1. DOWN ARROWS
Blackboard 8 introduced new “contextual menus” – the down-arrows icon on the Grade Center. Don’t be afraid to click through some of these icons. You will discover many familiar features you have been used over years as well as some new ones. Mouse over a grade and a student name; you will see even more.
2. DRAG AND DROP
We all like to “Drag and Drop” because it is so easy. For example, can you re-arrange your Grade Center to make sense to you and to your students simply by dragging and dropping? Yes, you can. Go to Manage–>Organize Grade Center.
Watch the short movie below to see Neal Caidin shows you how to reorganize your Grade Center along with some other tricks.
3. HIDE GRADE COLUMNS
Often it is easier to enter student grades if some columns are temporarily hidden from you*. Also, you may want to hide grading columns you will never use that appear by default in Blackboard (such as Student ID, Availability status or Username columns, etc ).
*WARNING: “Hide” only affects the instructor’s view of the Grade Center, not the student’s view. Students can still see their grades that you “Hide”. “Hide” in this context means “to hide from my current view of the overall Grade Center.” To hide grades from students, choose Modify Column, and then choose “No” for “Show this column in My Grades”. “My Grades” is what Blackboard calls the student view. By default, students see all grades.
4. FEWER “SUBMIT” AND “OK” CLICKS
Use the “Next” or “Previous” arrows, or “Go” at the top right to jump to an individual student or assignment column, or to navigate sequentially. This will save you a few clicks when you “Submit” and “Ok” and go back and forth between the main grade view and Grade Details.
5. SMART VIEWS
You can create subsets of grade views (so called “Smart Views”) which meet specific criteria. For example, Smart Views enable you to look into individual users in more detail, examine specific groups to investigate, or filter students based on their performance on a specific item. Once created and saved, a Smart View becomes an item on the Current View drop-down menu of the Grade Center page. To create a Smart View, go to Manage, and Add Smart View.
Bonus tip: ICON LEGEND
Many people have asked me what the symbol 
or 
next to grades means. I didn’t know either. So, I looked up the Icon Legend and found out what I wanted to know. The Icon Legend is located at the lower right corner of the Grade Center! Hope at least one icon (the error icon) never occurs on your Grade Center.
To learn more, see our help page for the Blackboard Grade Center and visit the Blackboard support website. If you would like more help with Blackboard, request an office visit and we will come to you.