Contents

After you log in to your course in D2L, select Grades from the navigation bar.

Open

Grades Setup Wizard

When creating a grade book for the first time, the Grades Setup Wizard starts automatically and takes you through seven steps that help you select options for how grades are calculated and displayed.

Note: If you have already set up a grade book, the Grades Setup Wizard will not start automatically. In that case, select the Setup Wizard tab.

The first screen in Setup Wizard shows the current grade book settings. Review the current settings and then select Start to begin the Wizard.

Open

Step 1: Choose Grading System.

For this example, select Points and then select Continue.

Note: Using a point grading system, you assign each grade item a value in points. The final grade becomes the total number of points of all the grade items.

Step 2: Final Grade Released

Select Adjusted Final Grade.

Calculated Final Grade: This option displays the final grade as the total number of points calculated from all the scores that have been entered.

Adjusted Final Grade: This option allows you to alter a student's calculated grade. For example, you may want to round a calculated score up to the next letter grade or round down to penalize a student for absences. Adjusted Final Grades is usually preferred.

Please Note: Selecting an option does NOT automatically release the Final Grade to students. Releasing Final Grades is covered in the document Releasing Final Grades to Students.

Step 3: Grade Calculations

Select the options you prefer and then select Continue.

Drop ungraded items: If this option is selected, grade items that have not been assigned a grade value will be ignored in the final grade calculation. If a student has received a 0 for an assignment, it is important that you enter a score of 0 to ensure that the final grade is calculated accurately.

Treat ungraded items as 0: When this option is selected, grade items with no grade value will automatically be given a grade value of 0. Note that this option makes final grades look as though students have earned a 0 for assignments they have not yet completed.

Auto Update: When this option is selected, the Calculated Final Grade will re-calculate automatically when any change that affects final grade calculations (i.e., modifying a user's grade, changing the 'bonus' property of a grade item, etc.) is made. If this option is not selected, you must manually recalculate the Calculated Final Grade. Out-of-date final grades are indicated by a small calculator icon beside a user's final grade.

Keeping this option checked is recommended.

Step 4: Choose Default Grade Scheme

There are two default schemes to choose from, Percentage and Letter Grade. For now, leave the setting as is and go to the next step by selecting Continue.

Percentage: The Percentage Grade Scheme displays calculated grades as a percentage of the total possible points. Percentage is the default grade scheme.

Letter Grade: The Letter Grade Scheme displays grades as the letter grade (A, B, C, D, F) corresponding to the calculated value. The standard Letter Grade Scheme is used unless you create a custom grade scheme. For information on creating custom grade schemes, see Creating and Applying a Grade Scheme.

Step 5. Managing View Display Options

This setting lets you specify the number of decimal places that will appear in grade calculations. It is recommended that you leave the default setting at 2.

Step 6: Student View Display Options

This step allows you to specify how students will see their grades.

Grade Details – Specify whether points values, grade scheme symbols, and grade scheme color will be displayed in the student view of grades. Note that grade scheme color can only be displayed if the grade scheme symbol is also displayed.

Decimals Displayed – Specify the number of decimal places you want displayed in calculated grade values

Characters Displayed – Specify the number of characters that can be displayed in text comments associated with grades

Final Grade Calculation – Specify whether students will be able to view how their final grades were calculated, including which grade items contributed to their final grades, which grade items were bonus grades, and whether their calculated grades were adjusted.

Step 7: Grades Setup Summary

This step displays a summary of the options you selected. Select Finish to complete the Setup Wizard.

Creating Gradebook Categories

Gradebook categories let you organize and group related grade items into sections. For example, you could have separate categories for Assignments, Quizzes, Participation, Discussions, etc. When grade items are grouped together in a category, you can distribute points equally across all grade items and drop the highest or lowest item in the group.

There are two options for creating grade categories:

Option 1: You can begin creating grade categories immediately after completing the Grades Setup Wizard. To do so, select Create a New Grade Category.

