Printer-Friendly Version

Up

Create/add an item to the Gradebook

Note: This is not for an assignment from the CTools Assignment Tool. To do this, see the section, "Putting assignments and grades created in CTools into the Gradebook," below.

To create/add a new Gradebook assignment, follow these steps:

1. In the menubar, click Gradebook , and then click Add Gradebook Item.

2. In the web form that opens, fill in the following information:

- Title: A title is required for all Gradebook assignments. The title can be up to 255 characters in length.

- Gradebook Itempoint value: You must assign a point value to all Gradebook assignments. Enter a value greater than zero. Decimals are permitted, but values are limited to two decimal places. Note that you can only assign assignments in gradebook a numerical grade.  However, you can convert these numerical grades into letter grades later on.  

- Due Date: You can optionally designate a due date for a Gradebook assignment. Using the drop-down lists, select the month, day, and year of the due date for the assignment.

- Category: If you have created a category, you can optionally assign an item to a category using the drop-down list.

3.  If you wish to include this assignment in the calculation of the final grade, check the box next to this option.  If you do not want to include the points student receive for this assignment in the calculation of the final grade, do not check the box.  If you wish to make this assignment visible to students once you’ve entered grades into the assignment, check the corresponding box.  If not, leave the box unchecked.  

4. To create the item, click Add Item. You will see a message saying the item has been added. Alternatively, click Cancel to discard the item, and you will be returned to the Gradebook Items page.

Edit an existing gradebook item

To edit an existing Gradebook assignment, do the following:

1. In the menubar, click Gradebook.

2. In the list of Gradebook assignments, click the assignment you want to modify.

3. On the Assignment Summary page that opens, under "Options," click Edit assignment settings .

4. Change the Gradebook assignment's settings, and then click Save Changes. On this page you can alter the assignment’s point value or due date. You will see a message saying that you have successfully updated the assignment. Alternatively, click Cancel to discard the changes.

Delete a Gradebook item

To delete a Gradebook assignment, do the following:

1. In the menubar, click Gradebook.

2. In the list of gradebook items, click the item you want to delete.

3. On the Assignment Summary page that opens, under "Options," click Remove assignment from gradebook .

4. On the Remove Assignment confirmation page, check the box next to Remove this assignment from gradebook .
Click Remove to delete the assignment from the Gradebook. You will see a message saying the assignment was deleted. Alternatively, you can click Cancel to exit the page, preserving the assignment.

Setting student feedback options

To set student feedback options in the Gradebook, follow these steps:

1. In the menubar, click Gradebook.

2. At the top of the Gradebook, click Course Grade Options

3. On the Course Grade Options form, choose from the following options:

Grade Display: Check the desired options for revealing assignment and course grades to your students. The Display Assignment Grades option is checked by default, and the option to display course grades is unchecked by default so that you may release your grades at the end of the grading period.

Grade Conversion: In the "Grade Type" drop-down list, select the type of grade you wish to use, and then click the Change grade type button.

Grade/percent table: In this table, you will see the minimum percentages for each grade. Manually entered course grades are not affected by the percentages in the grade/percent table. If you manually enter a course grade, you will see the error message "You have changed the grading scheme. All manually overwritten course grades remain unaffected." For more information about manually overriding course grades, see Overriding an autocalculated course grade .

4. When you have finished, click Save. If you don't wish to save your changes, click Cancel to return to the Gradebook Overview.

Up

Overriding an autocalculated course grade

By default, a course grade is automatically calculated by the Gradebook. This grade is simply calculated as a percentage of current points scored out of the total points possible of all assignments entered in the Gradebook. Therefore, if there are ungraded assignments present, the autocalculated course grade may not always be accurate. You can choose to manually override the course grade or use the autocalculated grade.

Overriding an autocalculated course grade

To override an autocalculated course grade, do the following:

1. In the menubar, click Gradebook. If you are not already on the Overview page of the Gradebook tool, click Overview near the top of the window.

2. At the bottom of the assignment list, click Course Grade.

3. On the resulting page, you will see a list of enrolled students and their calculated course grades. In the "Grade Override" column, enter the new course grade(s) with which you want to replace the autocalculated grade(s).

Note: When manually entering a course grade, you must use the appropriate grade type for the Gradebook in which you are working. For example, if the course is graded on a simple letter grade scale, you will only be able to enter the letters  A  , B  , C  , D  , or  F  . If the course is graded on a standard letter grade scale, you will also be able to add  +  (plus sign) or  -  (minus sign) to the letter grade. If the course is graded on a pass/fail scale, you will only be able to enter the letters  P  or NP  .

When you have finished updating any course grades you want to change, click Save.

