- A Student Named Student aaa999
- Jane Doe on the Roster is Jane Plain in Your Grade Book
- Paging Preferences
- User IDs
- Demo Student
In some cases your official roster may not match exactly to the students appearing in the Blackboard (Bb) Vista grade book. This information describes the most common issues with student names as they appear in the grade book.
Students who enroll in your classes will appear in your Bb Vista grade book. You may notice differences in how names appear. When you review your class roster in Peoplesoft (LOUIE) or download the roster from the Class Roster Request Form, you may discover that some names do not match.
A Student Named Student aaa999
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)-restricted students show up this way in Vista. These students have requested to have their names concealed and we must comply due to federal FERPA regulations. You can see them in your grade book with the first name "Student" and the last name of their "NAU Dana ID". You can always compare User IDs to verify that John Smith on your roster is Student jas123 in your Bb Vista grade book.
If you have students wondering why their names are not showing up, please let them know that students who wish to change their FERPA restrictions may do so in LOUIE. Please understand that you cannot insist that students change their FERPA restrictions if they do not wish to do so. We must comply with FERPA.
Jane Doe on the Roster is Jane Plain in Your Grade Book
The name fields in Bb Vista are pulled from the Preferred Name fields in Peoplesoft. If a student has an official name of Jane Doe, but she prefers her new married name, she can set the Preferred Last Name to this new name.
NOTE: As instructors, if you prefer a different version of your name (your middle name instead of your first name) you can add a Preferred Name at Human Resources, so it will show up the way you want in Bb Vista.
Paging Preferences in the Grade Book
The default number of class members you can view in the grade book is twenty. When you have more than twenty students and other class participants (instructors, TAs, guests), you can change this default view of twenty.
In many of the tools used in Bb Vista you will find the “Paging” option. You can set the paging to show any number of items on a page. In the grade book, you can set the number of class participants you want to see.
To adjust the paging in the grade book, click on the Paging icon found in the lower right of the grade book.
You can change the default number.
Select Save.
NOTE: Remember that the grade book lists not only students, but other participants in the class, including all instructors, TAs, guests, and the Demo Student. Adjust the number accordingly.
User IDs
The one consistent way to compare these name anomalies is to compare the User ID for any mystery student to the students in your roster. If you are looking for John Smith in your grade book, look to see if there are any FERPA-restricted names that start with the “j” initial and see if the User ID matches with John Smith in your roster.
If you would find it easier to manage these students in the grade book you can create a Text Column to manually type in their official names. This information describes how to create a column. Do not release this column to students and only you can see the names in the grade book.
Demo Student
Every Bb Vista class has a "Demo Student" automatically created for your class. You will see this student listed in your grade book. When you use the Student View tab to complete any assessments or assignments that you created, the grades will post to this student.
