I. Set up the Grades Tool (Gradebook)
Once you have a course syllabus, the first step in building your course in Brightspace is to set up the Grades Tool. Every other tool you'll use in Brightspace is connected in one way or another to the the Grades Tool, so taking the time to set it up will save you and your students a lot of confusion later on.
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Why Start With The Grades Tool?
Taking the time to set up your course’s Grades tool now will save you and your students a great deal of frustration later. It's a crucial first step in building your course. Using your syllabus, you'll add Grade Items for each of the things students will receive a grade on, and set up how you want the final grade for the course calculated.
The Grades Tool is essentially your course's Gradebook. In a physical gradebook, you list out things that students will be graded on. We do the same thing in Brightspace's Grades Tool using Grade Items. Point or percentage values can be added individually to Grade Items, or you can add a series of Grade Items to a Category and set a point or percentage value on everything in that category in one operation.
To the right you'll see a diagram depicting the Grades Tool setup process. You'll start by selecting either a Points-Based or Weighted (Percentage-Based) Grade System for your course. What you do from there depends upon which you choose, but in either case, you'll be creating what are called Grade Items to represent the various graded activities in your course.
5 Reasons why setting up the Grades tool before anything else is crucial:
It controls what students see when they go to the Grades tool. Not setting things up will make it much more difficult for them to determine how they are doing in your course and require you to do much more manual communication with them.
Brightspace will not know how to calculate a final grade for students in your course.
You will have to perform extra steps while creating Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes/Exams in order for them to "count" toward students' final grade.
It becomes much trickier to modify the Manage Grades section of the Grades tool once students have started to submit work.
You will be unable to grade Discussion Topics.
What is a "Grade Item"?
The next few sections mention Grade Items frequently, but we don't actually talk about creating them until much later. To avoid confusion as you proceed through this chapter, Grade Items tell Brightspace about the things in your course that are worth credit. They are how the final grade for your course is calculated. Anything that would get a grade, such as a paper or a quiz needs to have a Grade Item created for it. Each one also gets a column in the main “grid” of the Enter Grades tool. Grade Items also define what students see when they go to the Grades tool along with what they have received for a score for that item.
Finally Grade Items are also how the Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes/Exams you'll create in the next chapter talk to the Grades tool to record students' grades.
Setting up a Points-Based Course
All Brightspace courses start as Points-Based by default, so you don't need to select a Grading System. You can skip to the Creating Grade Categories section below.
Setting up a Weighted (Percentage-Based) Course
All Brightspace courses start as Points-Based by default, so you will need to change some settings in the Grades tool to change your course into a Weighted (Percentage-Based) grade system.
Go to the Grades tool. (see above)
Click the Settings button.
Click the Calculation Options tab.
Select your preferred Grading System (Points or Weighted).
Click the Save button.
Click the Close button.
You'll be taken back the the Manage Grades screen where you will see an alert that "Final Calculated Grade does not sum to 100%." This is normal and it will be addressed as we proceed.
Continue on to the next section, Creating Grade Categories.
Working With Grade Categories
While Grade Categories are particularly important for faculty using a Weighted Percentage grade system, they also have other useful functions for Points-Based courses as well. Besides organizing Grade Items, they allow you to perform several tedious actions automatically with minimal effort such as assigning a default point value to all the Grade Items in a category, or automatically dropping the lowest grade a student receives from the items in that category.
Note, if your course has less than ten items that will be graded, categories might not be useful to you, and you can skip to the section on Grade Items. However, if you have weekly graded quizzes or discussions, you will want to keep reading.
To create a Grade Category:
Go to the Grades tool, as previously described.
Click the Manage Grades tab.
Click the New button.
Select Category.
Choose one of the two sections below that applies to your course.
The Manage Grades tab is where you create Grade Categories to organize Grade Items and allow you to perform some useful functions on them. This is also important for Weighted courses, as you assign a Weight value to categories to tell Brightspace how to calculate students' final grade.
Click the New button and select Category.
Category Setup for Points-Based Courses
Perform all the steps in the previous section to reach the New Category page.
Give the Grade Category a name. For example, if this category will contain all of your course's weekly quizzes, name it "Weekly Quizzes."
Optional: You can make the items contained in this category not count toward the course's final grade by checking the Exclude from Final Grade Calculation checkbox.
Optional: If you will have a lot of Grade Items in this category, you can save yourself some time by checking the Distribute points across all items checkbox and enter a point value all Grade Items in this category will use.
Optional: If you typically drop a number of your students' lowest quiz or discussion grade, you can have Brightspace do this for you automatically by entering a number in the last number field.