Each time a grade is overridden in this fashion, a log is kept as to who changed the grade and and to what the grade has been changed to.  Clicking on the log icon to the left of the over ride grade box will pop up a window that shows who has last overridden the grade and what the grade has been changed to.  

Reverting back to an autocalculated course grade

If you have overridden a course grade, and you want to use the autocalculated course grade instead, do the following:

1. In the menubar, click Gradebook. If you are not already on the Overview page of the Gradebook tool, click Overview near the top of the window.

2. At the bottom of the assignment list, click Course Grade.

3. On the resulting page, you will see a list of enrolled students. If you have overridden a course grade for a student, you will see the grade you manually entered in an editable field in the "Grade Override" column. To revert back to the autocalculated course grade, delete the manually entered grade and click Save .

Note: You will have to delete the manually entered grade and click Save for each grade you want to change back.  You can not do this in a mass fashion.

Entering or editing assignment grades in the Gradebook

Entering grades

To enter grades for assignments into the Gradebook, do the following:

1. From the menubar, click Gradebook.

2. Locate the assignment for which you want to enter grades in the assignment list and click its title.

3. Enter each student's score for the assignment into the box following his or her name. Scores must be greater than or equal to zero, and may contain up to two decimal places (e.g., 9.25 ). You may leave a box blank if you are waiting on a student's grade.

4. To add comments for students, click Edit Comments. Type your comments in the text box.

5. Click Save Changes. A grade history log indicating the date entered, the recorded score, and the submitter will be created for each score. Click the Log icon to view the details for an entry..

Editing previously-entered gradess

To edit previously entered grades in the Gradebook, do the following:

1. From the menubar, click Gradebook.

2. Locate the assignment with the grades you want to edit in assignment list and click its title.

3. On the Assignment Summary page, current grades for individual students for the particular assignment will appear in editable fields in the "Points" column. To edit an assignment score for a student, change the points in the appropriate field.

4. To add comments for students, click Edit Comments. Type your comments in the text box.

5. Click Save to update the scores with your changes. A log will be kept here whenever assignment grades are changed or edited. 

Putting assignments and grades created in the CTools Assignments Tool into the Gradebook

When you create an assignment using the CTools Assignment tool, you can choose to have the assignment name and grades go automatically into the Gradebook of the same site.

To do this, when you create the assignment, click the box next to "Add to Gradebook" near the end of the assignment-creation form.

Note: You can not edit assignment grades entered through the assignment tool.  You must edit those grades in the assignment tool, not in the gradebook.  Also, grades for specific assignments entered through the assignment tool will not appear in the gradebook.  Gradebook will include scores for assignment grades entered in assignments in the calculation of the final grade, but those specific grades will not appear in the gradebook.  

Importing scores into the Gradebook

First, some common errors made when importing into Gradebook:

You can upload the entire csv file into the Gradebook loading dock, however, each
column/assignment can only be imported one at a time into the actual Gradebook.
Another common error is trying to import a column of grades into an Assignment that
already exists in the Gradedbook - this is not possible - the Gradebook entry for
each assignment will be created during the import. This means that if you want to
re-import your csv file, you will end up with an entirely new entry and you will have
to delete the old entry for that assignment.

Second, instructions on how to import:

To import grades, you must first create a .csv spreadsheet file containing
columns of point-based scores, and then upload it to the Gradebook Loading Dock. The
first row of your spreadsheet must contain headings for the columns it contains. The
first column must contain individuals' usernames in lower-case letters.

Once you have your .csv file ready for upload, follow these steps:

Uploading a file to the Loading Dock

1. In your site's menubar, click Gradebook.

2. Near the top, click Upload/Import.

3. On the Upload/Import screen, click Upload spreadsheet (csv format) to Loading Dock.

4. To select a file for upload, click Browse. Find the file on your computer, click its name, and then click Open.

5. In the field next to "Title", type a unique name to be displayed in the Loading Dock.

6. Click Save.

7. On the Verify Upload screen, review the number of assignments and students for
your upload, and view a display of the file's contents. If the content is correct,
click Ok. If you need to select another file, click Back.

Once a file is uploaded to the Loading Dock, its contents become available to import
as new Gradebook assignments. To import an uploaded file's contents as a new
Gradebook assignment, follow these steps:

Importing a file from the Loading Dock

1. On the Upload/Import screen, find your newly uploaded file in the Loading Dock,
and next to it, click Import.

2. On the Import Preview screen, click the radio button to select the column that
represents the assignment and corresponding scores you want to import. (You can
select only one at a time.) Then click Import Selected.

