The Harmonize Activity & Grading Report interface provides instructors with all the data and information necessary to grade student participation and submissions in one window. Entering the grade, or using Harmonize Auto-Grading, makes it easy to quickly populate the Blackboard grade center when using Harmonize for a graded discussion.
If you want to use a Blackboard Rubric, however, that function is limited. Blackboard currently doesn't allow for rubrics to be associated with an assignment submitted through an LTI, or app, like Harmonize.
There is a work around that involves creating a new column in the Grade Center for an item that doesn't require a student submission, and attaching a rubric to it. By grading with two windows open, one for the Harmonize Activity Report and one for the Blackboard Grade Center, an instructor can sent instant relative feedback to their students.
For an overview of this process watch the video below, or follow the step-by-step directions under the video.
Step 1: Go to your Blackboard Course Grade Center and create a new column.
Step 2: Give this new column a name. It can be the same as the Harmonize Discussion that you will be grading. Scroll down to the "Add Rubric" button and select either a current rubric, or build a new one for this assignment.
Step 3: Once your Harmonize discussion is created, and has activity from students, click the "Grades & Activity" button if it is a graded discussion, "Grades" if it is ungraded.
NOTE: If you create the Harmonize Discussion as "Ungraded" you will avoid having two columns appear in the Grade Center and inadvertently having an activity scored twice.
Step 4: Using the data from the Harmonize Activity Report, complete the rubric and grading comments in the Blackboard Grade Center for each student. This process may work best if you open two separate windows side-by-side for quickly referencing both the student activity and the rubric.
