For assignments that don’t require numerical grades—such as ungraded pre-class preparation, practice work, or feedback-only drafts—you can use the Complete/Incomplete grading option. This approach simplifies grading and clearly indicates whether a submission has been reviewed.
Apply Complete/Incomplete Grade Setting
- For existing assignments, open the assignment and click the gear icon in the top-right corner to access the Assignment Settings panel.
- Under the Grading & Submissions section, select Grade Using: Complete/Incomplete.
- Set the maximum points to 0. This eliminates confusing point values for students and ensures the grade simply reflects completion.
Grade Complete/Incomplete Items
Items to be graded as Complete/Incomplete will be included in the Gradebook Overview.
Click Grade now, to open the student submissions view and enter ‘0’ into the grading pill. When an item is graded as Complete/Incomplete, regardless of the points allotted, entering any value will mark the journal as complete.
Use Blackboard’s annotation tool or feedback to comment and provide suggestions on student work.
Total Column for Complete/Incomplete Grading
Instructors can monitor student progress on Complete/Incomplete submissions by creating a unique category and a calculated column in the gradebook. This calculated column is configured to track the number of items in the Complete/Incomplete category, providing a clear overview of the total number of completed submissions for each student. This setup enables instructors to quickly assess student participation and progress at a glance.
In the gradebook below, incomplete items are indicated by the number of ungraded items in the column.
Create calculated column for Complete/Incomplete
- Assign a unique category name for all Complete/Incomplete items.
- Add a Calculated Column to Grades that displays Total of the unique category
