When you create a new item in Blackboard's gradebook, it gives you two options that affect how students will be able to see the grade: Make item available to users This controls whether students can actually see this grade. Invisible grades are useful if you're going to be putting in grades early but don't want students to see them until a certain point, or if if you'd like to keep notes of some kind about the student -- some instructors use this to track what group a student is in, for example. Include item in Gradebook score calculations This controls whether a grade affects the final grade that Blackboard calculates for each student. You definitely want to turn this off for grades that are just for notes, or if you gave an assessment that wasn't for credit. Keep in mind that both these settings work independently, so you can have an grade visible to students that doesn't count towards the final grade, an invisible item that does count towards the student's grade, and so on.

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