First, it’s important to share with them why we will not be entering grades into BlackBoard or Banner:  Though it is unlikely, it is technically possible for the College to lock us out (forcing us to be out of work). To reduce the possibility of this happening, and to maintain control over our students’ grades and progression through their programs, we must ensure the college does not have access to students’ grades. Therefore, we must remove all grades from Blackboard, and ensure no midterm grades are submitted on Banner. As we get closer to the end of the semester, it’s important to make it difficult for the college to make decisions about students’ advancement without our participation.

Next: it’s important that the students understand they can still get their grades from you directly. Faculty can still provide grades and/or feedback to students – just no grades posted to BlackBoard or Banner.

Finally, depending how your class uses Blackboard, please ensure your students are aware of how they should be submitting assessments to you, and how they will be able to get their grades/feedback from you. If you need help with brainstorming ideas, feel free to drop us a line: info@opseu562.org.  We have some useful tips and suggestions in this guidebook as well. The goal is to ensure you are protected from a potential lock out, while ensuring you are still working within your workload limits, and students are still able to get their grades.

The Team has prepared a template letter for students that you can also adapt for your needs.