the total score by clicking in the grade pill in the Submission box at the top of the rubric. Type your adjusted score and press Enter.
Click the Overall Feedback section at the top of the feedback panel to enter overall feedback to the student for the whole assignment.
Enter overall feedback using the text editor. You can also attach a file or link to a web site. Save changes to make sure the student sees the feedback.
Click the next student in the list to continue grading submissions. When all submissions are graded, you can also Post Grades at the bottom of the Students list, or return to the Gradebook to post grades.
Click the X to close the flexible grading page.
View the Blackboard/Anthology page showing how to use a rubric to grade a student’s submission.
Create a Column to Manually Enter Grades
From the Gradable Items view, hover your mouse between rows until a purple plus sign appears. Click the plus sign and choose Add Item from the menu. (You can create the new item anywhere within the list of items by hovering between items. The new item will be located at that spot, but you can move it if necessary by clicking the up/down arrows.)
Enter details about the new item. Click Save when you are done.
If necessary, move the item to a different location in the list by clicking the move icon (arrows) at the right side of the list.
Click the name of the item to bring up the list of students. Click in the row for each student and enter the score in the oval grade pill. Optionally, click the link to Add Feedback.
Entering a Grade
If you have graded an item offline (outside of eCampus), such as an in-class pop quiz or written assignment submitted on paper, you can easily enter grades for the new column created above.
Click the name of the gradable item in the list. A new page will open, showing the grades and any feedback for each student in your course.
To manually enter grades, just click in the grade pill cell to type a score for each student.
Press Enter or click outside the grade pill to see the grade schema coloring applied.
Share feedback with each student about this assessment by clicking the Add Feedback link. On the Grades & Feedback panel, you can:
Enter the student’s grade for this assessment here.
Enter text (or even links, attachments, and other content) into the Feedback for student box.
Save the feedback message to allow the student to see it when the grade is posted.
Click Next Student at the bottom to enter a grade and feedback for each student in succession.
Tests in eCampus Ultra
Creating a Test
Click the plus symbol in the Course Content area (you can also add a test inside a folder or module).
Click Create.
In the Assessment section of the Create Item menu, choose Test.
Your cursor will be in the title field at the top. Give the test a Name.
In the Content & Settings portion of the page, click the plus symbol to add test questions.
To add questions to the test, you can:
Choose a question type.
Choose to reuse a question.
Upload a question from a file.
Add a file from Cloud Storage.
Continue adding questions by hovering your mouse above or below a question to activate the plus symbol.
Revising a Test
To return to a test to make changes, simply click on the test link on the Content page of your course.
The test Content and Settings page will open. Add, remove, or edit questions as needed.
Make sure to Save any changes to questions.
Make the Test Available
When you are ready for students to see and have access to the test, change the visibility setting for the test, and ensure that the test is available during the dates specified in the settings pane for this item.
You can make the test visible while creating or editing the test by clicking the drop-down arrow above the test settings and changing the default to Visible to students.
You can also make the test visible by clicking the drop-down arrow in the row for the test on the content page and choosing Visible to students.
Importing Grades from Excel
You can maintain grades offline and then import the grades into the Gradebook.
Begin in the Gradebook
Create one or more columns in the Gradebook (Gradable items or student grid view) that will contain the values currently located in an Excel spreadsheet.
From any view of the Gradebook, click the link to download the gradebook in the upper right corner.
Download Grades options appear. Best practices are to download the full gradebook, to select all items, and keep the file type tab-separated. On the Download Grades page, you will see some options for you downloading the data.
Choose to download the file to your computer or your eCampus content collection.
Then click Download to compile a downloadable file.
Depending on your browser, you will see the download appear in a list or pop up, or in your designated folder. Open the downloaded file.
Gradebook data is downloaded in Excel spreadsheet format, using Tab-spacing to determine where each new column begins. Click Yes to allow Excel to open the file.
Enter the grades for each student in the column(s) you created in step 1.
Do NOT change the column headings, remove any columns, or change the order of the columns.
If you keep your students’ grades offline in a spreadsheet with formulas, do not copy the cell(s) containing the formula and then use the Paste keyboard command (Ctrl + V) to paste into the Gradebook spreadsheet you just downloaded. Instead, copy the cells from the spreadsheet with your formulas; in the downloaded spreadsheet, right-click in the cell and choose Paste Values from the menu. eCampus cannot read the formula - the data must be values only.
Save the file with the same name with a file type of CSV before you upload it to the course again.
Upload Grade Center Changes
In your browser window, go back to the Gradebook page, and import the file you edited by clicking the Upload Gradebook button in the upper right corner.
Select the file from your computer, then click Upload.
A message is displayed verifying that the upload is complete.
