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Manage Grade Center Columns

  • Blackboard

Last modified: March 12, 2024

Columns can be a confusing part of Blackboard's Grade Center, but if managed properly, they will help keep your grades organized and available for students to view. You'll find the Grade Center in the Control Panel (beneath the Course Menu). Click on Grade Center then Full Grade Center to open the grade book.

You are viewing content for Original course view (the current UAS default)

If you regenerated your course to Ultra or requested an Ultra course go to the Ultra Course view page.

Create a Column in Grade Center

Watch CELT's video tutorial (10:37) for using Grade Center for an in-depth demonstration of functions and options.

If you need a column for an assignment that was not submitted in Blackboard, then you'll use the "Create Column" button in the upper left of the full grade center.

this is the button to click to create a column in Grade Center

You are required to give the column an assignment name and number of points possible. Depending on your preference, you can use "Display" to select whether the score should show in percentage or points. You can also use a column for informational purposes by choosing "Text" as the type of display.  You'll need to enter zero points for this column if you want to use it just for record keeping. 

If you are using weights to determine the final grade, make sure to select a category for the assignment as well.

Automatically Created Columns in Grade Center

Blackboard automatically creates columns when graded content is created in your course. This includes:

  • Tests (computer graded or essay)
  • Assignments (tasks which require students to respond or turn in one or more documents or files)
  • Discussion Forums for which grading has been enabled
  • Blogs, Wikis and other tools which have grading enabled

You can modify attributes of this type of column (change categories, include or exclude from calculations, hide or show to students etc.) But you cannot delete an automatically created column without first deleting the original assignment or assessment from your content area.

Modify or Edit Columns in Grade Center

In the Column header, click on the drop-down menu to the right of the Column name and choose "Edit Column Information".

this is the drop-down menu that houses the edit options

This will take you to the column creation screen where you can make changes to points, categories, etc.

Organizing Columns in Grade Center

At the top of the Full Grade Center move your cursor over the Manage menu and choose "Column Organization".

the manage drop-down menu with the column organization choice highlighted

To the left of every column name is pair of crossed arrows indicating the items can be moved. Drag these to change the order of your columns.

the column organization arrows

Click Submit to save your changes.

WARNING - "Column Organization" also lets you hide Columns. This will hide it only from you not your students. To hide columns from Students you must use the drop-down menu to the right of the column name in the Full Grade Center and choose "Show/Hide to Users".  If a column is hidden from students you will still see it but there will a circle with red slash next to the column name.  Make sure that you see this before hiding the column from yourself.