How do I set up my Gradebook?

The Gradebook is the hub for all graded activities and points earned in your site. There are several settings you can set up for your site, such as Grade Entry in points/percentages, Grade Release Rules, Categories and Weighting, and Grading Schema.

Go to Gradebook.

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Select Gradebook from the Tool Menu of your site.

Click Settings.

Image of Gradebook Settings button.

Choose Grade Entry preferences.

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  1. Open the Grade Entry menu.
  2. Select Points to enter grading information as points within all Gradebook items, or select Percentages to enter all grading information as percentages.

Choose Grade Release Rules.

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  1. Open the Grade Release Rules menu.
  2. Check Display released Gradebook items to students to allow students to view released items. You can still hide individual items when you create or edit them.
  3. Check the Display final course grade to students box to show students their final grade in the course as calculated in the Gradebook.

If you have selected Display final course grade to students, choose to display it as Letter Grade, Percentage, and/or Points.

Choose Statistics preferences

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  1. Open the Statistics menu.
  2. Check Display assignment statistics to students to allow students to view the distribution of grades for individual assignments.
  3. Check Display course grade statistics to students to allow students to view the distribution of overall course grades for the class.

Note: These options are typically selected by default, however, your system administrator may configure them to be de-selected by default by setting the appropriate property in the system configuration file.

Choose Categories and Weighting preferences.

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  1. Open the Categories & Weighting menu.
  2. Select No categories, Categories only, or Categories & Weighting.
    • No categories offers simple grade calculation based strictly on the points or percentages of all your Gradebook items, without any groupings, weighting, or dropping of items.
    • Categories only: group similar Gradebook items, like all homework, or all projects. This option also allows you to drop grades within Categories. If all items within a Category have the same point value, you can choose to drop the highest grade, keep the highest grade, or drop the lowest grade within the category
    • Categories and Weighting: group and weight items within a Category. For example, if all homework assignments, added together, comprise 20% of the final course grade, projects make up 50% of the course grade, and exams are worth 30% of the final grade, this option will allow you to group the items and weight them accordingly.

Note: If you use Categories, you must have at least one item in each category to enter grades. For example, if you have a Final Exam worth 30% of the final grade, you will need a Final Exam category AND a single Final Exam Gradebook item within that category.

Tip: If you would like to be able to drop grades, you should select either Categories only or Categories & Weighting.

Add Categories.

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  1. Select Categories only.
  2. Click Add a category.
  3. Enter Categories in the Category column.

Add Weighting.

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  1. Select Categories & Weighting.
  2. Click Add a category.
  3. Enter Categories in the Category column and percentage weights in the % column.

Note: The percentage for all categories taken together must equal 100%.

Enable Drop Lowest and/or Keep Highest.

Image of dropping and keeping grades.

If you selected either Categories only or Categories & Weighting, the enable drop/keep options will appear.  All items within a Category must use the same available points value in order to use the drop/keep options for that category.

  1. Select the check box next to each of the desired drop/keep options.
    • Drop Highest: Automatically drops the highest score/s among items in a Category
    • Drop Lowest: Automatically drops the lowest score/s among items in a Category
    • Keep Highest: Automatically keeps the highest score/s among items in a Category
  2. In the Drop Highest, Drop Lowest, or Keep Highest columns, enter the number of items in each Category that you wish to drop or keep. In the example, the lowest item from the Exams Category will be dropped from grading, and the highest three items from the Discussions Category will be kept for grading.  

Tip:  Many instructors prefer to use Keep Highest as opposed to Drop Lowest, as it reflects a more accurate running total of student grades during the course of the term. Items that students have not yet completed are not dropped automatically, so one or more higher scores may be dropped until all items have been completed.

Enable Equal Weight.

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Check Equal weight to add the Equal Weight column. Checking the Equal Weight box associated with a Category will cause items of different point values within the same Category to gain equal weighting. This allows you to use the drop/keep highest/lowest options for a category containing items of different points.

Create an Extra Credit Category.

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To designate a Category as extra credit, select the check box in the Extra Credit column associated with the category. Extra credit items add to the student's total grade, but points do not detract from the overall grade if not completed. For more information on extra credit, see How does extra credit work?.

Tip: Both entire categories and individual Gradebook items can be designated as extra credit. However, you cannot have an extra credit item within an extra credit category.  

Reorder Categories.

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Drag and drop Categories to change their order in the Gradebook. Click on the reorder icon associated with the Category and drag it to the new location.

Delete Categories

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If you would like to delete a Category, click the associated Remove option.

Edit the Grading Schema.

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  1. Choose your preferred Grade Type: Letter Grades, Letter Grades with +/-, Grade Points, or Pass / Not Pass.
  2. The default grading schema values are displayed. If you would like to customize the score threshold for any of the grade levels, enter the desired value into the fields provided. (Optional)

Click Save Changes.

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Once you have finished with your Gradebook setup, click Save Changes.