Offline grading is a valuable and important enhancement. Many instructors like to download the gradebook as a backup or prefer to use Excel to calculate grades. In September, Blackboard introduced the ability for instructors to download gradebook data in the Ultra Course View.
The counterpart to downloading grades is uploading a CSV file. Instructors who need to use this feature do so to pull in grade data from manual calculations or to upload grades from other tools or services, such as Scantron scores. The November 2018 update to Blackboard will feature a popular request for the gradebook -- uploading a CSV file.
Other new features and enhancements for Ultra courses include:
- Filtering questions by more criteria on the Reuse Questions page for Ultra tests
- Batch editing content for visibility
- Creating percentage-range rubrics
- Expanded views for Conversations
- Additional settings for SCORM content standards and packages
For Original courses, we'll see updated versions of Cengage and Wiley Plus tools as well as VitalSource Bookshelf. Several bug fixes are corrected to address errors or formatting issues encountered with assessment and grading workflows.
The next update will be posted to our test site around November 13th and pushed to production around December 6th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access.