Option 2: If you completed the Setup Wizard earlier, or are coming back to create a new category, select Manage Grades and then select Category from the New dropdown menu.

You can now create a New Category.

General

Type a Name for the category.

Enter a Short Name that will appear in the grade book, (optional).

Select Show Description, enter the description text and select the Allow users to view description check box to make the description visible to users, (optional)

Grading

Can Exceed -- Select this option if you want grades to be able to exceed the maximum value for the category.

Exclude from Final Grade Calculation – Select this option if you want to exclude this grade category final grade calculation.

Distribute points across all items – Select this option if you want all items in the category to be worth the same number of points. If you select this option, enter the Points per item. You also have the option of dropping the highest and lowest scores for each user.

Display Options

These options determine how this grade category will appear to students.

Display class average to users – Select this option if you want students to be able to see the class grade average.

Display grade distribution to users – Select this option to allow users to see a graph showing how grades were distributed between different percentiles.

Override display options for this item – Select this option if you want users to view grade information for this category differently from other categories in the grade book. If you select this option, you will then be able to indicate that the Points grade, Grade scheme symbol, and Grade scheme color should be displayed for this item.

Select Save and Close to save this category and return to Manage Grades.

Select Save and New to save this category and start creating another one.

Select Save to save the selections you have made and continue work on this category.

When you have finished creating your Categories you can start creating your Grade Items.

Creating Numeric Grade Items

Step 1: From the Manage Grades area, select Item from the New dropdown menu.

Step 2: Select Numeric from the Choose a Grade Item Type list.

Step 3: General options

After you have selected the Numeric Grade Item Type, complete the following:

• Enter a Name for the grade item.

• Enter a Short Name to display in the Gradebook (optional).

• If you want the grade item to be associated with a category you just created, select the appropriate category from the Category drop-down.

Enter a Description of the grade item (optional).

If you want to make the description available to users, select Allow users to view grade item description (optional).

Step 4: Grading options

Maximum Points: Enter the maximum possible points for this item. This field will be grayed out if you placed this item in a category and specified points to be distributed evenly.

Can Exceed: Select this option if you want users’ grades to be able to exceed the maximum points.

Bonus: Select this option if you want this grade item to be counted as extra credit. Bonus items are not counted towards the total possible points for a category or the final grade but are added to the students’ total only.

Exclude from Final Grade Calculation: Select this option to exclude this grade from the Final Calculation.

Grade Scheme: Percentage is the default grade scheme. Keep Percentage to display calculated grades as a percentage of the total possible points. Select Letter Grade to display the letter grades corresponding to the calculated values.

Rubrics: To attach an existing grading rubric, select Add Rubric. To create a new rubric for this grade item, select Create Rubric in New Window.

Step 5: Display Options

If the Display options do not appear, select Show Display Options.

You can select different Display options for students (Student View) and yourself (Managing View) by selecting the Override display options for this item check box.

Display class average to users: Select this option if you want students to be able to see the class grade average.

Display grade distribution to users: Select this option to allow users to see a graph showing how grades were distributed between different percentiles.

Override display options for this item: Select this option if you want users to view grade information for this item differently from other items in the grade book. If you select this option, you will then be able to indicate that the Points grade, Grade scheme symbol, and Grade scheme color should be displayed for this item.

Step 6: Save your new grade item.

Select Save and Close to save this item and return to Manage Grades.

Select Save and New to save this item and start creating another one.

Select Save to save the selections you have made and continue work on this grade item.

When you return to Manage Grades, you will see your Grade Categories and Grade Items.

Entering Grades

To enter grades, select the Enter Grades tab.

You now have two options for entering grades.

Option 1: To enter grades for one grade item, select Enter Grades from the dropdown menu for that item.

You can now enter grade values for this item for any or all of your students.

Option 2: To enter grades for multiple items, select Switch to Spreadsheet View.

You can now enter grade values for all grade items for any or all students.

Make sure to select Save after you have entered or changed grades.