CloudDeakin guides

Grades

The gradebook

The gradebook lets you set up your evaluation and assessment.

From the gradebook you control the grading formula used to calculate grades; what projects, assignments and tests are graded; how grade items are associated with other tools; and when grades are released to students and what information they see. Before you create a gradebook, you should be familiar with the concepts the tool uses.

A gradebook is a list of items on which you evaluate students’ performance. Grade items can include any type of assessments. Together, the items in a gradebook represent student work evaluated or assessed in the unit. Before you can use the Grades tool you must set up a gradebook.

Before you set up a gradebook in your unit site you should know:

• what grade items you plan to use to evaluate students
• how much each grade item should be worth
• how you want grade items to be evaluated
• how you want to calculate a cumulative or final grade.

Although you can adjust your gradebook later, making changes to how the gradebook is structured or calculated after students’ grades have been entered can significantly change your data. Use the Setup Wizard to assist you in setting up the gradebook.

Setup wizard

Step 1: Choose grading system

1. Click on Assessments and then click on Grades.
2. In the Grades page, click on Setup Wizard then select Start.
3. Choose Grading System.

• Weighted grade: Under a Weighted system, grade categories are required and each category is assigned a weight as a percentage of the final grade. 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 per cent. You can ignore these warnings and operate your grades tool without a total weight of 100 per cent. Keep in mind, however, that final grades will be calculated with the assumption that the total equals 100 per cent.
• Point grade: A Point system is the simplest Grade System for students and teaching staff. Under a points system, grade items are given a value in points. Categories are not required in a point system. If you do use Categories to group your grade items, the Categories are then calculated by the sum of the points of their child items. The final or cumulative grade becomes the total number of points of all the grade items.
• Formula grade: Under a Formula system, items are given a points-value then a custom-defined formula determines how they contribute to the calculated final grade. This option can be difficult to use and should only be used when the simpler options cannot fulfil your requirements. Occasionally the Formula Editor will use parenthesis that are not displayed in the Editor, but will be placed in the Final Grades Properties page (so make sure to double check when troubleshooting).

Step 2: Final grade released

The type of final grade to release determines whether the students see a cumulative grade throughout the teaching period or only an adjusted grade at the end of the teaching period.

• Calculated Final Grade: The final grade or cumulative grade calculated by the gradebook.
• Adjusted Final Grade: A modified or adjusted final grade entered manually by you.

Step 3: Grade calculations

The grade calculations step provides additional choices for calculating students’ grades. It allows you to decide how you want to calculate ungraded items and whether you want to maintain users’ final grades up to date automatically.

• Drop ungraded items: Grade items that you have not entered grades for are not counted towards students’ final grades. They are ignored in the final grade calculation. Select this option if you plan to make students’ grades available to them before the end of the course. Assign a grade of 0 (zero) for any grade work that is not submitted so that the assignment is included in the overall calculation.
• Treat ungraded items as 0: Grade items that you have not entered grades for count as 0 towards students’ final grades. Select this option if you leave grade items blank because no work was submitted and you don’t want to manually change the grades to 0.
  Note: If you add new items to the gradebook later, users receive a 0 until you update their score.
• Automatically keep final up to date: If you select this option, final grades are automatically adjusted after changing a grade item. If you do not select this option, you must instruct the gradebook when to recalculate final grades.
  Tip: Turn this option off to reduce page reload times for large classes.

Step 4: Choose default grade scheme

A grade scheme is a way of organising students’ performances on grade items into levels of achievement. A grade scheme can include any number of achievement levels. Each achievement level has its own range of acceptable grades and a symbol, such as a numeric value, letter or text description to represent it.

• Percentage: Total points divided by total possible points = 100%, 90%, 80%, etc.
• Letter: F, D, C, B, A, A+.
• Text: Below Expectations, Meets Expectations, Exceeds Expectations.

Step 5: Manage view display options

Enter the number of decimal places to be displayed for the grades.

