Blackboard Ultra (Faculty) - Groups: Grade Group Assignments

Grading Group Assignments

When you create a group assignment, a grade is assigned to the group as a whole. All members receive the same grade. You can change individual members' grades, but it’s important to understand how those changes work.

Accessing Group Submissions

There are several ways to access group submissions for grading:

• From the main content page, click the group assignment link and use the Submissions tab to see the submissions from each group. 
• In the Gradebook, locate the assignment item within gradable items or the grades grid and click on a group’s cell to View Submission

Grading a Group Submission

1. Access the group submission as described above.
2. Review the group's submission.
3. Expand or collapse the grading panel headers as needed. 
   
   
   
   
4. Enter a grade in the Grade field or use a rubric to calculate the score. 
5. Provide feedback to the group in the Overall Feedback field and Save.
6. Provide individualized feedback to each student in the Group Members fields and Save. 
   Note: The students can see the grade and rubric if used, overall feedback, and any individual feedback you provide for them, but not individual feedback to other members of the group. 
   
   
7. Post to release the grade and feedback to the group. You can post after each submission is scored or wait until all submissions from the different groups have scores and feedback to post in batches. 

Overriding Individual Grades

While all members initially receive the group grade, you can override individual grades if needed. Here’s how:

1. After grading the group submission, locate the submissions tab in the assignment.
2. Click inside the cell to activate the grade entry for that student.
   
   
3. Enter the individual student's adjusted grade.
4. Provide individual feedback in the feedback area in the panel on the right side and Save. 
5. Adjustments can continue to be made to the grade, but if a rubric was used, click the link to regrade with the rubric if a change is needed. 
   
   
   
   Note: Regrading with a rubric will override all adjusted grades back to the rubric's score. 

Alternatively, overriding a grade in the grades view is possible:

1. Locate the specific student’s grade cell in the Gradebook. 
2. Type in the new score. 
3. A prompt will appear asking if all group grades should be changed to match this score. 
   
   
   
   
4. The updated grades will be posted immediately. 

Exceptions to Grade Overrides

There are instances when overriding a grade may not be possible or is restricted. These can include:

• If an assignment is integrated with a third-party tool that manages grading externally.

Best Practices

• Clearly communicate your group assignment grading policy to students at the beginning of the course.
• Provide constructive feedback to both the group and individual members, explaining the reasoning behind the assigned grades.
• Consider using rubrics to provide clear grading criteria.

Need Additional Support?

This guide aims to provide useful information, but as technology changes, interfaces or steps might vary. Please use the Comment button to let us know if anything differs from your experience. Your feedback helps us keep this information accurate. Thank you!