Anonymous, Delegated and Parallel Grading

Grading anonymously helps faculty avoid bias in assessment by hiding student names while you grade. Names are revealed only after you post all grades.

To enable anonymous grading, open the Assignment settings by clicking the gear icon in the upper right or the Assignment canvas, then click the Hide student names checkbox under Anonymous grading.

Anonymous grading can only be enabled on Assignments. You can add files or text to an assessment you wish to grade anonymously. You can't change the anonymity after students open an assignment or submit attempts.  [view screenshot]

You can enable SafeAssign for an Assignment or Test with Anonymous Grading enabled, but you will not be able to view SafeAssign results or Originality Reports until after all grades are posted. You cannot use peer review, automatic grade posting, or assessment results settings when anonymous grading is enabled.

You can send a reminder to students who have not submitted even while anonymous grading is in place. To send a reminder, go to the Submissions list for the assignment and click the Send Reminder button. [view screenshot]

When you have finished grading all of the students, select Post all grades in the banner at the top of the page. This will lift anonymity and is not reversible. You will receive a warning message if you try to post all grades and lift anonymity before grading is complete. Once anonymity is lifted, you can still update posted grades and grade any late submissions.

For complete instructions on Anonymous Grading, visit the Blackboard Help Center.

The Delegated Grading feature allows you to assign specific users, such as other instructors or teaching assistants, to grade particular sets of student assignment or test submissions. The users who help you grade are called delegated graders and they provide provisional grades. An instructor will need to review and reconcile the provisional grades before they can be posted to students.

To use Delegated Grading, you will need to first set up a Group Set. Each delegated grader will only be able to view submissions for students within the group(s) they are assigned. Once the group set is established, you can enable Delegated Grading by opening the settings for the Assignment or Test, clicking the gear icon, then clicking the Delegated Grading checkbox under Evaluation options. You will then be able to click the Assign Graders link to select a group set and assign a grader to one or more groups in the set.

With Delegated Grading, if multiple graders are assigned to the same group of students, they will share the grading responsibilities. Students will only be evaluated once. 

Enable delegated grading for an assignment or test

1. From the Gradebook, select Edit for an assignment or test.
2. Select Assignment Settings or Test Settings to open the panel.
3. Under Evaluation options, select Delegated Grading.
4. Select Assign graders. From the Delegated Grading page, select a group set.
5. For each group in the set, select the graders.
   1. A group set can include one or more graders in each group. If multiple graders are assigned to the same group, they will share the grading responsibility.
   2. Graders assigned to a group of students can only view submissions for those students on the assessment’s submission page. They can only post grades for their assigned group members.
   3. Unassigned instructors enrolled on the course can view all student submissions on the assessment’s submission page. They can post grades for all students.
   4. If you'd like to delegate randomly to course graders, first set up a randomized Group Set. For more information, see Create Groups.
6. Select Save. You return to the settings panel.
7. Select Save to save your settings.

For complete instructions on Delegated Grading, visit the Blackboard Help Center.

The Parallel Grading workflow assigns two individuals with grading privileges (such as Instructor, Teaching Assistant, or Grader) to review and provide provisional grades on an Assignment or Test for each student in the course. Final grades are reconciled by someone with the Instructor role, or another individual who is assigned to be a Reconciler.

For complete instructions on Parallel Grading, visit the Blackboard Help Center. Watch a video on Parallel Grading.

1.  Enable Parallel Grading in the settings for an Assignment or Test; assign individuals to be Graders
2. Graders access and grade submissions
   1. Reconciler reviews provisional grades, assigns a final grade, and provides feedback

Graders can view student submissions, complete a rubric, provide in-line annotation, assign a provisional grade, and provide overall feedback. Graders cannot see other graders' grades, feedback, annotations on student files, and rubrics. Students cannot see anything provided by the individual graders.

Reconcilers can view the graders grade and overall feedback, but cannot view their rubrics or annotations. Reconcilers determine the overall grade for each student, either individually or in bulk by using the average, highest, or lowest grade.

Students only see the grade, feedback, and rubric from the reconciler.

When grades are ready to reconcile, you'll receive an activity stream notification and the items appear in the Needs Reconciling section of the Overview tab of the Gradebook. You receive the notification after the assigned graders have graded one student's attempt.

Reconcile a single attempt

You can review each grader's grade and feedback before you determine the final grade. You can reconcile grades even if graders don't grade all the attempts. [view screenshot]

1. Assign grades. Select the grade pill to assign a grade or open the rubric. Reminder: You can't view a grader's rubric or annotations on student files. You also can't edit a grader's grade and feedback.
2. Review feedback. Select a feedback icon to open the Feedback panel and review the graders' feedback.
3. Add your feedback. Students won't see the graders' feedback, but your feedback appears when you post the final grades.

After you post the final grades, graders can only see the final grades and feedback. Graders can't access their evaluations to edit them after final grades are posted. [view screenshot]

For complete instructions on how to Reconciling Grades, visit the Blackboard Help Center.

You don't have to reconcile grades individually. In one action, you can reconcile all attempts with one or more grades from graders. For example, you can "batch" reconcile if you have confidence in your graders and want to assign the average of their grades to each attempt.

All graders don't have to finish before you reconcile grades. You also don't have to wait for all students to make attempts. You can automatically reconcile the grades for the attempts that exist. This action is irreversible. Reconciliation doesn't override manually reconciled or previously reconciled grades.

On the Submissions page, select the Reconcile All link. Select the grade to use:

• Average of grades
• Highest of grades
• Lowest of grades

You always see that attempts are ready to reconcile if students have made attempts. Graders don't have to assign grades and feedback before the attempts are ready to reconcile. [view screenshot]

If you choose to reconcile all grades and you've associated a rubric with the assessment, an Override label appears on the Submissions list page only. 

For complete instructions on how to Overriding Grades, visit the Blackboard Help Center.

When you allow multiple attempts for an assessment, you see grades given by graders per attempt. Then, you reconcile grades for each attempt. The final grade for a multiple attempt assessment is calculated based on the Grade attempts setting you chose when you created the assessment.

Select an attempt or the grade pill to view the student's work and reconcile the grades. You can also batch reconcile all the grades for existing attempts. [view screenshot]

Parallel grading doesn't impact how the final grade is calculated. However, the final grade can't be calculated until attempts are reconciled. The final grade appears in the gradebook when those attempts are reconciled. For example, if the final grade is calculated based on the highest graded attempt, the final grade appears immediately after at least one attempt is reconciled. But, the grade may change as students submit more attempts.

After reconciliation, you can post the final grades for students.