Ultra: Attendance and Participation Grading

Two Methods for Managing Attendance & Participation Grading in Blackboard Ultra

When designing your Blackboard Ultra course, you can choose between two effective workflows for tracking and grading student attendance and participation. This guide covers how to implement either the Custom Participation Pack (Points-Based) or the native Blackboard Ultra Attendance Tool.

Method 1: The Pre-Built "Class Participation Pack" (Recommended for Point Customization)

If you want to grade weekly participation out of a specific point value while keeping your students' gradebook clean and streamlined, you can import our pre-built template folder directly from the OMSW Blackboard Sandbox.

What is Included in the Pack?

• 15 Individual Class Items: Pre-configured at 1 point each, set to Hidden from students, and with Automatic Zeros disabled.

• A Hidden Faculty Guide: Step-by-step instructions built directly into the folder for quick reference.

How to Import the Pack from the Sandbox

1. Open your live Blackboard Ultra course shell.

2. In the Course Content area, hover where you want to add the folder, click the plus sign (+), and select Copy Content.

3. In the search box, look for your program's Sandbox or Course Template (e.g., OMSW SOWK 630 Course Template (ULTRA)).

4. Navigate to the course contents, check the box next to Class Participation Pack, and click Copy Selected Content.

⚠️ Critical Gradebook Step: Building the Master Calculation

Because individual items are hidden to prevent clutter, these 15 items are imported with No Category assigned. They will not calculate into the final grade until you build a master column to sum them up:

1. Go to your Gradebook, click the plus sign (+) between columns, and select Add Calculation.

2. Name the column Class Participation, set visibility to Visible to students, and select Points as the grade schema.

3. In the formula editor, locate Variables, and chain your class sessions together using the Add (+) operator:
   Class 1 +Class 2 + .. + Class 15

4. Click Validate, then Save.

💡 Faculty Tip: Use the Gradebook Grid View (spreadsheet layout) to quickly type in weekly scores. Grades are set to auto-post, so they will instantly update the student's rolling calculation. Because automatic zeros are disabled, you must manually enter a 0 for unexcused absences so the calculation penalizes the total accurately.

Method 2: The Native Blackboard Ultra Attendance Tool (Recommended for Automated Percentages)

If you prefer a system where you simply mark students as Present, Late, Absent, or Excused, Ultra features a built-in tracking tool that handles the math automatically.

How to Set Up Native Attendance

1. On your main course page, look at the right-hand sidebar under Details & Actions.

2. Click Attendance (or Mark Attendance if it is your first time opening it).

3. Click the Settings icon (gear) in the top right corner of the attendance panel to configure your grade percentages:

   • Present: 100%

   • Late: Default is 50% (Adjustable)

   • Absent: 0%

   • Excused: No penalty

   • Pro-Tip: Click the three dots (...) at the top of a column header and select Mark all present to save time, then manually adjust the few who are late or absent.

   • Use the Overall view tab at the top right to look at the entire semester grid, add past dates, or edit a previous week's record.

4. Choose whether you want attendance to display to students as a Letter, Percentage, or Points schema.

5. Click Save. This automatically generates a single Attendance column in your gradebook.

⚠️ Important Note on Native Math: The native tool natively calculates grades out of 100 points and appears to students as an overall percentage of classes attended. To map this seamlessly to a 100-point course total where attendance is worth 15% (15 points), the attendance tool must have its weighting set up in the gradebook's overall grade calculation. 

Which Method Should I Choose?