Granting certain teachers or courses earlier access to add assignments

Nathan Ong

Was there a way to grant certain teachers or courses earlier access to add assignments even though the grading marking period hasn't started?

For instance, our 2nd quarter starts next week. We have an athletic roster set up as a course that students get grades and credits for, but they already have switched to the 2nd rotation and our PE teacher is wondering if they can already add assignments (like participatory grades) even though the 2nd quarter hasn't started.

I know there are also athletic seasons available to set up in BB, but it doesn't really work out since we have four seasons (four “sports”) of football, soccer, basketball, volleyball that more closely correspond to our four quarters than the seasons of fall/winter/spring that are hardcoded in Blackbaud--it's just they start 1-2 weeks earlier than our quarter.

The one bump that comes up is the marking periods can't overlap so it seems I can't make it so that even though we are still in Quarter 1, can teachers still be given access to start adding assignments for Quarter 2? Or if there was another way around doing this.

Thank you!

Kathy Hannon

@Nathan Ong I believe that the quarter is based on the date due of the assignment. So if your assignment is to be Q1 the due date needs to be prior to or on 10/14. Assignments can be set up for a full year and will fall in the grading quarters as set up.

Megan Day

@Nathan Ong

If they're set up as a single course, the teacher/coach should be able to add the assignment from the assignment center, assignment page, or gradebook and choose a date that falls in the new marking period.

If they're set as different courses, they can use their Classes drop down > View Other Classes. Change the year drop down to whatever year/term needed and then click on the class and add assignments. Our teachers use this method all the time for adding assignments for the fall term during summer.

Brian Gray

@Nathan Ong - We tell our teachers exactly what @Megan Day said about accessing courses that exist in the next term. We also tell them to add a browser bookmark for the Bulletin Board page of each course, so that they only have to do that search once.

Nathan Ong

Thank you, this worked for the teacher to be able to add assignments to future courses

Nathan Ong

That makes sense! Yes our teacher was able to add assignments, just having the due date fall within the marking period which is no issue.