1. Looking for Trouble …in the Bb Grade Center Michael G. Prais, Ph.D. University of Illinois at Chicago

2. Create Column Mistake #1: Hidden Columns Lack of Contribution to a Created Column or to the overall Grades from hidden Assignments Mistake #2: Impossible Points Manage > Column Organization Show and Remove Unused (Unnecessary) Columns

3. Create Calc’d Column - Total Mistake #4: More or Less Including Columns Include All Columns Include in Grade Center Calculation? Mistake #5: Unselected Columns and Categories Include in Grade Center Calculation? Did you include all the correct Columns? Manage > Column Organization Mistake #6: Missing the Categorical Imperative Some items automatically set the column category Your Created Columns Don’t Manage > Column Organization

4. Summing Categories All Columns in a selected Category are automatically Summed Equally Sum( PtsGvn )? Proportionally Sum( PtsGvn/PtsPos ) ?

5. Use an Alter Ego for Checking UIC creates a “Secondary Blackboard Account” for instructors Enroll your Alter Ego in your course site as a student As a SysAdmin, enroll your regular identity in an instructor’s course site as a student Display Score and Percentage for the Final Score Note your Final Score Give yourself a Perfect Score (and a pat on the back) in column as you grade the students in that column The Final Score should increase (depending on weighting) The Final Percentage should stay the same—100%. Calculate the difference in scores and compare When testing after the fact, Clear all scores, add one score, compare, repeat

6. Totaling Totals Use Total or Weighted Columns to calculate Subtotals to make checking calculations easier. Mistake #7: Including Subtotals in Grade Center Calculations Use additional columns for that display Text for short notes about student grades Include Column in Grade Center Calculation – No (to be sure)

7. Create Calc’d Column - Weighted The Bb Grade Center does not calculate Weighted Scores and Percentage Scores the same way we do! Expected Weighted Scores: Sum( wt * PtsGvn ) Blackboard Weighted Scores: Sum( wt * PtsGvn/PtsPos ) * TotPtsPos Expected Weighted Percents: Sum( wt * PtsGvn )/Sum( wt * PtsPos ) Blackboard Weighted Percents: Sum( wt * PtsGvn/PtsPos ) TotPtsPos: Sum( wt * PtsPos )

8. Create Calc’d Column - Weighted Mistake #Bb? The weighted score used in the BbGC is “monotonic increasing” with the student scores, so it does separate student performance The Weighted Column calculates a fraction of the Possible Points as the Percentage and then calculates the score from that percentage Unfortunately, the fraction is a ratio of apples to oranges Mistake #8: Make the Total Weight 100% The Bb GC calculation is not equal to what you would expect Unequal Possible Points for the weighted scores also does not give a value in the Weighted Column that you would expect

9. Running Totals: Off When classes finish and grades go in Mistake #9: Forgetting to turn Running Totals off at the end of the semester Running totals does not include missing submissions and, thus, does not require some students to do all the (the same amount of) work It is a lot easier and less error prone than putting zeros in all the assignments that students did not turn in. Mistake #10: Forgetting to turn Running Totals off when checking Grade Center validity Mistake #11: Forgetting to turn Running Totals on after checking Grade Center validity

10. Extra Credit Create 4 columns for Extra Credit: Final Grade without Extra Credit Extra Credit Final Grade with Extra Credit Manually Selected Final Final Grade Bb does not have the logic to decide which you want Caution: percentages will vary

11. Grade Scheming Letter Tardy Attendance Minutes Tardy Smart Views allow you to view daily attendance separately from other scores

12. Excel at Scantron Scoring Download Student Information Only in the Grade Center Include Hidden Information (UIN) Import the fixed format Scantron File in another worksheet Skip unnecessary columns Add a Header to the scores column =IF(NOT(ISNA(VLOOKUP($D2,Scores!$A:$C,3,FALSE))), VLOOKUP($D2,Scores!$A:$C,3,FALSE),"") Insert and add missing essay scores Save to Text (Tab Delimited) Replaces formulae with values, too Upload to the Grade Center

13. Looking for Trouble … in the Bb Grade Center Michael G. Prais, Ph.D. University of Illinois at Chicago mgprais@uic.edu Other Mistakes? Questions?