Prevent Grades from Auto-Posting - 3900.37

Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors, Students, Graders

The option to control if a grade auto-posts supports academic integrity. This new option gives control to the instructor to post grades at the right time. When selected, an assessment grade appears to the student as soon as the attempt is graded. To prevent students from viewing grades, the instructor may de-select this option. This new setting is in the assessment settings and assessment preview panels. The workflow to manually post grades is still the same.

Image 1. "Post assessment grades automatically" setting on the assessment settings panel

Post assessment grades automatically checkbox is shown on the test settings panel

Image 2. Automatic grade posting status indicator on the assessment preview panel

Automatic grade posting status indicator on the assessment preview panel and how to change the status of the grades posting setting

When this setting is de-selected, the instructor will need to manually post grades. Students will see ‘not graded’ in the grade pill until the instructor posts results.

When instructor selects the option to auto post, the post grades button will not appear.

“Post assessment grades automatically” is not selected by default for Assignments. The option is default on for new Tests. When an instructor adds an essay question to a Test, a banner displays when the question is saved. The banner asks the instructor if they want to post grades automatically or manually. The banner includes a link so that the instructor may change the grade posting setting.

Image 3. A new banner warns the instructor that a question that needs manual grading has been added to a test set to auto post grades.

Banner warning for instructors to review and choose grade posting settings when adding a manually graded type of question

The banner alerts the instructor that they have added a question that needs manual grading on a test set to auto post grades.

For instructors and administrators: Behavior for existing Tests and Assignments stays unchanged. Grades of Tests with essay questions or Assignments will not auto post. Tests with auto-graded questions will auto posted.


Watch a video about preventing grades from auto-posting

The following narrated video provides a visual and auditory representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.

Video: Prevent grades from auto-posting shows how instructors can control to post grades at the right time.

Return to April 2022 – 3900.37 Release description