Step 6: Submission view display options

You can set whether students see their grades as point values, percentages, or scheme levels and whether they can see the calculation method (logic) behind their final grade.

• Points grade: Releasing the points grade to a student shows them the value a grade item was marked out of and their score, e.g. 6/10.
• Weighted grade: Releasing the weighted grade to a student shows them how much the grade item is worth in relation to its category or the final grade, e.g. 3/5 (for a student who scored 60% on a grade item worth 50% of a category worth 10% of the final grade).
  Note: This option is only available if you chose the weighted grading system in step 2.
• Grade scheme symbol: Releasing the grade scheme symbol to a student shows them the scheme level they received on a grade item, e.g. ‘Good’.
• Grade scheme colour: Releasing the grade scheme colour shows a student the colour associated with the scheme level they received.
• Number of decimals to display: Controls the number of decimal places a student sees in the gradebook. The default value is 2 and the maximum value is 5.
  Note: This option only changes how many decimals display. It does not control how many decimals the Grades tool rounds to when calculating grades.
• Number of characters to display for Text items: Controls the number of characters a student sees for a text item. When setting this value you should try to find a balance between presenting enough information for users to recognise the Text item and keeping the item concise, so that it displays clearly. The default value is 15 and the maximum value is 50.
• Display final grade calculation to users: Displaying the final grade calculation to a student allows them to view how their final grade was calculated. They can see which grade items contributed to their final grade and how much; which grade items were bonus grades; and whether their grade was adjusted.

Step 7: Grades setup summary

The final step summarises the choices you made while setting up your gradebook. If you change your mind on any of the choices, click the Back button to return to the step and adjust it. Clicking Finish on this page completes the set up process and takes you to a Manage Grade screen where you will see a list of options for continuing work in the Grades tool:

• Create a New Grade Category
• Create a New Grade Item
• Import Grades
• Create a New Grade Scheme
• Manage Grade Items and Categories
• Enter Grades

Manage grades

Hide a grade item

1. Click on Assessments then click on Grades from the navigation bar.
2. From the Manage Grades page, click on the grade item that you wish to hide.
3. Click on the Restrictions tab.
4. Select Hide this grade item.
5. Click Save and Close.

Import and export grades

Export grades

Use this function to get a list of students’ grades in CSV or Excel format.

1. Click on Assessments then click on Grades from the navigation bar.
2. Click on Enter Grades.
3. Click on Export.
4. If you wish to export only a certain sections or groups, click on the drop-down list of All users and click Apply. Select the sections or groups and click Apply.
5. Under the Key Field, select either Org Defined ID or Username or Both.
   Note: Org Defined ID is the Student ID.
6. Select the Grade Values that you wish to use.
7. Under the User Details, select the fields you need.
8. Under the Grade Item, select the grades that you wish to export.
9. Click on Export to CSV or Export to Excel.
10. From the pop-up window, click on the file name to open the file.

Import grades

It is highly recommend that you use the export function to export a copy of the Classlist before you enter grades. Please ensure that your file is in the correct format before importing grades. The file can either be CSV or TXT format.

1. Click on Assessments then click on Grades from the navigation bar.
2. Click on Enter Grades.
3. Click on Import.
4. Click on Browse and select the file. Then, click on Open.
5. Tick the box of Item Creation if you wish to create new grade item.
6. Click Continue.
7. In Step 2, click Continue.
8. In Step 3, click Import.

Export group and section information

1. Click on Assessments then click on Grades from the navigation bar.
2. Click on Enter Grades.
3. Click on Export.
4. If you wish to export only a certain sections or groups, click on the drop-down list of All users and click Apply. Select the sections or groups and click Apply.
5. Under the Key Field, select either Org Defined ID or Username or Both.
   Note: Org Defined ID is the Student ID.
6. Select the Section Membership and/or Group Membership that you wish to export.
7. Click on Export to CSV or Export to Excel.
8. From the pop-up window, click on the file name to open the file