Final Grade Submission: From Blackboard to Banner
The Final Grade Submission tool in Blackboard has been fully upgraded to work seamlessly in all modern web browsers. When grading is opened by the registrar’s office, you can easily submit your grades from your Blackboard gradebook to Banner.
For those who haven’t used this process in a while, or who could benefit from a refresher regardless, this blog will go into detailed step by step instructions on how to manage your Grading Schemas, format the Overall Grade Column, and use the Final Grade Submission tool.
Each step must be followed before grades can be submitted to Banner at the end of the semester. Questions about grading procedures should go to records@lamar.edu, while questions about Blackboard tools should go to blackboard@lamar.edu.
Need to review a specific step?
Important Reminder
It is important that you make sure to grade all assignments before submitting to the Final Grade to Banner. Ungraded assignments do not calculate into the final grade. A student that missed an assignment would need to be manually given a grade of “0” in the Blackboard Gradebook.
If you attempt to change a grade after the registrar has already rolled grades to history, you will see an error message. In this event, you will need to contact the registrar and fill out a grade change form for that student.
To avoid this, we highly recommend you thoroughly review grades before submitting them with the Final Grade Submission tool.
Managing Grading Schemas
While teaching your course, you are free to use whatever grading schema you wish. However, when submitting final grades, you will need to check that the Grading Schema is set up correctly.
- Log into LU Learn (Blackboard) and navigate to the course that you would like to edit grades in.
- Click the Gradebook tab at the top of the page.
- Within the Gradebook, click on the top right of the page to access the Gradebook Settings Menu.
- The current Grading Schema will be listed at the top. Select Manage Grade Schemas, or whichever schema is currently listed.
- Remove any + or - grades. You can do this by hovering your cursor over the Grade Range % column and delete the necessary rows by clicking the .
In Blackboard ULTRA, the Overall Grade Column is automatically set as your external grade column. Now that the schema is set, you can check to see that the Overall Grade Column is set to Letter as well.
- While in the Gradebook, go to the Overall Grade Column and click , then click edit.
- In the Overall Grade Settings menu to the far right of the screen, ensure that Letter is selected for how the overall grade is displayed.
When the Overall Grade has been set correctly, you should see the Overall Grade column populated with Letter grades.
Final Grade Submission tool
When you are ready to submit grades on Blackboard, navigate to the left-hand menu in your course and select View Course and Institution Tools. Then select the Final Grade Submission to Banner tool. This will bring you to the Final Grades page, where you can review and edit final grades before submission.
The following items appear on this screen:
- Student Name (First, Last)
- Current Grade (Populated by the “External Grade Column” from the Blackboard Grade Center)
- Final Grade (This is the column reported to BANNER)
- Incomplete Final Grade: If an “I” (Incomplete) is given in the Final Grade Column you must place the letter grade the student would receive if the student does not complete the course work.
- Last date of attendance: Any students marked with an “I” (Incomplete) must have their last date of attendance submitted here. Otherwise, this can be left blank.
Grade Keys
FN - Used to indicate any student who failed the course because they NEVER attended the course.
FS - Used to indicate any student who failed the course because they STOPPED attending the course. A last date of attendance must be entered.
F - Used to indicate any student who failed the course because they earned the F through grades, NOT due to attendance.
I - Used to indicate any student who failed to complete their required course work. You must place the letter grade the student would receive if the student does not complete the course work. An Incomplete final grade will result in an F. A last date of attendance must be entered.