Your course is up and running, now what? Find out about grading and reporting policies and procedures, managing student access and rosters, and end-of-term procedures.

Managing Student Access

If you teach a course as part of an academic program, students may change participation status by either dropping (leaving) or adding (joining) your course. NDSU maintains specific deadlines regarding either of these two actions. In academic program courses, drop and add actions are processed electronically through the Campus Connection (Peoplesoft) system. These changes may not appear or populate through a course website (Blackboard). As the course instructor, from time to time, you will need to compare the course roster as listed in Campus Connection to your Blackboard roster and adjust student permissions accordingly.

• Academic Deadlines: A link to the NDSU Office of Records and Registration deadlines page, which maintains up-to-date academic schedules.
• Campus Connection: A link to the official home page for the NDSU Campus Connection System.
• Campus Connection Help Pages for Faculty and Staff: A link to an index of how-to documents from the Office of Registration and Records.

Granting Blackboard Course Access to a Student

In general, students are added to your Blackboard course as part of the Campus Connection registration process. However, at some time it may become necessary for you to grant access to a student manually. Use these easy steps to complete the process:

1. Select "Control Panel" from the navigation bar of your course site.
2. Under the heading "User Management" (upper right-hand corner of screen), select "Enroll User."
3. Choose an option to search by - last name or email address of the student you want to add.
4. Select the "Search" button.
5. Select the "Add" checkbox next to the name of the student.
6. Select "Submit."
7. The default role of any newcomer to a course site is "Student." Student permission allows the person to access any areas of your course site that have been made available. Students cannot access the "Control Panel" or any of the items that you have set to "Unavailable."

Grading & Reporting

If you are teaching a course that is offered for credit as part of an academic program, you must report grades for your students to the office of the Registrar. Every course term has specific deadlines for reporting these grades. Grade reporting is done electronically through the CampusConnection (Peoplesoft) system, which can be accessed online. 

• Grade Reporting Deadlines: A link to the NDSU Office of Records and Registration Deadlines page, which maintains up-to-date academic schedules.
• Campus Connection: A link to the official home page for the NDSU CampusConnection System.
• All About Grading with Campus Connection: A link to NDSU Office of Registration and Records listing grading policies and including step-by-step instructions for entering grades into the CampusConnection system.
• Login information for Instructors: A link to helpful information about how to obtain a CampusConnection Username and Password and related forms from the Office of Registration and Records.

Rubrics

There are many ways to develop a rubric and many resources for seeking assistance. If you want personalized or departmental assistance with rubrics, contact our Instructional Coaches. Listed below are other resources for developing your grading rubrics.

• Value Rubrics - Open Educational Resources through the American Association for Colleges and Universities

How do students view their grades in your Blackboard course website?

• Method 1:
  • Login to Blackboard
  • Select the link to the Course site
  • Navigate to the location of the exam or assignment in the course site
  • Exams: The student will be able to see posted grades after he Instructor has completed the grading process, including any feedback that the instructor has provided
  • Assignments: If the Instructor has used the "Assignment" feature, students will be able to download a copy of the reviewed file that has been posted
• Method 2:
  • Login to Blackboard
  • Select the link to the Course site
  • Select the "Tools" link or the "Course Tools" link on the navigation bar
  • Select "My Grades"
  • A view of the gradebook for the course will appear - selecting an individual score for an exam or assignment will reveal more detail about feedback and otehr information the instructor has provided (The Gradebook is private; a student will not see entries for other students)
• Method 3:
  • Login to Blackboard
  • Select the "View Grades" link from the "My Blackboard" screen
  • Select the link for the desired Course
  • A view of the Gradebook for the course will appear - selecting an individual score for an exam or assignment will reveal feedback and other information the instructor has provided

How do students view their grades using Campus Connection?

• In the Campus Connection system, final course grades are available as an "Unofficial Transcript."
• Campus Connection Student Help Pages (Scroll down from top of page to see menu of available help documents).

Tip:

Avoid getting numerous emails from students by posting the timeline for posting grades for the final assessment and course.

Assessment is determining whether or not and to what degree your students have mastered the concepts you have taught them. Here are a few assessment webinars and other resources collected to help you in the ongoing task of assessing your students' learning. 

Dismissing Student Access from Your Blackboard Site In general, student access to Blackboard sites is handled automatically; however, at some point it may be necessary for you to remove a student's access manually. Use these easy steps to complete the process:

NOTE: If you remove a student from a course site - ALL work, submissions, and other records associated with that student will be purged and cannot be recovered. Please use this feature carefully.

1. Select the "Control Panel" link on the navigation bar.
2. Under the heading "User Management" select the "Remove Users from Course" option.
3. Select the "List All" tab.
4. Select "List." This will show a list of all participants in your course site.
5. Select the checkbox next to the name of the student/participant to remove.
6. Type the word "YES" in the text box provided.
7. Select "Submit."