Create and Grade a Blackboard 6 Learning Unit Assignment

Add a Learning Unit Assignment

  1. If you want to students to submit a writing assignment, report the findings from their reading or online research, or complete a writing assignment project with other students, you can create a "learning unit assignment." This feature automatically creates an entry in the gradebook. When students complete and submit the writing assignment, it is transferred to the instructor's gradebook in the Control Panel "Assessment" section where you can evaluate it, make comments on the assignment, return the comments to the student, and enter the grade in the gradebook, all from one location.

  2. To create a learning unit assignment, login to your course. Enter the Control Panel and then the Assignments section. Then click on the name of the folder. When you enter the folder, click on the "down" arrow beside the Learning Unit icon above. Then click "Assignment."

  3. When the "Assignment" option is highlighted, click the "Go" button to begin creating your learning unit assignment.

  4. When the "Add Assignment" page appears, title your assignment with a brief name that will appear in your gradebook. You may choose the color of the title to display in the assignment module. Then list the number of points possible to be awarded for completing the assignment. Then type the instructions for completing the assignment in the "Instructions" text box. Select the "availability options. If you have a file that you want students to read, hear, or view, be sure that your students have the same program that you used to create that file. Then click the "Submit" button.

  5. After you click the "Submit" button, you will receive an on-screen message that the assignment has been created. When you click the "OK" button at the bottom of that screen, you will be returned to the module where you can view the new learning unit assignment that displays the "View/complete" link.

  6. Click on the "View/complete" link to see the assignment that the students will see. Notice that the student can enter comments such as the title of his or her assignment. Then the student can "browse" to locate a file on his or her computer to attach to this assignment since the "comments" box can only contain 4,00 characters.

  7. Note: If you like, you can copy the instructions below into your own learning unit assignment:


    After you have completed your writing assignment above and are
    ready to submit it to your professor, click the "View/Complete"
    link below. When you do, you will see three sections:
    • 1. Assignment Information repeats these instructions.
    • 2. Your Files contains a "Comments" box and a "Browse"
      button. Write a brief message giving the subject and purpose
      of your essay and your name.
      Then click the "Browse"
      button to locate your file. Double click your file name to.
      attach the file to the comments box
    • 3. Submit directs you to press the "Save" button to continue
      working on this assignment later, or the "Submit" button when
      you are ready to turn in this assignment.

  8. After the student submits an assignment, enter the Control Panel and click the "Gradebook" link in the "Assessment" section. When the Gradebook appears, you will see an exclamation point for each student who has submitted the assignment. Move your mouse pointer over an individual exclamation point until the arrow becomes a hand. Then click with your left mouse button over that exclamation point.

  9. After you click the exclamation point, the "Modify Grade" page will appear. Note: the image below displays the page in a shortened form to save space. Move your mouse pointer over the "View" icon until the pointer becomes a hand. Click the icon to "grade" the assignment.

  10. When the "Grade Assignment" page appears, scroll down the screen until you see the link to the student's file. Click that link to open or save the file to your computer if you want to read it later or edit it with comments to return it to the student. When you have finished making comments on the student's paper, save it, enter the grade in the grade box as shown, below, click "Browse" to locate the file that you saved on your computer, and wait for the name of the file to appear in the "Files to Attach" box. If you want to attach a second or third file to send to the student, click the "Add Another File" button, wait for the "Files to Attach" box to empty, and then click "Browse" again to attach another file. When you have finished, scroll down the screen and click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the screen to send the grade to your gradebook and the student's gradebook. The student can click "View Grades" in the Tools area of the course and click the grade to see your comments and attached files. Note: The "Instructor's Notes" section is for you to make comments that you can view when you click the student's grade and then the "view" icon in your gradebook, but the student cannot see these comments. After you submit the grade and attached file, you will view your comments on the screen. Click the "Submit" button again and then the "OK" button.

  11. You can also click the name of the learning unit assignment in your gradebook if you want to update all grades at once or download all the students' files at once and save them to your computer without having to download one assignment at a time.

  12. When the "Items Option" page appears, you can choose the "Item Download" link to select some or all of the files that you want to save to your computer and read later or you can choose "Item Grade List" if you want to enter grades after you have graded all the papers.

  13. If you choose the "Item Download" link, you can select all the files, all that you haven't yet graded or select one file at a time to read after the download. Click the "Submit" button to collect the files into one "zipped" folder:

  14. After you click "Submit," you will then click the link to download the files. The first option is the "Save" the files will be in a folder of "zipped" files that you can open by double-clicking the name of the zipped file. The first option is to "Open" the files to read now. Each student's file will be saved by the name of the assignment followed, in alphabetical order, by the student's blackboard username. After you have read all the students' papers and saved all the file with your comments, you can enter the gradebook again, click the name of the assignment, and choose the option to modify the column that lists all students' grades for that assignment. Note: If you attempt to open the file from your Internet Explorer or other browser window, you must have the program installed the view the document file through your browser. Otherwise, you will have to save the file and open from your word processing program.

  15. Note: If a student attempts to submit an assignment but submits the wrong file or a file that you cannot read, you will have to enter the gradebook, click the exclamation point beside the student's name in the column listing that grade item, click the "View" icon, and then click the "Clear Attempt" button so the student can resubmit the file. If the student's grade column displays the "locked" icon after several hours, then the student has probably made an error in submission that you cannot remove except by clicking the icon, entering a grade of a large number that the student will not mistake as a grade, such as 1000. Then you can click the grade again, click "view" and "clear attempt" so the student can submit the assignment again by following these directions: How to Submit a Learning Unit Assignment in Blackboard 6.

Introduction Add Folder Add Item
Add URL Link Add Course Link Add Learning Unit
Add Test Back to Blackboard Instructor Help