Each gradable item can be assigned different types of grades that control what the student sees for that item. The possible grading types are: 

• Points
• Percentage
• Complete / Incomplete
• Scales or grading schemes that we have created

These same grading types can be associated with calculated columns and the final grade column of each course.

Points

This is the most common scale and the one selected by default. A numerical value is assigned to the work done by the student. 

When configuring the grade, we must choose the maximum score to be obtained in this activity: 

After this, once the student completes the activity, two things can happen: 

• If the activity has automatic grading (for example, a multiple-choice exam), a grade will be generated based on the defined maximum score and taking into account correct/incorrect answers. 
• If the activity is to be graded by the teacher, they can only assign a value between 0 and the defined maximum grade.

Percentage

In this case, instead of showing a numerical grade based on the defined maximum score, it shows the percentage obtained by the student over that maximum grade. 

When the teacher grades the task or activity, or the quiz provides a score, if we have chosen this grading type, the student will not see the score assigned by the teacher nor the score generated by the quiz. They will simply see a percentage from 0 to 100. 

Complete / Incomplete

In this case, it simply indicates whether an item or course element has been completed or not, without showing any type of score. It is very useful for activities that must be submitted but do not count towards the final grade, or even if they do, to avoid showing the student the grade obtained.

Grading Scheme

This type of grade compares the points received with a customized or institution-designed scale and shows the corresponding segment of that scale as the grade to the student. 

Suppose an institution assigns a scale Fail, Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent to all evaluations conducted in the course. Once an activity using this scale is graded, the student will see as their grade the text corresponding to that grade. For example, for a grade of 5, they will see Pass.

Blackboard allows defining multiple grading schemes within the same course. We configure the grading schemes in the course from the gradebook settings.