Grade History Reports

Blackboard Ultra allows instructors download Grade History in a course, which encapsulates the various reports run in a course of previous and current student data, including student access to assignments, score reports, and various other details.

Open the Gradebook – Gradable Items tab in your Blackboard Ultra Course.

A screenshot of the Gradable Items tab, found after clicking the Gradebook tab in a Blackboard Ultra course shell from the Instructor Access View.

2. Click the Download icon located on the right-hand side of the webpage, displayed as a small downward arrow surrounded by a box.

yellow square around download button (square with down arrow)

This will open a new side-panel to access the Download Grades menu.

A screenshot of the side-panel which opens on the right-hand side of the screen after clicking Download. There are options to click through to determine the type and parameters of Grade History report that is needed for Download with a Download option to click at the bottom.

3. Next, under the first section Download Options, click the Grade History selector to begin generating a Grade History report.

Instructors are able to select various parameters which will inform the software which data items to pull from the course.

Record Details: Instructors can select one by one which items to pull information from throughout the course, or instructors can choose Select All Items to pull data from all associated course items in the Gradebook.
Last Modified Date: Instructors can choose a timeframe for the Grade History report. Parameters include: All Time, 6 months, 30 days, 14 days, 7 days, or 1 day.
File Type: Instructors can choose which type of file to generate for download to their computer or machine. File types offered are Tab-separated Files (.xls) or Comma Separated Values files (.csv). These files are recommended for access via Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or a similar software.
Save Location: Instructors can select where to save the generated Grade History report. Options are on the local machine via My Device, or to the Blackboard Course Cloud via Content Collection.

After selecting all of the various parameters, click Download at the bottom of the side-panel menu to generate and download the Grade History Report.

Note: If selecting only a few items for download, this can take longer within the browser for Blackboard Ultra to locate the information, generate a report for those singular items, and then to download them.

Simply leave the browser window or tab open until you see the file downloaded into your Downloads or previously selected folder(s). This can take up to 5-10 minutes.

4. When the report has been generated and successfully downloaded onto your machine, a small black pop-up will appear within the browser window stating Download Complete.

A small pop up box which reads 'Download Complete'.

5. In your browser or on your machine, locate the file that has been downloaded per the file type selected. In Chrome, for example, locating and opening the Recent Downloads icon as marked by the small downward facing arrow with a box will allow you to view those files.

Click to open the file and view the Grade History report on your device.

6. The downloaded file will open and present the following information:

Date
Type of assessment and grade category
Last edition user’s details
Student username
Submission receipt: The submission receipt number
Submission attempt: The number of the submitted attempt
Type: If it was a regular or an override grade
Obtained value
Event: Additional details such as if was a group attempt, if it’s not posted or if it needs grading

Non-posted grades are included in the file as well.

Go through the report to ensure that all information has been captured by the report, and locate any additional details that need to be pulled in an additional Grade History report. Use the previous steps to generate a new report as is necessary.

Contact Support

This article was created and is maintained by the Office of Academic Technology

If you have found an error in this article, or if you need assistance incorporating this article into your course, please contact us via the Teaching & Learning Services Request Page.

Creating Custom Groups

Blackboard Ultra allows instructors to organize their students into Groups. Groups are a helpful tool which allow instructors to target assignments, communications, and files for specified groups of students.

Students can either be placed into Groups per instructor support, or you can allow for students to self-assign themselves to groups you have pre-made in the course.

Open the Groups tab in your Blackboard Ultra Course.

A screenshot of the Manage Groups landing page after clicking on the Groups tab within a course in Blackboard Ultra. Group Sets are labeled there with visibility to students tagged, members listed on the right side, and a three dot edit panel that can be clicked to edit and add additional settings.

2. Click New Group Set located on the right-hand side of the webpage. This will open a new window to create a Group Set. Label the Group Set with a title.

A screenshot of the New Group Set default landing page after clicking New Group Set. On this page, there is a field to select the type of groups created through using the dropdown menu titled Group students. There is also a field to note the Number of Groups made and a search bar in the middle of the page to search for students to then assign them to groups.

Note: The Group Set should not be confused with the actual group of students created in the Course – Groups tab.

3. Next to the Group Students label, click the dropdown menu to select how you would like to assign students into groups.

Students can be assigned via Custom Groups, Randomly assigned Groups, or Self-enrollment Groups.

Custom groups are instructor chosen groups. Instructors must pre-assign students to groups.
Randomly assigned Groups will randomly generate a number of Groups and then pre-assign students to a Group.
Self-enrollment Groups allow for students to view the groups available and select which Group they would like to join. Instructors can always intervene and reassign students from these groups.

On the New Group Set landing page, this is a screenshot of the drowndown menu options for student groups. Student can be placed, per the dropdown selections, in Custom, Randomly assign, or Self-enrollment classified groups.

4. Within the Group Set, after you have selected how to Group Students, locate the purple addition field (+) line along the bottom of the webpage.

Click this field to then build and label each Group you want within this Group Set.

Screenshot of the light purple bar which appears and has a small plus (+) symbol, indicating that the mouse is hovering over the bar and the add-to field is being accessed on the page. — Highlighting the purple addition field (+).

After clicking the purple addition field (+).

After clicking the purple addition field (+) there is a prompt which appears with a box to label the new group in the field, New Group 1.

This is the first official Group of this student Group Set.

Label the Group and then add a Description as is appropriate.

5. Click the three dots alongside a student’s name and text box to Edit Group Membership. Assign the student to the Group you have created within this set.

Alternatively, instructors can create a new Group using the +Create a new group dropdown field.

6. Once a student has been assigned to a Group, their name and profile will now appear beneath that Group on the webpage.

Complete this process for all students to assign all students to Groups.

Be sure to click Save in the lower-right-hand corner of the webpage screen to save and activate student groups.

For a more in-depth explanation of Student Groups from the Student View Perspective, see the linked Blackboard Ultra Resource Video below.

Contact Support

This article was created and is maintained by the Office of Academic Technology

If you have found an error in this article, or if you need assistance incorporating this article into your course, please contact us via the Teaching & Learning Services Request Page