The Blackboard Vista grade book is a tool for instructors to manage grades for their students by creating columns for quizzes, assignments, etc. and optionally allowing each student to see their own scores for each. This guide covers the following topics:

• Getting Help
• Logging Into Bb Vista
• Accessing the Grade Book
• Creating Grade Book Columns
• Hiding and Moving Columns
• Deleting Columns
• Column Settings
• Entering Grades
• Grade Book Tabs
• Viewing Grades as a Student
• Exporting/Importing Spreadsheet Data

To access the grade book:

1. Click the name of your course section from your My Blackboard home page.
2. Click the Teach tab at the top of the screen.



3. Click the Grade Book link from Instructor Tools on the left.

   

   • You will be taken into the grade book for your section

Please note the Bb Vista grade book should be used on computers with a screen size of 1024x768 or higher.

To create a column in the grade book:

1. Click the Create Column ActionLink menu and choose a column type



2. Enter a column label. Be sure to keep it brief.
3. Choose your alignment, decimal place and maximum value preferences if desired.
4. Make changes to the Grade-related column and Released to Student settings if desired.
5. Select Release Statistics options if desired.
6. Click Save.
   • The column will be created and you will be taken back to the grade book.

Column Types:

• Alphanumeric - A short string of text or numbers.
• Calculated - Build a formula based on other numeric or calculated columns.
• Grading Form - The numeric result of a grading form you created.
• Letter Grade - Display a letter grade based on the value of another numeric or calculated column.
• Numeric - Can contain only numeric values.
• Selection List - Create your own drop-down list of choices.
• Text - An extended string of text.

To hide a column:

1. Click the Reorder Columns button.



2. Click the Hide Column button to the right of the column name.

   

   • To hide multiple columns, check the boxes next to each column and click the Hide button.
3. Click Save.

To show a column:

1. Click the Reorder Columns button.



2. Click the Show Column button to the right of the column name.

   

   • To show multiple columns, check the boxes next to each column and click the Show button.
3. Click Save.

To move a column:

1. Click the Reorder Columns button.



2. Check the box next to the column you want to move.



3. Click the Move Selected Items Above icon next to the column you want the selected column above.

   

   • Multiple columns can be moved simultaneously by checking the box next to each.

To delete a column:

1. Click the Grade Book Options ActionLink menu and choose Column Settings



2. Click the ActionLink menu next to the column name and choose Delete.

   

   • To delete multiple columns, check the boxes above each column and click the Delete button.
3. Columns attached to Assessments and Assignments cannot be deleted in the grade book. You need to go to the Assignments or Assessments tools and delete the items there.

To change column settings:

1. Click the Grade Book Options ActionLink menu and choose Column Settings



2. Click the option you would like to change.
   • Any hyperlinked option can be changed by clicking the link.
   • Clicking some links will bring up more options, other links are a toggle switch between two options.
   • If your choice brings up multiple options, be sure to save the changes by clicking the Save button.
3. To return to the Grade Book, click the Grade Book breadcrumb link.

Settings:

• Label - The name of the column.
• Type - Numeric, calculated, text, etc.
• Alignment - Left, right or center.
• Released to Student - Whether or not the student can see the value in My Grades. Only grade related columns can be released to students.
• Grade Column - Grade columns will appear in the Grades and View All tabs while non-grade related columns appear in the Members tab.
• Decimals - The number of decimal places to be stored for partial points.
• Maximum value - The maximum possible points.
• Source - ASSESSMENT_TYPE means the column comes from a quiz; PROJECT_TYPE means it comes from an Assignment and a blank source means the column is either a default column or one created manually in the grade book.
• Release Statistics - You can choose to allow students to see the average, maximum, minimum, etc. for that column.

To enter grades for one student at a time:

1. Find the cell in the grade book that corresponds to the student's row and the assignment's column.
   • Either a double dash (--) or a score will appear in that cell.
2. Click the double dash or the current score.



3. Enter a value in the Change To box.
4. Click the Save button.
   • Values entered into the Comment box are not visible to students.

To enter grades for all students at the same time:

1. Click the name of the column in the column header.
2. Choose Edit Values.

   

   • You will see a list of your students with a Change to value for each.
   • By default, Vista will show you 10 students per page in the grade book. When you edit values, you will only see those 10 (or fewer) students per page. You will need to save the values and then go to the next page in the grade book. Alternatively, you can change your settings to see all students on one page.
3. Enter a score for each student, tabbing from student to student.
4. Click the Save button when done.

There are 5 grade book tabs in Vista:

• Grades - Shows grade related columns
• Members - Shows non-grade related columns
• View All - Shows grade and non-grade related columns
• Custom View - Shows grade and non-grade related columns
• SCORM Grades - Shows grades from SCORM modules

Important things to know about the grade book tabs:

• You can reorder, show and hide columns in each tab since they are independent views of the grade book.
• If you want to arrange the way students see their scores in My Grades, reorder the columns while in the View All tab.
• Hiding and showing a column in the grade book does not affect student's ability to see the grades for that column. Their visibility is controlled by the Released to Student setting which is available when you create a column and later by going changing column settings.

To view grades as your students do:

1. Make sure to enter scores in the grade book under the student named Demo Student. This is you when you are in the Student View tab.



2. Click the Student View tab.



3. Click My Grades from My Tools on the left.

If My Grades does not appear:

1. Click the Build tab.



2. Click Manage Course from the Designer Tools menu on the left.



3. Click the Course Menu link.



4. Click the Show Link button next to My Grades to make it visible.

   

   • If the button is called Hide Link, My Grades is already visible.
5. Click Teach tab to return to the grade book.

Grades can be exported from or imported to Vista. The export file is a CSV file (Comma Separated Values) which can be opened in Excel and other programs.

To export the grade book:

1. Click the Export to Spreadsheet button at the bottom of the grade book.

   

   • It is best to choose All columns under Columns to Export but the rest of the settings should remain as they are unless you have a specific reason to change them.
2. Click the Export button.
3. Save the file to your campus I drive--not the hard drive of your PC or removable media that could be lost or stolen.
4. Click Cancel to return to the grade book.

To import a CSV file:

1. Click the Import from Spreadsheet button at the top of the grade book.



2. Browse to your file.
3. Click the Upload button.
4. Make sure the columns to be imported match their destination.



5. Click the Import button.



6. Columns created in your CSV file can be imported into the grade book. They will be created as non-grade related text columns so the settings may need to be altered once imported into Vista.

Author:

Mandi Witkovsky, 2007

Editors:

Han Fei, 2007
Scott Vitz, 2007

Last Updated:

October 16, 2007