Using the Grades Settings
NOTE: If you used the Setup Wizard, these settings will already be done for you.
When you enter the Grade Settings area, you will see the Settings toolbar along the top:
- Personal Display Options - allows you to customize the display of Grades for YOU
- Org Unit Display Options - allows you to customize the display for your students
- Calculate Options - allows you to set how your grades are calculated for the class
Personal Display Options
This is for your view of the Enter Grades area where your students are listed. You can choose to:
- Display students' username and/or email address
- Display point values, scheme symbols and colors for grade items
- Limit the number of characters in text items
- Repeat details every certain number of columns (helpful for long gradebooks)
- Select your default area (where you will "land" when you click the Grades link in the navbar of a course)
Org Level Display Options
Click on the Org Level Display options to customize how you want the grades displayed to students. You can edit display items:
- Number of decimals displayed to instructor
- Number of decimals displayed to student
- What grade details to show students (points, scheme symbol, color)
- Whether to show how final grade was calculated
The Grade Calculations area within the Grade Settings will allow you to choose an appropriate grading system and final grade calculation. On this screen, you can decide:
- How your grade will be calculated
- Whether to include non-graded items in the calculation
- Whether to keep the gradebook updated automatically (NOT RECOMMENDED AS A BEST PRACTICE)
There are currently three options for course grading systems Weighted and Points. To choose a grading system, select the circle beside the system you wish to use for your course.
Under the 'weighted' system, grade categories are assigned a weight as a percentage of the final grade, and grade items are assigned a weight as a percentage of their parent category (or of the final grade if they have no parent category). The grades tool will show warnings on the screen if the categories/items do not add up to 100%. You can choose to ignore these warnings and operate with your grades tool without a total weight of 100%, however the final grade calculation will calculate with the assumption of 100%.
Assignments Category = 20% of final grade
Assignment 1 Item = (50% of Assignments)
Assignment 2 Item = (50% of Assignments)
Final Exam Item = 80% of final grade
Final Grade = Out of 100%
Under the 'points' system, items are given a value in points. Categories are then calculated by the sum of the points of their child items. Therefore, the final grade becomes the total number of points of all the grade items.
Assignments Category = 40 points
Assignment 1 Item = 20 points
Assignment 2 Item = 20 points
Final Exam Item = 200 points
Final Grade = Out of 240 points
Only use this option if the other two just will not meet your needs. You will have to create your own custom formula for calculating the value of the FInal Grade item using the formula editor
Final Grade Released
Choose which of the two options is the one to display to your students:
Calculated - this is the value that D2L will calculate based on your choices above. You cannot edit this value in the Final Grade area.
Adjusted - this can be copied from the Calculated value but can also be adjusted or imported from a spreadsheet. THIS IS THE RECOMMENDED CHOICE
There are two options when calculating the final grade for the course: Including Non-Graded Items in Final and Automatically Keep Final Grade Updated.
You can choose between two options for items that have no grade entered for them.
- Drop them - will ignore them when final grade is calculated
- Treat as 0 - will treat items with no grade entered as a grade of 0 for that item.
Note: If this option is changed after the initial calculation, all final grades will become out of date and will require re-calculation.
After you have calculated the final grade and you make changes to the initial calculated items/users you will need to re-calculate the final grade unless you check this option. If this option is checked, the final grade is automatically re-calculated. This will ensure that all final grades are current. If you choose not to keep the final grade updated, you will have to manually update your grades by: clicking on the grades/points icon beside the Final Grade column, and selecting the calculator icon in the FINAL GRADE grade item.