Lesson 1 - Exploring the Grade Center

Introduction
Sandi is teaching Intro to Business course and wants to set up all her assessments (quizzes/exams, discussion board participation, self and peer  assessments, projects, etc.) in the Blackboard Grade Center. Her college just upgraded to version 8.0, so she is learning how to use the new enhancements in the grade book, now called the Grade Center. So, she opens the Control Panel and clicks the Grade Center link to start exploring the features and functionality.

She notices that the newly named Grade Center exhibits new capabilities and vast improvements over the previous Gradebook. Some of the new features or improvements include the following:

• A redesigned tool bar, titled the Action Bar, through which multiple functions are possible
• The ability to create and print Reports, such as final grades, to hand out to students or other interested parties
• Inline editing: the ability to enter grades directly through the Grade Center spreadsheet
• New grade calculations, Average grade and Minimum/Maximum grade, and improvements to the creation of Weighted grades and Total points grades
• Smart Views - the ability to categorize students into groups based on selected criteria. These views can be displayed in the Grade Center.
• A multitude of ways to customize the display of the Grade Center
• The ability to create grading schema: multiple grading scales that match assessment grades to chosen grade displays, such as text and percent grades.