Blackboard - Batch upload assignment feedback files [Original Course View]

Overview

Teachers can now bulk upload feedback files for assignments. There are five steps:

1. Download the submissions
2. Create feedback
3. Upload grades, feedback, and feedback file
4. Release Grades
5. Check uploaded grades and feedback

Please also go through 'Points to Note' in this article.

Steps

1. Download the submissions

   1. [Original Course View] Access your Blackboard Course > Control Panel > Course Tools > Marks and Feedback LTI (If you have been using “Batch Upload Assignment Feedback Files”, you must continue using this option for all subsequent steps and complete the process by 29 Dec 2025. After this date, “Batch Upload Assignment Feedback Files” will be deprecated.)
   2. [Ultra Course View] Access your Blackboard Course > Details & Actions > View course & institution tools > Marks and Feedback LTI
   3. Select Download of the assignment. 
   4. You could click Show All and select all users. We also suggest clicking USER to sort the Student IDs in ascending order before downloading the package, so the Student IDs listed in the Excel file mentioned below will be in ascending order as well. Leave Package for plagiarism detection (TurnItIn or SafeAssign) submission blank under Package Comment. Click Submit. 
   5. Click Click here to download to download the zip package. 

2. Create feedback

   1. Unzip the zip package, which contains an Excel file and a folder for each of the students.
   2. Open a student’s file, add your feedback in the file, and save the feedback file at the same level with the Excel file. Name the feedback file in the format of ‘feedback_StudentID...’ (i.e., add 'feedback_' at the front of the original submission file name, e.g., 'feedback_1155100000...').(Remarks: The sample Student IDs in the screenshot below are ‘student13’, 'student18')
   3. Open the Excel file, add grades and feedback for the students and save the file. (Important: Do NOT rename the Excel file, or else the upload process will fail.)
   4. Then, select the Excel file and all students’ feedback files, and zip them as .zip file. (Important: If the .zip file exceeds 200MB, please complete the process in batches. You can check its size by right clicking the .zip file and selecting 'Properties'.)

3. Upload grades and feedback

   1. Access your Blackboard Course > Control Panel > Course Tools > Marks and Feedback LTI (If you have been using “Batch Upload Assignment Feedback Files”, you must continue using this option for all subsequent steps and complete the process by 29 Dec 2025. After this date, “Batch Upload Assignment Feedback Files” will be deprecated.)
   2. Select Upload of the assignment.
   3. Click Choose File to attach the zip file. Then click Submit. 
   4. You will see Upload successful. Make sure all grades and feedback files are uploaded, and there are no errors before you proceed. Click OK to proceed.

4. Release Grades

1. [Original Course View] By default, grades will be released to students once inputted into the grade column. Hide the assignment column and calculated columns that are related to the assignment in the Grade Center (Blackboard Help: Can I control when students see their grades and feedback?) before you release the grades.
2. [Original Course View] Access your Blackboard Course > Control Panel > Course Tools > Marks and Feedback LTI (If you are using “Batch Upload Assignment Feedback Files”, you must continue using this option for all subsequent steps and complete the process by 29 Dec 2025. After this date, “Batch Upload Assignment Feedback Files” will be deprecated.)
3. [Ultra Course View] Access your Blackboard Course > Details & Actions > View course & institution tools > Marks and Feedback LTI
4. Select Release of the assignment.
5. Click Release Grades. Then click Yes.
6. You will see Release Successful. Please check the details for any errors. Then click OK to proceed.

5. Check uploaded grades and feedback (Original)

   1. Go to 'Grade Center' > 'Assignments' (or ‘Full Grade Center’). Find the assignment column and check the grades. Click the chevron next to the assignment name and click ‘Grade Attempts’.
   2. Check the grade. Expand the grading panel.
   3. Check the feedback and feedback file under “Feedback to Learner”.
   4. To release the grades, feedback, and feedback files, show the assignment column to students (Blackboard Help: Can I control when students see their grades and feedback)

6. Check uploaded grades and feedback (Ultra)

1. Go to Gradebook > Grades > Find the assignment column and check the grades. Select a graded cell from a student > View Submission.
2. Click this arrow to open the slide. You will be able to see the feedback file and feedback comment here for current selected student.
3. After you have checked all the records, you can now post grades. Return to Gradebook > Grades > Select the name of the Assignment > Post.

Points to note

1. To prevent confusion, please advise students NOT to include the word 'feedback' in the submission file name. 
2. The grade and feedback (i.e., Feedback to Learner) will be overridden if you upload and release the grades multiple times.
3. If you are releasing the grades again, please re-check the feedback file names - they should be unique when compared with previous processed ZIP files. If processed with same feedback file names, those would be appended with a random string to maintain uniqueness.
4. Assignment name and feedback file name with Chinese characters are not supported.
5. For assignments allowing multiple attempts, only the last attempt will be downloaded, and only the last attempt will be graded.