If your Blackboard Assignment is set up to be anonymous and you are using a rubric, there are some limitations to be aware of before you mark. These may affect how you want to use the rubric.
What’s the issue?
When a rubric is attached to a Blackboard assignment it always calculates the mark for the submission. This is applied as the final mark and it cannot be edited (overridden) when anonimity is on.
The only way to amend the mark for a submission is to change your selection in the rubric itself. This isn’t too much of a problem if you are using the rubric to calculate the mark but this isn’t always the case.
Unable to add mark if your rubric is qualitative
Blackboard does not have a non-scoring qualitative rubric option in Ultra.
You may be using a workaround to this by setting up a points rubric with ‘0 points’ against all criteria to make it qualitative.
However, doing this means a mark of zero is applied to the submission and cannot be edited. This makes it impossible to add a mark to the assignments when it is anonymous.
Anonymity is only lifted when the marks are posted. This means you can only to override the zero mark after it is released to students.
Currently, our recommendation is either:
- Do not attach a rubric if it is purely qualitative and you need to mark anonymously.
- Revise the rubric to make it scoring using a ‘percentage-range’ or ‘points-range’ to allow you to add a mark.
Note: The introduction of a qualitative rubric is on the Blackboard roadmap but isn’t due for release this academic year.