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Grade Centre - Batch Feedback Giving feedback for an assignment in a module with a large number of enrolled students can be a time consuming task. Normally this has to be done on an individual basis via the Grade Centre, because of this we have created the Batch Feedback tool.

Using the Batch Feedback tool you are able to download all of the submissions made by your students for a particular assignment, create a file containing individual templates for you to enter feedback and once you have edited the feedback files, upload it all back to Blackboard along with grades.

Downloading submitted work In order to use the Batch Feedback tool you should have already created an assignment in Blackboard and your students should have submitted their work to it. Instructions on how to do this are available in the Creating an Assignment recipe sheet.

1. Enter the module that contains the assignment you want to upload feedback for. 2. Expand the Evaluation section of the Control Panel which is below the menu and click Grade Centre - Batch Feedback. 3. In section 1, from the Select Assignment drop down menu choose the assignment you want to upload feedback for. 4. In section 3, under the area titled Create a zip file containing submitted work, choose Download all student submissions for this assignment. You will then be presented with a link titled Download Assignments, right click on this link and choose Save Target As (or your browsers equivalent). 5. Choose a place on your computer to save this file, the Desktop or My Documents for example. 6. Open the file by double clicking on it, depending on the installed on your computer and the you use the following may vary. These instructions are for a computer running XP or above using the in-built software to handle compressed files. 7. Click the link titled Extract all files, the Compressed (zipped) Folders Extraction Wizard will open, click Next, click Next again and click Finish. If you’re running an operating system other than Microsoft Windows or you have other software installed to handle compressed files please contact your helpdesk for more information. 8. You will then be presented with a list of all the files submitted by your students for the assignment you chose, open these as you normally would.

Feedback files 1. Return to the Batch Feedback tool by following the instructions above, remember to choose the assignment you want to give feedback for from the Select Assignment drop down menu. 2. In section 3 under the heading Create a zip file containing blank (Microsoft Office) documents choose Download a zip file containing one Word Document (.doc) file for each student userid. You will then be presented with a link titled Download zip file, right click on this link and choose Save Target As (or your browsers equivalent). 3. Follow steps 5-7 on the previous page to extract the feedback files from the compressed file you just downloaded. You will then be presented with a list of empty Microsoft Word documents, one for each student, named in the following format: userid_lastname_firstname.doc

Last Reviewed: September 2012 Page 2

4. Open each file, add the feedback you want to give to the student and save the file using the same filename. 5. Once you’ve done this for each student, open the folder that contains all the feedback files and select them all by clicking on the Edit menu and choosing Select All. 6. Once all the files are selected, right click on any of them, a menu will appear, choose Send To and then Compressed (zipped) Folder. 7. This will create a zip file in the folder that has all of your feedback files. The name of it will be the name of one of the files in the folder with .zip suffixed.

Uploading feedback and entering grades 1. Return to the Batch Feedback tool by following the instructions on the first page, remember to choose the assignment you want to give feedback for from the Select Assignment drop down menu. 2. Go to section 4 , Upload Feedback. Click Browse and choose the zip file created in step 6 above. 3. Click Submit. 4. You will be taken to the Verify Feedback and Enter Grades page. 5. Tick the checkbox to the left of the Student No column, this will select all the students in the list and tell Blackboard you’re leaving feedback for them all. 6. Enter the mark in the Score column next to each student.

7. When you’re finished you can optionally send an email to the selected students informing them that their feedback and grades are available for the assignment. 8. Tick the Send Email box and enter a message to be shown to the students. 9. Click Submit.

Notes The instructions given here assume you are using Microsoft Windows XP or above with no additional software installed for handling zip files, WinZip, PowerArchiver, WinRAR etc.

Older versions of PowerArchiver can display a File is Read Only error message when opening some zip files, please contact your school helpdesk for an updated version.

Zip files created with the in-built Create Archive function on Apple Mac computers are currently not compatible with the Batch Feedback tool. The free tool YemuZip available from http://www.yellowmug.com/yemuzip/ creates compatible files, choose PC Compatible when creating zip files with this software.

Last Reviewed: September 2012