Blackboard: Download students' assignment files (for offline grading)

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For file-submission assignments, each student submits a document, and those files are available for the instructor to review in Blackboard's built-in 'inline grading' tool. Alternatively, instructors can download the students' documents, so they can be reviewed/graded offline in a different application like Word. To download students' file submissions, please follow the instructions below.

Overview of the Process:

Select desired users/files - Blackboard allows you to download specific submissions -or- all of the submissions associated with the assignment. Both options will produce a single ZIP file.
Download the ZIP file to your computer.
Unzip the file to view its contents: each submission will be available as a separate document.
View the documents and grade, leave feedback, or upload marked-up files to the Grade Center (optional).

Batch-Download Assignments

Log in to Blackboard and navigate to your course. In the Course Content menu (on the left), scroll down and click Grade Center > Full Grade Center. On the Full Grade Center page, locate the column associated with the desired assignment. At the top of the column, to the right of the assignment's title, click the grey arrow icon to open a drop-down menu. From that menu, select Assignment File Download.
On the Download Assignment page, select the students' submissions that you would like to download -or- check the box at the very top of the column to select all available submissions.
Confirm that all of the desired assignments have been checked, then click the Submit button (in the bottom-right).
Blackboard will process the request and re-direct you to a page with the download link — click the link to download the ZIP file to your computer.
In your computer's download folder, locate the ZIP file. This is a compressed folder that contains all of the documents you selected, but it must be unzipped before you can use the files. This may be done by your computer automatically - if not, please follow the instructions for Windows or Mac.
Now you should be able to open any of the documents you selected locally, without an internet connection.

Download Individual Students' Assignments

Log in to Blackboard and navigate to your course. In the Course Content menu (on the left), scroll down and click Grade Center > Full Grade Center. On the Full Grade Center page, locate the cell associated with the student and the desired assignment. Hover over the cell, and to the right of the yellow exclamation point, click the grey arrow icon to open a drop-down menu. From that menu, select Attempt (submission date).
This will open the Inline Reader, Blackboard's in-browser document preview and mark-up tool. All of this students' file submissions for this assignment will be listed on the right. Click the arrow to the right of any file to download. Note: With the batch-download function, usernames will be included in the file names for easy identification. But, files downloaded individually from the Inline Grading page will not include usernames.

Assignment File Notes:

File names - To avoid confusion with individually-downloaded file names: In the assignment's instructions, you may ask students to use a detailed file name (containing their last names or usernames) when they save their assignments.
Student comments - When students submit their assignment, in addition to attaching a file, they have the option to type text into the Create Submission and/or Add Comments fields. Those comments will also be included in your ZIP file, in a separate TXT file which may be opened in Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac). Both the main attached file and the TXT file will include the student's username in their file titles for easy identification.
Delete submission files - The Assignment File Cleanup function allows you to select students and delete the files associated with their submissions. This function is available in the Full Grade Center > desired assignment's column > drop-down menu > 'Assignment File Cleanup'.

Grade the Downloaded Assignments

After you have finished reviewing and grading assignments offline, you can manually copy those grades to the course's Grade Center. There are two options, depending on whether you would just like to add a grade, or if you would also like to upload a marked-up version of their document:

Just Add a Grade:

You can type grades directly in the Grade Center cells. Locate the cell associated with the assignment/student, click the cell (with a yellow exclamation point icon), and type in the desired grade.
Note: If you input a grade for the first attempt of an assignment that you have allowed two attempts for, this is called an 'override grade'. If you go on to grade the second attempt from the Grade Assignment page, the override grade still supersedes the second attempt grade you assign. This is important to consider before you assign grades directly in the Grade Center's cells.

Add a Grade, Comments, and/or Marked-Up Files:

Locate the cell associated with the assignment/student, click the grey arrow icon, and from the drop-down menu, select View Grade Details.
On the Grade Details page, select Edit Grade.
Here, you can add a grade, comment, or upload a marked-up file. In the text editor, click the '+' (Add Content) button, then in the pop-up menu, select Insert Local Files. You can also select View Attempt to see the student's work in the Grade Center and mark it up directly in the browser window.
When you are finished, click Save (at the bottom of the page) to add your grade or upload the file. The grading process is now complete! Depending on the feedback options you selected while setting up the assignment, the student may now be able to view their score and/or review your feedback.