During the upcoming Blackboard upgrade, we will be transitioning away from SHU Assignments to the default Blackboard Assignment (see previous message about this transition). As part of this process, we have to release all of the feedback and grades available in existing SHU Assignments at the time of the upgrade (July 20-21). Students will not receive an email notifying them of this release, but they will be able to see any grades and feedback you uploaded for those SHU Assignments if they happen to check.

If you have unreleased feedback and grades in a SHU Assignment that you do not wish students to see, you will need to hide the Grade Centre column from students before the upgrade. If that column is used in a weighted total, you should consider hiding the weighted total as well, as students may be able to use the total to determine their grade.

Other Grade Centre columns, including the new Blackboard assignment, test, survey and Turnitin columns, have always functioned in this manner and are not changing. After the upgrade, all columns will work the same way – you will need to hide the columns from students if you do not want them to see the grades/feedback yet (for instance if not all work is marked yet or there is a second marking process happening). We hope this consistency will make the process of returning grades and feedback easier for staff and avoid some of the problems that having two different processes created in the past.

If you would like further advice or support in the process of hiding your grade columns please contact your faculty e-learning adviser.