Faculty Guide

In this Guide:

We have included the minimum requirements to setup your D2L shell for your courses. These include the following:

Creating an Announcements Posting
Editing the Instructor Information Widget
Uploading the Course Syllabus and Schedule into Manage Files and Content
Setting up the Grade Book

There are other optional tools that you can use in D2L. These include Discussions, Assignments, Quizzes and many more. Training on how to use each tool is available in the Learning Technology department by appointment. We have included our contact information at the end of this document if you need to schedule an appointment for special training.

Step 4: The profile picture can be updated by selecting the icon with a cloud that contains an up arrow (hovering over the cloud you will see the tooltip “Upload profile image”), find the image within your files and select Open. To delete the image, select the trash can (hovering over you will see the tooltip “Remove profile image”).

Step 5: Use your mouse to drag and reposition the image within the circle. Use the slider below to zoom in or out of the image.

Step 6: Below the picture you will see options for character input within an About Me area and a short description. These fields are also character limited and do not allow for the addition of links or advanced HTML formatting. There are also options to add Facebook and Twitter information/links.

Step 7: When all fields are complete be sure to select the “Save” button within the widget to apply the changes.

Providing the Syllabus and Schedule using the D2L Content Navigator

Best practice is to first load your files into your Manage Files area. The reason for this is so that your files can be easily found and managed. Loading files into Manage Files is simple.

Step 1: Select More tools, then Course Admin

Step 2: Under Site Resources, select Manage Files.

Step 3: On the Manage Files page, select New Folder to add a new folder.

Step 4: Type in the name for your new folder and select Save.

Step 5: Select the folder to which you want to upload a file and select Upload.

Step 6: You can now drag an image file from your computer and drop it into the dotted rectangle, or select Upload, and browse to the file on your computer. Select Save.

The file(s) now appears in the destination folder.

Step 7: Select the Content tab.

Step 8: In this case, we will select the Syllabus and Schedule module link. If you do not have a module, you can create one by typing a name for the module in the Add a Module field (under the Table of Contents menu on the left pane) followed by the Enter key.

Step 9: You can now select the dropdown menu under Upload/Create and select Add from Manage Files.

Step 10: A new window will pop up allowing you to select and add files from the Manage Files area. Select the boxes next to the files that you would like to add and then select Add located on the lower left corner of the window.

The file(s) will now appear in the Table of Contents area under the Getting Started module.

Viewing the Syllabus and Schedule using the D2L Content Navigator

The D2L Content Navigator is located on the course homepage, and this is where student can quickly access Content items and track the completion status for each module.

Setting up the Grade Book

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

Grades Setup Wizard

When creating a Gradebook for the first time, the Grades Setup Wizard will take you through several steps that are designed to help you select options that best fit your gradebook needs. The first screen in the Wizard will tell you the current settings in your gradebook. Once you have finished reviewing the settings, select Start to begin the Wizard.

Note: The Grades Setup Wizard will not start automatically if you already have an existing Gradebook in the course. In that case, select the Setup Wizard tab.

Step 1 of the Setup Wizard is Choose Grading System.

Choose the Points option.

Points System: Under a Points System, items are given a value in points. The final grade becomes the total number of points for all the graded items.

Step 2 of the Wizard deals with the release of final grades in D2L.

Choose Adjusted Final Grade.

Note: Selecting an option does NOT automatically release the Final Grade to students.

Adjusted Final Grade: This option allows you to alter a student's grade manually. This may include rounding a student's score up to the next letter grade or penalizing a student for absences.
Calculated Final Grade: This option releases the total that D2L has calculated based on the scores that have been entered.

Step 3 of the Setup Wizard focuses on Grade Calculations.

Choose the options that best suit your needs.

Drop ungraded items: If this option is selected, grade items that have not been assigned a value will be ignored when final grades are calculated. This option creates a running total in your gradebook. If a student has received a 0 for an assignment, it is important that you enter a score of 0 for that assignment. If you don't, the student's final grade will not be accurate.
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. Selecting this option makes it look as though your students are failing for at least half of the course because they have not yet completed all grade assignments.
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, the Calculated Final Grade must be manually re-calculated. Out-of-date final grades are indicated by a small calculator icon beside a user's final grade.

Keep the Auto Update option checked.

Step 4 of the Setup Wizard allows you to select a Grade Scheme for your course. The default Grade Scheme is Percentage.

Step 5 of the Setup Wizard allows you to set how many decimal places will be displayed in the Gradebook.

It is recommended that you leave the default setting at 2. (This only applies when you have auto graded quizzes/ assignments where students can get a value such as 89.75. You can manually change this to a 90 or an 89 in the Gradebook.)

Step 6 of the Wizard allows you to set display options for your students.

Displaying the Final Grade Calculation to users allows them to view how their final grade was calculated. Students can see which grade items contributed to their final grade, the total points for each item, which grade items were bonus grades, and whether their grade was adjusted.

Note: This option is only available in the weighted and points grading systems.

Step 7 of the Setup Wizard gives you a summary of all of the options you selected.

Click Finish to complete the Setup Wizard.

Creating a Gradebook category

Gradebook categories help you organize and group related grade items into sections. For example, you could have separate categories for Assignments, Quizzes, Case Studies, 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 Gradebook Categories:

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

If you completed the Setup Wizard earlier, or are just coming back to create a new category, please do the following:
1. From the Manage Grades area, select Category from the New dropdown menu.

You can now create a New Category.

Add a Name for the category.
You may add a Short Name to display in the Gradebook (optional).
You may add a Description of the category (optional).
Select the Allow users to view description check box if you want to make the category description available to users (optional).

Leave the Can Exceed box unchecked.
Leave the Exclude from Final Grade Calculation box unchecked unless you want to exclude this whole category from the Final Grade.
If all your grade items under this category have the same point values, choose Distribute points across all items.
Enter the Points per item.
If you wish to drop the lowest score in this category: Enter the number of items to drop.
Choose what you would like students to see for this category: Select Display class average to users or Display grade distribution to users or leave unchecked.
Select Save to save this newly created category or Save and New to start creating another one.

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

Creating a Numeric grade item

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

Select Numeric.

After you have selected the Numeric Grade Item, 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 dropdown.
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).
Enter the value you want the item graded out of in the Maximum Points field.

Note: This field will be grayed out if you have placed this item under a category and have defined a point value to be distributed evenly.

If you want users’ grades to be able to exceed the maximum points, select Can Exceed (e.g. 12/10).
Select the Bonus checkbox if you want this grade item to be counted as extra credit.

Please Note: Bonus items are NOT counted towards the total possible points for a category or the final grade. They are added to the students’ total only.

If you want to exclude this grade from the Final Calculation, choose Exclude from Final Grade Calculation.
The default scheme is ‘Percentage’. Leave the default setting unless you have created your own grade scheme (more advanced).

Under Display Options: Choose your preferred Student View options.
Under Display Options: Choose your preferred Managing View options.
Select Override display options for this item, if you want to customize your display settings for students.

Select Points Grade and the Grade Scheme Symbol if you want students to see the Points (Example 10/10) and the Percentage (Example 100%) for this Grade Item.

Note: These options are already checked by default if you have successfully completed the Grades Setup Wizard.

When you have finished creating all of your Grade Categories and Grade Items, your Manage Grades area shows a list of grade categories and items. Below is a screenshot of an example: