Recent Problems with Gradebook Publish Options

Alexander Taft

I have been working with WhippleHill/Blackbaud products for a decade, and I have recently noticed a change that affects all our grading protocols. Support claims it has always worked this way, but even if that's the case, and no teacher or advisor has raised this concern in the past, and my training notes from Blackbaud are incorrect, this issue needs to be addressed, and it shouldn't take more than five years to resolve on the Ideas Board.

Assignment Publication and Grade access used to be separate, but this no longer seems to be the case. Now, for a grade to be viewed in the grade book by those with access, it not only needs to be enabled in the Gradebook Options under "Publish Grade"

But it ALSO needs to be published in the Assignment Calendar

Gradebook publish options and assignment center publish options should, as I recall, be kept separate. The reasoning is straightforward: numerous grades in a grade book ought to be visible to those with access to view the report, such as pop quizzes, in-class work, participation, and so on. These grades SHOULD NOT clutter a student's assignment calendar or trigger unnecessary notifications. It's crucial that these two publish options remain unlinked. If a teacher wishes to conceal a grade from gradebook access, they can simply refrain from checking the "Publish Grade" option in the Gradebook settings. Over the past seven years, we have used grade book access to provide valuable insights to department heads, advisors, and deans about student progress, although we still restrict parents and students from direct grade book access. This recent change is causing considerable concern, increased workload, and, ultimately, a less effective pedagogical experience for both teachers and students.

I would appreciate comments from others who may or may not be aware of what I perceive as a change in the publishing logic for grade book reports, as well as the BB product owners. I am always willing to admit when I am wrong (even my wife will attest to that), but this does not align with my previous knowledge or training. It is frustrating to be told otherwise.

Michael Morrissette

Hi @Alexander Taft -

Thanks for taking the time to write this up and to go over your use cases. I don't believe we have made any intentional changes as to how the various publish settings affect who can/cannot see assignments and grading information.

I'm going through each of the settings and confirming this on my end. I just wanted to give you a quick update and let you know that I saw your post and that I'm working through some testing.

Once I'm done, I'll post back here with my findings. In the meantime, I may reach out directly if I'm seeing something different in my demo environment from what you described in your post.

More to come!

-Mike

Alexander Taft

@Michael Morrissette
The decision to separate the gradebook publish feature from the assignment calendar always made sense, even when gradebook publish was tied to the cumbersome PDF crystal reports. Otherwise, there would be but a single publish option. I sincerely hope that the logic I (continue to) present is clear and supported by the fact that we now have two distinct options for publishing.

The first option is the gradebook publish toggle, which should remain independent of the assignment calendar for the reasons previously mentioned. Imagine the confusion (well, not quite imagine, we are experiencing it at present) when a student, parent, advisor, or dean views a student's gradebook and sees a cumulative grade that differs from the available grades. Access to the gradebook is solely about granting access to the grades that the Gradebook Publish toggle controls.

The second option, concerning the assignment calendar, has always complemented the gradebook publish toggle. Even the available options within this feature make sense: "Never Show" is essential for items that shouldn't appear in the student's view, such as discretionary points like participation, pop quizzes, in-class work, discussions, and so on. "Publish Now" and "On Date" also make sense, as they help maintain an accurate and uncluttered calendar. There are instances when we don't want students to work ahead, or we want them to know what's coming up. These options are entirely independent of the gradebook and its visibility. But assignment grades not published on the calendar, but ticked to publish in the gradebook as above, SHOULD be visible to those with access.

Thank you for your reply and looking into this.