Courses: Gradebook

Using your gradebook

Access your Course Gradebook from the menu of your Course to update assignments, test/quizzes, assessments, and discussions. Students can view these grades under their Grades tab.

• Gradebook is not supported in courses containing more than 10,000 members.

Access and filter items

The set of menus available in your Gradebook provides flexible control over displaying content, creating new content, and setting various options.

• Members Menus
• Grading Period Menu
• Categories Menu
• Sort Materials Menu
• View Menu

Members menus

Name display

You can sort the list of members in your course to display in ascending or descending alphabetical order by First or Last name. The menu includes the following options:

• First Name, A-Z
• First Name, Z-A
• Last Name, A-Z
• Last Name, Z-A

The default display is Last Name, A-Z. This will display names in the format: Smith, John. To make navigation among courses easier, the display selected for each section will save within your browser session. If you change browsers or clear your cookies, the display will reset to default (Last Name, A-Z).

Grading groups

Course administrators may also use Grading Groups to associate students of the class to group projects, special needs, or other specific criteria.

For instructors who have configured grading groups for their course, an additional drop-down menu displays in the Gradebook:

• To access materials assigned only to the grading group, filter to that group. The menu will display the number of members in each group in parenthesis.
• To access all materials in the course, filter to All members. For students to whom the material is not assigned, the grade cell is grayed-out and un-editable. This prevents you from accidentally entering grades for students that are not assigned an item in the course.

Linked sections

If you use linked sections, then there will be an additional menu to filter between the linked sections in your course.

Grading period menu

In the Grading Period menu, select:

• A single grading period to display only the items from that period.
• All Grading Periods to display the calculated grades for the overall and grading period scores. Sub-periods are nested beneath their main grading period.
• Final/Midterm Material Grades to display items for which you have checked Set as midterm/final in the item's Grading options.
• (No grading period) to display items that haven't been assigned a grading period.
  
  

This filter defaults to the current Grading Period. If your course is not currently active, this section will default to All Grading Periods, which does not display individual graded materials.

Categories menu

While accessing the Gradebook as a course admin, the default display includes all graded materials in the course. To review graded materials within a specific category and the student’s grade for that category, click the drop-down arrow from All Materials:

The Categories in this list are configured on the Grade Setup page. If a material does not have a grading Category, it will display in the (Ungraded) section. You cannot enter grades, comments, or exceptions into the Gradebook for an item that is designated as (Ungraded).

All category summaries

The All Materials drop-down also includes an option called All Category Summaries.

If you select a specific grading period and the All Category Summaries option, the Gradebook displays one column per grading category that exists in the course. If no items have been graded for a student within a certain category, that category’s column displays, but is set as N/A:

This option continues to display the overall and grading period columns if the course is configured to display those columns, but materials are not listed in this section.

Since course materials can only be aligned with the lowest level of the grading period in your course, whether a grading period or sub-period, grading category scores are only calculated for those grading periods.

• The All Category Summaries option is only available when you have selected the lowest level of the grading period.
• A grading category score is not calculated for grading periods that have sub-periods.
• If the user selects a parent grading period from the grading period drop-down while All Category Summaries is selected, the display changes to the selected parent period with All Materials automatically selected in the category drop-down.

Grading Category Score Columns include:

• The title of the category as the column header

• The calculated category score for the selected grading period

  

  This is the same score that is displayed on the student grade report. It is an average of all of the scores for materials aligned to that grading period and associated with that grading category.

Grading category-specific

When you filter for a specific grading category using the All Materials drop-down, a column appears from the grading period column with the students’ calculated grading category score within that grading period.

Course Admins can hide the category score columns from their gradebook page using the option in the Grade Setup flag called Hide Grading Category score columns.

Sort materials menu

Choose an option in the Sort Materials menu to select the order in which the grade item columns display:

• Due Date, Ascending: Sort items from left to right with the earliest due dates displayed at the beginning of the Gradebook and the most recent at the end.
• Due Date, Descending: Sort items from left to right with items with the most recent due dates at the beginning of the Gradebook and the earliest ones at the end.
• Date Created, Ascending: Sort items from left to right with the earliest items you created displayed at the beginning of the Gradebook and the most recent at the end.

• Date Created, Descending: Sort items from left to right with the most recent items you created displayed at the beginning of the Gradebook and the earliest ones at the end.
  
  

  

  Items without assigned due dates display at the beginning of the Gradebook list regardless of the selection you make in the Sort Materials menu.

View menu

Select one or more options from the View Menu to access additional information about the items in the Gradebook.

• Show Full Titles: Select to expand the header row of your Gradebook and show the entire title of each graded item.

• Show Grading Scale: This setting controls the display of the scale drop-down menus that display in Gradebook cells when entering grades or overrides.
  If enabled, a menu displays in the Gradebook cell for any material item that has a point- or percentage-based grading scale.
  Disable this setting to remove the scale menu from gradebooks cells.
  
  

  

  • Disabling Show Grading Scale does not remove the grading scales from items or affect item grades in any way; it only removes the pop-up menu from gradebook cells.
  • The Show Grading Scale setting persists across all of a user's sessions and courses. For example, if you disable it in your Gradebook for Course A, it will be disabled every subsequent time you review the Course A Gradebook, and will also be turned off for your Gradebook in Courses B and C. The setting is unique to users, which means that co-admins for courses can choose their own setting when reviewing the Gradebook.

Highlight cells

You can also choose from several selections that highlight cells in the Gradebook that fit the selected criteria; the number to the right of each option indicates the total number of items matching the criteria.

