In the June update, we want to draw your attention to the following Blackboard enhancements:

• Grading with rubric
• Student engagement with announcements

Changes to grading with rubric

To improve rubric usability, instructors can now edit the rubric grade directly. Changes to the rubric component grades will also update the overall grade immediately.

Image 1: Improved rubric usability when adding or adjusting grades.

In the past, instructors would have been blocked from changing the overall grade via the rubric. Now, the locking mechanism that previously prevented instructors from using the rubric to override a grade has been removed. Otherwise, grades entered into the rubric grade components will update the overall grade immediately.

The update also includes some changes in wording, such as updating the rubric score box label from “Submission” to “Rubric Score”, in order to improve consistency with the Flexible Grading page.

Student engagement with announcements

Instructors can now check which announcements a student has read or not read on the new ‘Announcements’ tab of the Student Overview page.

To access this feature, instructors should go to the ‘Class register’ under the ‘Details & Actions’ items on the right-hand side of a course landing page. After selecting a student, a log of whether or not a student has accessed an announcement will be visible for instructors under the new ‘Announcements’ tab of the Student Overview page.

Image 2: The Announcements tab on the Student Overview page shows when an Announcement was posted and when it was read.

If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk.