Navigating the Grade Center

Menus & Spreadsheet

• Action Menu Use to organize the spreadsheet, upload/download grades, send email, more.
• Views Menu Use to select views of the spreadsheet data.
• Spreadsheet Use to manage student grades.
  • Contextual menus - provide actions and information specific to the cell where you click
  • In-cell grade entry and editing - simulates standard spreadsheet software behavior
  • Frozen columns- assist eye tracking across the spreadsheet

Grade Center > Action menu

Use the Action Menus to:

• create grade columns and calculated columns.
• upload and download grades.
• define Smart Views and other views to display a selected subset of spreadsheet data.
• send email to students, a subset of students, and other users.
• create Blackboard grade reports to send to all or selected students. (NOTE: Blackboard grade reports are not tied to Carnegie Mellon's student information system and if used should only be considered as progress and performance feedback reports for students, not official records of grades.)
• enable, disable, view, download, and clear the Grade History, which tracks and records all grade changes.

Grade Center > Views menu

Use the Views Menus to:

• select between showing all data (Full Grade Center) and specific views of the spreadsheet data (Smart Views); and optionally set one of these views as your preferred default view.
• sort spreadsheet columns in a display order (from left to right) based on category, due date, creation date, points possible, or display name.
• toggle the page icon selection to choose between "Interactive" and "Non-interactive" Grade Center functionality:
  • "Interactive" is the default view and allows for inline editing of entries, freezing/unfreezing of columns, contextual menus, and more.
    
  • "Non-interactive" is designed for accessibility: can be navigated using only the keyboard and is accessible by screen readers.

Grade Center > The spreadsheet

Use the Spreadsheet to manage student grades. The "interactive" spreadsheet provides certain features and functionality including:

• Contextual menus that offer actions and information specific to the cell where you click (e.g. ability to sort the spreadsheet columns by clicking on a column header, ability to view grade details by clicking on a grade.
• In-cell grade entry and editing.
• Frozen columns – grey columns are locked in position to assist eye tracking of data across columns and rows.

Instructors: For assistance with using Blackboard, contact bb-help@andrew.cmu.edu