The Post column contains a button reminder to post the grade. Click this button to make the grade available to students and include the grade in the overall grade calculation.
Setting up the overall grade
When you first click the Gradebook tab in the top menu, you will see a message asking if you want to set up the overall grade. The overall grade is a running calculation of the student’s grade based on graded work. At the end of the semester, this grade will be considered the final grade for the course and will be synced to Banner/Star as the student’s official grade for the course.
After clicking Set it up, you can choose if you would like to set this up by points, by weighting categories, or by building your own formula. The default is by points.
Click Next after selecting the grading format to see the Overall Grade editing page.
Calculating Using Points
The default overall grade is based on the total number of points for all gradable items (based on the number of points you assigned when setting up the item) and the percentage of those points that the student earned. The Overall Grade screen shows the maximum number of points a student can earn in each category.
Calculating Using Weighted
Choose Weighted to weight items or categories proportionately or equally instead of by points. You can assign individual items or whole categories to have more or less weight than their number of points. You can do any of the following:
Remove items from the calculation,
Change an item’s or category's weight,
Create a new column with a calculation and then use that column in other calculations,
Alter the overall grade column to use only the categories you specify.
By default, percentages will be allocated equally to all categories, even if you are not using that category.
To remove a category that you are not using, click the circle with a line through it.
The removed categories now have a purple icon. Allocations are recalculated to show the weights according to only the categories that are used in the course.
You can change the weight of categories by clicking within a category’s cell and entering a different weight. All weights must total 100%.
To view the items within a category, click the inverted caret.
Within the category, you can exclude an item’s score from the calculation, or unlink an item from its category.
For each category, you can click Edit calculation rules (to the right of the category name) to choose to drop the lowest or highest scores, or to use only the highest or lowest score, or to use just specific scores.
Advanced Calculations
You can add your own calculations to your course gradebook. A calculation is a formula that produces a numerical result used to view or assign grades, usually based on other graded items.
You can create your own formulas and use common arithmetic operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and use group operators (parentheses).
In the example below, the overall grade will be based on just two categories, Assignment and Test. The Assignment category points will be multiplied by 2 and the Test category will be multiplied by .75.
Click the Advanced button to open the calculations canvas.
To modify the default overall grade,
Choose a function. For the above calculation, click the Total function. Click the dropdown to view all categories or coursework and check the box for items or categories to be included in the calculation.
Choose an operator, such as add, subtract, divide, multiply.
Click Value and then enter an amount by which the amount of the category will be operated on.
Continue adding to the formula until it is complete.
Click the Validate button to see if this is a valid expression.
Overall Grade Settings
Under Overall Grade Settings on the right, click the drop-down to select how the overall grade is displayed: letter, points, or percentage.
The default display will also show this calculation to students in their view of the gradebook. Uncheck the show to students checkbox to hide this gradebook item.
Click Save at the bottom to create the new calculation as a gradable item (column in the gradebook).
Close (X) the Overall Grade page to return to the main gradebook settings panel.
Close (X) the Gradebook Settings panel to see the new Overall Grade appear as a gradable item.
Grade Sync
If your course’s grades are complete and accurate in eCampus, you can save a great deal of time after midterms and finals by having Grade Sync send the grades to the STAR system. Before you can sync grades to STAR, you will need to make sure the Overall Grade has been set up, and that all grades are Posted for student viewing. The GradeSync tool uses the Overall Grade as the designated ‘external’ column to transfer automatically.
Watch a video demonstrating how to use Grade Sync in eCampus Ultra
Prepare the Gradebook
Set up the Overall Grade for this course.
You will see a message in the Gradebook inviting you to click the Set it up button to create your desired final grade formula.The button will take you to the Gradebook Settings menu.
Scroll down to find the Overall Grade options.
Verify that all items calculated as part of the overall grade have been assigned their proper weight or point value.
In the Gradable Items list, make sure that all graded items have been graded and posted.
Review the list of Gradable Items in the Gradebook.
Grade any ungraded items.
Click the Post button for any unposted grades.
Sync Grades to STAR
Click the Content tab to navigate to the Details & Actions menu area.
Under Books & Tools, click View course & institution tools.
In the Books & Course Tools pop-out panel, click the LTI GradeSync tool. It will open in a new browser tab/window.
You will see tabs at the top to submit either Midterm or Final grades. Click the tab for the correct grading period. A list of your students with their current Overall Grade is displayed.
Change any grades if necessary by editing the Midterm (or Final) column.
Click Submit at the bottom of the list of students.
A message is displayed verifying the number of students whose grades have been transferred to STAR. A checkmark in the Submitted column will indicate each student’s successfully transferred grade.
Additional Resources
Grading Assignments & Tests in eCampus Ultra
Weighting Course Activities in the Gradebook (eCampus Ultra)