The most common workflow in Grades Journey is for instructors/approvers to approve grades; those approved grades are then pulled on an admin-configured schedule into a single file for export into the Student Information System (SIS). Another potential workflow is for instructors or graders to extract the grades instead of approving them, generating a single CSV file for just their course. Only users with the correct roles, configured in the Grades Journey Grade Extract Settings, will be able to Approve Grades for Transfer or Extract Grades.

Accessing the Grade Approval and Transfer Workflow

Original Course

  1. Sign in to Blackboard Learn.
  2. Select your course.
  3. Select Grades Approval and Transfer- V2 under Course Tools.

Ultra Course

  1. Sign in to Blackboard Learn.
  2. Select your course.
  3. Select View course & institution tools under Books & Tools.
  4. Select Grades Approval and Transfer- V2.

Approve Grades

Approve all grades in a course

  1. Select the checkbox for the course.
  2. Select Approve Grades. 
Approve grades at course level
  1. Select Approve Grades in the window that appears.

The status is updated to Approved.

Note that it is more common to approve a specific column or specific grades as detailed below.

Approve certain grade columns

  1. Select the checkbox for the course.
  2. Select Grade Column Approval and Transfer. 
Grade column and approval at course level
  1. Optionally, use the search box to filter the grade columns displayed.
  2. Select the checkboxes for the desired grade columns.
  3. Select Approve Grades. 
Approve grades at column level
  1. Select Approve Grades in the window that appears.

The status is updated to Approved.

Approve certain grades within a grade column

  1. Select the checkbox for the course.
  2. Select Grade Column Approval and Transfer.
  3. Optionally, use the search box to filter the grade columns displayed.
  4. Select the checkbox for the desired grade column.
  5. Select Grade Approval and Transfer. 
  6. Select the checkboxes for the desired grades.
  7. Select Approve Grades. 
Approve grades at grade level
  1. Select Approve Grades in the window that appears.

The status is updated to Approved.

Note that if only a portion of the grades are approved in a grade column, the Approval Status column will show Partially Approved. That status transfers back through each parent to the course level, even if only one grade column is partially approved. The status of a course will show as Partially Approved if not all the grades of a column are approved or if not all grade columns of a course are approved.

Unapprove Grades

  1. Navigate to the appropriate course, column, or grade and select it.
  2. Enter an Unapproved Message if one is required (or desired) in the Unapproved Message column.
  3. Select Unapprove Grades. 
Unapprove grades
  1. Select Unapprove Grades in the window that appears to Unapprove Grades.

The status is updated to Unapproved.

Extract Grades

Extract all grades in a course

  1. Select the checkbox for the course.
  2. Select Extract Grades. 
Extract grades at course level
  1. Select Extract Grades in the window that appears.

The status is updated to Extracted.

Note that it is more common to extract a specific column or specific grades as detailed below.

Extract certain grade columns

  1. Select the checkbox for the course.
  2. Select Grade Column Approval and Transfer.
  3. Optionally, use the search box to filter the grade columns displayed.
  4. Select the checkboxes for the desired grade columns.
  5. Select Extract Grades. 
Extract grades at column level
  1. Select Extract Grades in the window that appears.

The status is updated to Extracted.

Extract certain grades within a grade column

  1. Select the checkbox for the course.
  2. Select Grade Column Approval and Transfer.
  3. Optionally, use the search box to filter the grade columns displayed.
  4. Select the checkbox for the desired grade column.
  5. Select Grade Column Approval and Transfer.
  6. Select the checkboxes for the desired grades.
  7. Select Extract Grades. 
Extract grades at grade level
  1. Select Extract Grades in the window that appears.

The status is updated to Extracted.

Note that if only a portion of the grades are extracted in a grade column, the Approval Status column will show Partially Extracted. That status transfers back through each parent to the course level, even if only one grade column is partially extracted. The status of a course will show as Partially Extracted if not all the grades of a column are extracted or if not all grade columns of a course are extracted.

Grading comments

If the administration has enabled the Enable Instructor Feedback setting, a Comments column will appear at the level of individual grades within a calculated or manual column that allows grade submitters or approvers to add comments to a student's grade.

  1. Navigate to the grade item.
  2. Select the comment icon in the Comments column for a particular student. 
Add comments
  1. Enter a comment in the text box (there is a limit of 255 characters).
  2. Select Save to save the comments.
  3. Delete a comment, if necessary, by clicking the comment icon again (which is now red) and selecting the trash can icon.