Pearson Weighted Total Grade Sync for Blackboard

Pearson Weighted Total Grade Sync for Blackboard 1 The following is a guide for setting up the Pearson MyLab Grade Sync inside of Blackboard Learn. Additional resources, videos and handouts can be found at http://www.gvtc.org/bblearn under the guides and tutorials area. 1. Pair your Pearson course to Blackboard – See the handout Pairing Your Course to Blackboard 2. Make sure you have sent your assignments in Pearson to Blackboard – This can be done through the MyLab Course Home Manager. To access this through Blackboard, click on the Course Tool titled Pearson’s MyLab & Mastering. You should arrive at the screen below. To access this through Pearson, you can log into your MyLab account at https://www.pearsonmylab.com/ 3. MML Course Home Manager – Click on this option to access your Pearson course. 4. Home Page Manager – When you have landed on the Course Home Page Manager in Pearson, choose the option below Home Page Manager in the course menu titled HW & Test Manager. See item 4 below. 5. HW & Test Manager – Choose the Change Assignment Settings option under the More Assignment Tools area. Pearson Weighted Total Grade Sync for Blackboard 2 6. Send to Blackboard -­‐ You can now decide which assignment grades to send to Blackboard via the Send to Blackboard column shown below. Check the box next to each assignment you want sent. 7. Creating Categories – You’ll want to make sure your Pearson & Blackboard categories match and there are seven default categories in Blackboard you can use: Assignment, Blog, Discussion, Journal, Self & Peer, Survey, & Test. You may want a Homework, Quiz or Final category and you’ll want to set these up first. Go to your Blackboard Course’s Full Grade Center and choose Manage > Categories. Here you will be allowed to add additional needed categories for your course. Note: You cannot edit or delete the 7 default categories shown, but you are not required to use these. 8. Manage Pearson MyLab & Mastering Grades – Return to the Pearson’s MyLab & Mastering course tool found in the Course Tool Menu and choose the Manage Pearson MyLab & Mastering Grades option under the Support Tools area towards the bottom. a. Choose the Grade Synchronization Settings option to set this to individually sync your grades. b. Then choose Select Individual MyLab & Mastering assignments. You will only do this once. Pearson Weighted Total Grade Sync for Blackboard 3 9. Add Grade Columns – Return to the Manage Pearson’s MyLab & Mastering Grades area and choose the option to Add Grade Columns 10. Choose Columns – Select the assignments you want to sync at this time. Only choose items within the same category. You will sync your items 1 category at a time to avoid the need for reorganizing them in the Grade Center. Once you have all of your items in 1 category selected, click Submit. NOTE: You may need to choose Show All at the bottom of the list to select all your category items at once. Pearson Weighted Total Grade Sync for Blackboard 11. Individual Item Grade Sync Settings a. Include Items in Grade Center Calculations – Defaults to Yes, only choose No if you do not want these items to be calculated in the Grade Center. b. Email Notifications – This can send an email to select recipients when a new MyLab item is added to the Blackboard Grade Center. c. Category – Choose the category in which all of these items should be placed into. (This is why you should have your categories setup correctly in Blackboard first) 12. Repeat Steps 9-­‐11: To complete the sync for your additional categories complete steps 9-­‐11 from above. Once complete, continue on to Step 13 to set up your Blackboard Grade Center. 4 Pearson Weighted Total Grade Sync for Blackboard 5 13. Weighted Total Column – By default, your Grade Center will have a column titled Total as your external grade (green checkmark). Choose the contextual menu to the right of the Weighted Total column and set this column as your external grade. Instructors using Weighted Totals are generally those who manage a percentage based gradebook. 14. Total Column – Once you have the green checkmark in your Weighted Total column, you can delete your Total Column by choosing the contextual menu to the right of Total and choosing Delete Column. The total column is only used in a points based gradebook. 15. Define Category Percentages – Click on the contextual menu for the Weighted Total column and choose Edit Column Information. This is where you will define your percentages for each category. Pearson Weighted Total Grade Sync for Blackboard 6 16. Edit Weighted Column – The Primary Display below the Description area should be set to Percentage. You can also choose your Secondary Display (visible in Grade Center only). In the Select Columns area at the bottom, you will define your percentages for each category. a. Choose your Category – In the lower left hand Categories to Select box, choose a category to push over to the right Selected Columns area by highlighting a category and choosing the greater than (>) chevron to the right. You can then add a specified percentage into the blank area to designate for each category. b. Equal vs. Proportional – If you have items in the category weighted differently you will choose Proportional. Most percentage based categories will have each item within that category weighted equally so the default can remain as Equal. c. Drop Grades – Instructors can choose to Drop 1,2,3, etc. Highest or Lowest Grades using this option. Simply place the number of grades you wish to drop in the field provided. OR Instructors can choose to Use only the Lowest or Highest Value to Calculate the grade for this category. d. Calculate as Running Total i. Yes – A running total only includes items that have grades or attempts. The default is set to Yes. Students grades are calculated only when there is a grade or attempt for this item and instructors will need to manually enter a 0 for missed assignments. ii. No – This would calculate the total to include a value of 0 for any item which does not have a grade, including future items. Doing so, would give students a 0 at the beginning of the term since no items have been completed yet. 17. Once complete you are finished setting up your Weighted Total! Your Final grade displaying in Pearson should now match your grade displaying in Blackboard. Note: In order for all grades to display as percentage you would need to change the display view of every assignment from Score (default) to Percentage. Click the contextual menu to the right of the column title and choose Edit Column Information. This area will allow you to change the display options for this particular assignment. Pearson Weighted Total Grade Sync for Blackboard 7 (OPTIONAL) SMART VIEWS Smart views are a focused look at a specific item/area inside of your Grade Center such as a group, user, category, or performance measure. The number of Grade Center columns you have will depend on your content; however, a Smart View can significantly reduce your time in finding specific items. a. To manage Smart Views in your Grade Center choose Manage > Smart Views. b. You can edit the default Smart Views by clicking the contextual menu next the to the Title of a specific Smart View or create your own Smart View. Two (2) Default favorite smart views are already provided for you: Tests & Assignments. c. An example of a Homework Smart View is shown below. DISCLAIMER: There may be certain scenarios which require additional work if you want to see additional columns in your Grade Center such as Average Columns or if you have Extra Credit to add to the final grade or an assignment grade within Blackboard. Please reach out to your POC for additional assistance.