Gradebook

The Gradebook portlet operates differently according to the user:

Gradebook for Students

You can view your Gradesheet for a course by clicking on the Gradebook page in the sidebar of the respective course.  The following grade information is displayed:

Gradebook for Faculty

The Gradebook is available as a page in the sidebar of a course context.  Faculty can use this page to set up the relative weights of all elements of the course's final grade and to track student progress through the course.  

Attendance and Coursework are the two main components of a student's grade.  Attendance information and Coursework grades are automatically imported from the Attendance and Coursework portlets into Gradebook.  However, you must assign weights to the elements so the Gradebook knows the relative value of the elements in order to calculate final grades.

Basic and Advanced are the two assignment weighting methods.  The Basic method automatically weights coursework based on each item's point value from the Coursework portlet.  The Advanced method allows you to give each assignment (or unit or assignment type) a final grade weight that does not have to correspond in any way to the original point total.  

When you initially open Gradebook for a course, a setup wizard will guide you through the settings.  This wizard presents itself each time you open Gradebook until settings are completed.

NOTE:  As you set up your Gradebook, It is important that you read ALL help text that is printed on selected screens.  This information will be helpful to you in making decisions during the setup process.

Gradebook has two tabs:

Setup Tab

The Setup tab allows you to change settings and set up the relative weights of all coursework assignments and attendance statistics.

Tables displayed on this tab are dependent on whether you use the Basic or Advanced assignment weighting methods.

 

Basic

Advanced

 

Final Grade Point Totals

X

 

This table shows the overall point totals for the course, including the manually entered value for Attendance (and other custom items) and the calculated total for Coursework (based on the total point values of all graded assignments).  

Grade Breakdown

 

X

This table shows the percentage weights for the Attendance and Coursework and provides a link to Edit this breakdown.

Items without Point Values

X

 

This table lists all coursework items that do not yet have point values assigned to them.  This list is populated with Coursework items that were graded by Credit/No Entry rather than by a point value.  In order to include these items in the final grade calculation, they must be given a point value here.

Items without Weights

 

X

This table lists all Coursework items that do not yet have weights assigned to them. The name of the assignment links to the Unit/Type breakdown for that assignment so that it can be weighted.

Options

X

X

This table lists links to various other setup areas.

The following additional setup items are available from the Options table:

If necessary, additional custom items, such as Class Participation and Volunteer Hours, can be added by using the Add Custom Items link in the Attendance and Other Breakdown table. When you enter a custom item and click the Save button, you can then enter the weight for the item.  The Total of Relative Weight must always equal 100%.

If you are using the Basic weighting method, the Edit Point Values link allows you to edit point values for custom items.

If you are using the Advanced weighting method, the Edit Relative Weights link allows you to edit percentages (out of 100) for custom items.

NOTE:  Enter all your coursework assignments into the system before configuring all the coursework weights in Gradebook.

NOTE:  Point values of inactive assignments do not display in the Gradebook when using Basic mode.  

If you are using Units and the Basic method of weighting, the Unit link displays all assignments within that unit.  The Due Date, Name, Unit, and Total Points appear for each assignment in the unit.

If you are using Types and the Basic method of weighting, the Type link displays all assignments of that type.  The Due Date, Name, Type, and Total Points display for each assignment of that particular type.

If you are using the Advanced method of weighting and selected the Weight All Together option, each unit/type is listed with its relative weight (calculated from the weights of its assignments) and its calculated final grade weight.  Two grade drop options are available:

NOTE:  It is important that you read the Help text available on this screen.

If you are using the Advanced method of weighting and select the Weight by Type option, each type is listed with its relative weight and its calculated final grade weight.  Four grade drop options are available:

NOTE:  It is important that you read the Help text available on this screen.

The Set Letter Grade Values link takes you to the Setup tab where you can define letter grades and their number grade equivalents in the Letter/Number Grade Equivalency table.  The Use +/- and Remove +/- links allow you to use or not use + and - (i.e., A+, A, A-, B+, etc.) in grades.

This screen is used to change Gradebook settings that were set via the wizard during your initial visit to the Gradebook portlet.

The Show help text links are available to guide you through changing the original settings.

Gradebook Tab

The Gradebook tab allows faculty to view current grades and progress of all students in the course.  The tab contains the following pages:

Page 1: Overview

Page 1 displays all students in the course.  For each student, the final grade and component information are displayed.  The student name is a link to their Student Grade Sheet page.

If there are assignments that need to be weighted, the following note appears:  "You have assignments that need to be weighted. The Gradebook will not display accurate grades until you go to Coursework Breakdown and weight these items."  The Click Here to Go to Coursework Breakdown link takes you to the Setup tab to weight the items.  Click the Edit Weights link, and then refer to the Help listed on that page.

The Basic method only displays point grades.  The Advanced method displays two link options on the bottom of Gradebook:  Show Letter Grades or Show Percentage Grades.

If there are custom items (such as field trips, class participation, etc.) to be graded, the Grade Custom Items link is available at the bottom of Gradebook.

The Export to Excel link only exports information that is visible on the page to an Excel spreadsheet.  It does not export all Gradebook information.

The Set Letter Grade Values link takes you to the Setup tab where you can define letter grades and their number grade equivalents.

Page 2: Attendance Detail

Page 2 shows details for Attendance and custom Gradebook items.  

The Attendance section shows the total number of sessions or minutes and number of sessions or minutes attended for each student.  The score includes any loss of attendance credit as set in the initial Gradebook setup.

The Other section includes a column for each custom item entered on the Configure Attendance & Custom Items screen, which can be edited by clicking the Set Up Attendance and Other link.    Each column displays the score given for that item for each student in the Score Custom Items screen.

The Basic method only displays point grades.  The Advanced method displays two link options:  Show Letter Grades or Show Percentage Grades.

If there are custom items (such as field trips, class participation, etc.) to be graded, the Grade Custom Items link is available.

The Export to Excel link only exports information that is visible on the page to an Excel spreadsheet.  It does not export all Gradebook information.

The Set Letter Grade Values link takes you to the Setup tab where you can define letter grades and their number grade equivalents.  If you want to use + and - (i.e., A+, A, A-, B+, etc.), click the Use +/- link to expand the table.  Currently, this is not available when using the Basic method.

Page 3: Coursework Detail

Page 3 shows a detailed view of assignments set up in Coursework for each student.  They will most likely be organized by Unit or Type, depending on which format was chosen in the Gradebook setup.  Clicking the linked student name displays that student's Gradesheet.

If there are assignments that need to be weighted, the following note appears:  "You have assignments that need to be weighted. The Gradebook will not display accurate grades until you go to Coursework Breakdown and weight these items."  The Set up Coursework link takes you to the Setup tab to weight the items.  Click the Edit Weights link, and then refer to the Help listed on that page.

The Go to Coursework Page link opens the Coursework portlet for this course context.

The Basic method only displays point grades.  The Advanced method displays two link options:  Show Letter Grades or Show Percentage Grades.

Clicking the View All Assignments link displays individual assignments and grades by Type or Unit, depending on the format originally chosen.  Clicking the Hide All Assignments link displays only the averaged grade for all assignments by type.

The Export to Excel link exports ALL assignment and unit grades (on this screen), regardless of whether or not all assignments are displayed.

The Set Letter Grade Values link takes you to the Setup tab where you can define letter grades and their number grade equivalents.  If you want to use + and - (i.e., A+, A, A-, B+, etc.), click the Use +/- link to expand the table.  Currently, this is not available when using the Basic mode.

Full View (All Information)

ALL Gradebook information is exported to this Excel spreadsheet.  This includes the overview columns and the detail columns.