3. On the Import Assignment and Scores screen, enter the following information:

* Title: The title you provided in the steps above is automatically filled
in. If you didn't provide a title earlier, you must provide one here. The maximum
length is 255 characters.

* Assignment Point Value: Enter a total point value for the assignment.
This must be greater than zero. Decimal values are permitted to two decimal places.

* Due Date: In mm/dd/yy format, indicate the assignment's due date, or
click the calendar icon to select a date using the pop-up calendar tool. This is not
a required field.

* Select a column to import comments: If a column in your file contains
comments, use the drop-down list to select the appropriate column, and add the
comments to the import. Comments will appear next to the grades in the Gradebook.
This is not a required field.

4. To include this assignment when calculating the final grade, place a checkmark in the appropriate box. You can change this option later, if necessary.

5. To make this assignment's scores available to students, place a checkmark in the box next to Release assignment. You can change this option later, if necessary.

6. When you're finished, click Submit. You'll return to the Import Preview screen, where you'll see confirmation that the assignment has been added. You can now select another assignment for import, or click the Reset button to return to the Gradebook Overview screen. You should see your imported assignment(s) listed under "Assignments".

Up

Exporting scores from the Gradebook

From the Gradebook, you can export your students' scores to a Microsoft Excel file by their cumulative score for the course and with the student roster. To export scores from the Gradebook, in the relevant course site, click Gradebook from the menubar , and then follow the appropriate steps below:

Exporting cumulative scores

Under the list of assignments, click the Course Grade link. You will see a course summary with an average score for your entire class and your grading table. To export your course scores to Microsoft Excel ( .csv format), click the Export for Excel or the Export CSV button.

The default filename format for your file is course_grade_[courseID]__date.* . The exported fields and the names of the Excel column headers are "Student Name", "Student ID", and "CourseGrade". The full student display names and complete assignment names are exported. Assignment point values will only export up to two decimal places. Scores are listed in the assignment name column.

Exporting scores from the student roster

At the top of the Gradebook, click the Roster link. You will see your student roster, and Export for Excel and Export CSV buttons at the bottom of the page. For more information about exporting scores from the student roster, see Viewing and exporting student roster from the Gradebook .

Viewing and exporting student roster from the Gradebook

Viewing your roster

To view your student roster from the Gradebook, follow these steps

1. While you are in the course site, click Gradebook in the left-hand menubar .

2. At the top of the Gradebook, click the Roster link.

You will see a list of students who are enrolled in your course, their scores on all graded assignments, and their cumulative scores. You can search for a particular student by name or ID. If your course does not have any students enrolled yet, you will see the error message "No students to display".

When you are finished viewing your roster, click the Overview link to return to the main Gradebook menu.

Exporting your roster

To export your roster to Microsoft Excel ( .csv format), click the Export for Excel or the Export CSV button.

The default filename format for your exported roster is gradebook_[courseID]_assignment_name_date.* . The exported fields and the names of the Excel column headers are "Student Name", "Student ID", and "[assignment name]". The full student display names and complete assignment names are exported. Assignment point values will only export up to two decimal places. Scores are listed in the assignment name column.

All available class data is exported. If you sort or filter your roster by your student names before exporting, it will not affect the output.

Viewing assignment details

In the Gradebook tool, you can access a page listing all of the details for a particular assignment by following these steps:

In the menubar , click Gradebook . If you are not already on the Overview page of the Gradebook tool, click Overview near the top of the window.

In the assignment list, locate the assignment for which you want to view details, and then click its title.

On the resulting Assignment Summary page, you will be able to view the maximum points possible ("Points") and the class average score ("Average for scores entered") for the selected assignment. Other information and options to edit assignment scores and settings are also available on this page.

Sorting Gradebook tables

In the Gradebook, there are several tables that you can sort in various ways. In any of these tables, simply click the column heading by which you want to sort the table. Subsequently clicking the same column heading will switch the sorting order between ascending and descending.

Assignments table

On the Overview page, you can sort the "Assignments" table by the following:

- Title

- Due Date

- Avg (class average score)

- Points (points possible)

- Grading table

On the Assignment Summary page for a particular assignment, you can sort the "Grading Table" by the following:

- Student Name (sorted by last name)

- Student ID (email address)- =Points (points earned on the assignment)

On the Course Grade summary page, you can sort the "Grading Table" by the following:

- Student Name (sorted by last name)

- Student ID (email address)

- Points (overall course points earned)

- Calculated Grade (Gradebook autocalculated course grade)

- Grade Override (overridden course grade)

- Roster

On the Roster page, you can sort the table by the following:

- Students (sorted by last name)

- Student ID (email address)

- Assignment Name (sorted by points earned on the assignment)

- Cumulative (overall course points earned)

Up