Using Smart Views for Displaying Student Sections

Grade Center > Create "Smart Views" to Help Manage Student Sections

While Blackboard does not offer specific functionality targeted at managing student/class sections, instructors can use a "Smart View" to create a display of the spreadsheet that shows only those students associated with a specific section.

Here we provide how-to instructions for 2 different approaches you could take:

Option 1: Create a "Group" for each section.
Then create a Smart Views based on "Group" for each section.

Option 2: Create a non-calculated grade column and label it "Section".
Then create Smart Views based on "Benchmark" for each section.

Option 1: Using "Groups" & "Smart Views"

Step 1. Create a "Group" for each section and name each accordingly (e.g. Section A, Section B).
Step 2. Add students to each "Section"/group.
Step 3. Create Smart Views for each section by using "Group" as the selection criteria.

Step 1. Create a group for each section.

1. Control Panel > User Management > select "Manage Groups".
   
   
   
2. Click the "Add Group" action button.
   
   
   
3. Enter a name and description for each group you create (e.g. Name: "Section A", Description: "Students enrolled in Section A").
   
   
   
4. (Optional) Under "Group Options" select "No" next to "Group Available" so that the groups don't show up in your students' view of the Blackboard course.
   
   
   
   
5. Click "Submit".
   
   
6. Repeat steps to create a group for each section.
   

Step 2. Add students to each "Section"/group.

1. Click the "Modify" action button next to a "Section"/group name.
   
   
   
2. Click "Add Users to Group" and select students belonging to the "Section"/group.
   
   
   
   
3. Click "Submit".
4. Repeat steps for each "Section"/group.
   

Step 3. Create a Smart View for each "Section"/group.

1. Once you have your groups set up for each section, enter the Grade Center and click on the "Manage" action menu item and select "Smart Views" from the dropdown listing.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the “Add Smart View” action button.
   
   
   
3. Enter a Smart View name (e.g. "Section A") and description (e.g. "This view lists all students in Section A").
   
   
   
4. Under "Selection Criteria" and "Type of View", select "Group" and under "Select Criteria" select a "Section"/group name (e.g. "Section A") from the "Value" list.
   
    
   
5. Click "Submit".
6. Repeat steps to create a Smart View for each of your student sections.
7. View your section Smart Views.

Option 2. Using a "Grade Column" & "Smart Views"

Step 1. Create a non-calculated grade column and label it "Section".
Step 2. Enter a letter grade (e.g. A, B, C) for each student denoting the section each belongs to.
Step 3. Create Smart Views for each section by using "Benchmark" as the Selection Criteria.

Step 1. Create a non-calculated grade column

1. Click the "Add Grade Column" action menu item from the Grade Center.
   
   
   
2. Type "Section" for the Column Name, select "Text" as the "Primary Display", and enter "0" for the "Points Possible".
   
   
   
   
3. Make sure the column will not be calculated in with the students' grades.
   Under "Options", select "No" for both "Include this column in the Grade Center calculations" and "Show Statistics". (Optional: If you don't want students to see this column along with their grades, set "No" for "Show column in My Grades".)
   
   
   
   
4. Click "Submit".
    
   

NOTE: You will see the new column added to the Grade Center spreadsheet (as the last column). If you wish to change the order in which the column appears, you can re-arrange the columns.

Step 2. Enter a letter grade/"Section" for each student

1. In the Grade Center spreadsheet, under the "Section" column, click in each cell for each student and enter a letter (e.g. A, B, C) denoting the section each student belongs to.
   
   

Step 3. Create a Smart View using "Benchmark"

1. Once you have your "Section" column set up and a letter grade denoting section entered for each student, click on the "Manage" action menu item and select "Smart Views" from the dropdown listing.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the “Add Smart View” action button.
   
   
   
3. Enter a Smart View name (e.g. "Section A") and description (e.g. "This view lists all students in Section A").
   
   
   
4. Under "Selection Criteria" and "Type of View", select "Benchmark" and under "Select Criteria" select "Grade on Section (Text)" under "User Criteria" and "Equal to" under "Condition" and enter a letter (e.g. "A" or "B" or "C") under "Value".
   
    
   
5. Click "Submit".
6. Repeat steps to create a Smart View for each of your student sections.
7. View your section Smart Views.

Grade Center > Viewing a "Smart View"

To view a "Smart View":

1. In the Grade Center, click on the "Current View" dropdown menu and select one of the "Smart Views" from the list.
   
   
   
   
2. The spreadsheet will reload and display the data matching the criteria you selected when you created the "Smart View".
3. You can modify a Smart View by navigating to the "Smart Views" page from the "Manage" menu in the Grade Center.
   

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