• • Exempt
    Highlight all Gradebook items that you've marked exempt, indicated by a green hexagon in the table cell:
    

    

  • Incomplete
    Highlight all gradebook items that you've marked incomplete, indicated by a half-filled orange hexagon in the table cell:
    

    

    

    Items marked Excused or Incomplete register as blank, null values in the gradebook, and are not factored into student grades.

  • Missing
    Highlight all gradebook items that you've marked missing, indicated by an empty orange hexagon in the table cell:
    

    

• • Missing with Submission
    Highlight individual cells that you've marked missing, for which students have submitted.

    

    After applying the view filter, click the item icon to directly open the new submission.

  • Graded With New Submission
    Highlight all graded items for which the student subsequently turned in another submission.

    

    Graded with New Submission is only supported for discussions and assignments. 

  • Needs Grading
    Highlight all past-due gradebook items that still need a grade.
  • Not Submitted
    Highlight all past-due items for which students still need to submit their work.
  • Materials with factor 0
    Highlight the columns of items with a factor of 0—that is, items that you don't want to be factored into student grades.

For example, selecting Needs Grading from the menu adds a border around each cell in the Gradebook that is past due, but has not yet been given a grade:

Edit materials

The Materials More Options menu displays in the header row of each graded item and provides additional options for assignments, tests, and discussions:

• • Edit — Modify the item details.
  • Track Revisions — Displays changes made to a student's grades for assignments and discussions. This option is not available for test/quizzes and assessments.

  • Set All Grades — Adds the same score for all of the grades for that item.

    

    Gradebook items (assignments, discussions, grade columns) with aligned Mastery objectives are scored by the aligned objectives, and manually setting the overall score via Set All Grades is disabled.

  • View Statistics — Displays statistics for the item. For example, highest and lowest grades, average score, and standard deviation.
  • Delete — Removes the assignment, test, or discussion from the course section. All grades for the item are also deleted.

Add materials

Click + in your Gradebook to create graded content:

• Assignments
• Discussions
• Test/Quizzes
• Grade Column (No associated course material is added.)

Edit grades

To edit grades directly from your Gradebook, click into the cell and add the new grade.

You can also use the tab or arrow keys to navigate your Gradebook. Using the Tab key moves your cursor down one row within the same column in the Gradebook. When you reach the end of the column, pressing Tab again moves the cursor to the top of the next column.

Highlighting the active row and column

Whether navigating through the Gradebook with a mouse or keyboard, the row and column you are working in will be highlighted to make it easier to indicate which cell you are editing.

Move the pointer over the Gradebook cells to highlight the entire column and row that intersect at that cell, including the student name in that row and the material title in the column header.

If a test/quiz or assessment is graded automatically the calculated grade will display, along with a link to the student's submission. If you change this grade, the override is indicated by an orange pencil.

Click the pencil to clear the override.

• Grades automatically save when you modify a cell.
• You can also type any non-numeric character into a cell to assign a 0 for that grade.

Access submissions

Instructors can open and review materials for individual student submissions directly from the Gradebook.

Icon	Description
	Open and review a submitted assignment.
	Open and review a graded discussion.
	Open and review a completed test or quiz.
	Open and review a completed assessment.

Add comments and mark accommodations

To leave a comment:

1. Move your pointer over a cell and click the Comment icon.
2. Type your message in the pop-up window that displays. You can choose to hide the comment from students by unchecking Display to Student.
3. Your comment saves automatically; click the x to close the comment:
   

   

The comment icon displays for all cells to which you've added a comment.

If an accommodation was offered to a student, check the box Accommodation Offered/Received (optional).

Comments and exceptions are displayed in the student grade report, which you can open from the Graph icon from the student's name. Comments for grading periods and the overall column also appear on student report cards unless you have selected the Hide overall grade from student reports and/or hide grading period grade from student reports checkboxes in the course Grade Setup area.

Mark exceptions

To add an exception, point your mouse over the gradebook cell and click the flag that displays.

Using the excused exception with student completion

You can use the Excused exception to bypass materials on which you have set up student completion requirements. For example, if a student is absent and makes up a required assignment with a different make-up project, or a student is new to the class and doesn't need to start at the beginning of a folder with completion rules.

Using exceptions with overdue items

Marking an overdue item Absent, Exempt, Late, Missing or Collected removes the item from a student's Overdue notifications. Marking an overdue item Incomplete does not remove the item from a student's Overdue notifications.

More options menu

Click the three vertical dots to access a menu of additional options for the Gradebook.

This menu will only display if there are graded materials within the course.

Bulk edit

Select Bulk Edit to review graded assignments, tests/quizzes, assessments, and discussions in a given course. For each graded item you can edit or delete the items:

• Name
• Published/Unpublished status (the green dot in the second column)
• Category
• Max points available
• Factor
• Scale/Rubric
• Due Date
• Grading Period

Click the Save Changes button to update your Gradebook with the changes. If you have multiple pages in this area, click Save Changes.

Print grade reports

Print Grade Reports for students in your course.

1. Select the specific grading period(s) you want to include.
2. Select individual students or all students.
3. Click Generate Report.
4. Print from your browser.

Export

Choose from two formats in which to export your Gradebook:

• As an XLS/CSV version of your Gradebook.
• As an XLS/CSV file that you can use to import your Gradebook into other systems.

Import

If the graded items in one course are the same as the graded items in another course, you can import grades from an XLS/CSV file; for example, when students change classes and their grades must be transferred to the new course.

Importing grades is only available to Enterprise instructors.