Click the Save and Close button to return to the Manage Grades page or click Save and New to save this category, and go directly to a blank New Category page if you have more grade categories to create.
Category Setup for Weighted Courses
Grade Categories are very important for Weighted (Percentage-Based) courses. They are the primary way to tell Brightspace that, for example, all the Discussions in your course count for a total of 20% of students' final grade. You can do this on individual Grade Items, too, but if you have weekly quizzes or discussion postings, it's MUCH easier and faster to do it with a category.
As a general rule, you want to create categories for all the graded assignments in your course that are worth the same amount and are of the same type, such as "Essays" or "Quizzes."
Perform all the steps in the previous section to reach the New Category page.
Give the Grade Category a name. For example, if this category will contain all of your course's weekly quizzes, name it "Weekly Quizzes."
Enter the total percentage weight the items in this category should have toward the final grade (you don't need to include a '%' sign).
Example 1: If your syllabus says that quizzes are worth 25% of the final grade, enter '25'.
Example 2: If your syllabus says that there are 5 quizzes in the course and each is worth 5%, simply multiply 5 by 5 and enter "25".
The Distribution options are particularly useful:
4a) Select one of the following:
Manually assign weight to items in the category: Allows you to manually assign an individual weight to each item within the category. (This is a pain for most courses. Don't choose this unless you've manually done a bunch of math to figure out the weight of every last thing students turn in.)
Distribute weights by points across all items in the category: Allows you to assign weight according to the number of points given for each item in the category.
Distribute weight evenly across all items: Regardless of the number of grade items added to or removed from this category, Brightspace will scale the items within this category to come out to whatever you've set as the weight for the category. If you aren't sure what to pick, choose this one. It makes things so much easier!
4b) Optional: If you typically drop a number of your students' lowest quiz or discussion grade, you can have Brightspace do this for you automatically by entering a number in the last number field.
Click the Save and Close button to return to the Manage Grades page or click Save and New to save this category, and go directly to a blank New Category page if you have more grade categories to create.
Attention:
Grade Items are not created automatically when you create Discussion Topics, or Quizzes/Exams! (However Brightspace provides a route to do this from the activity creation screens). Follow the steps in this section to create them.
Working With Grade Items
In order for your course’s assignments, discussions, quizzes and exams to “count” in the course they each need to be connected to a Grade Item. A Grade Item is where the scores for an associated assessment activity are stored in the Grades tool.
Creating a Grade Item
Here you'll find detailed, step-by-step, written instructions, as well as a short video tutorial on how to create a grade item. You can also watch the Creating a Grade Item video in full screen on our Kaltura channel.
Go to the Grades tool, as previously described.
Click the Manage Grades tab.
Click the New button.
Select Item.
The New Item page will appear. Select the type of grade item. Most likely, you want to select Numeric.
Continue on to whichever one of the two sections below that applies to your course.
Enter a Name for the Grade Item that corresponds to an assessment listed in your syllabus, such as "Week 1 Discussion".
If you have set up a Points-Based Course:
Optional: Select the Grade Category this Grade Item will be a part of. If you haven't created one, there is a [New Category] link you can click to create one now.
Set the Maximum Points for the Grade Item. This field will be grayed out If you put this item in a category with the "Distribute Points Evenly" option set.
If you have set up a Weighted Course:
Select the Grade Category this Grade Item will be a part of. If you haven't created one, there is a [New Category] link you can click to create one now. If this Grade Item represents a unique activity/assessment in the course with a lot of weight in the course, such as a final exam or project, you can skip this step.
Set the Maximum Points for the Grade Item. Points are separate from the item's weight and are essentially cosmetic for Weighted courses because everything ultimately gets converted to a percentage (100-point) scale.
TL;DR: When in doubt, just leave it be or enter '100'.
Long Example: An instructor creates an item with a weight of 20% in the course and is set to have 50 points. A student earns 25 of those 50 points. When Brightspace calculates the final grade for the course, it will scale those points in terms of percentage (100) and report that the student earned 10% toward the total course.
Set the Weight for this Grade Item. This field will be grayed out If you put this item in a category with the "Distribute Weight Evenly" option set.
Set any other options that fit your needs.
Click the Save and New button.
Repeat from Step 1 for each graded assessment you plan to have in your course.
Changing / Editing Grade Items & Categories
Once you've created a Grade Item or Category, you can edit it later using the following steps.
Go to the Grades tool, as previously described.
Click the Manage Grades tab.
Click the Action Button (little down-facing arrow next to the grade item) next to the Grade Item or Category you wish to edit to bring up a menu.
Select Edit from the menu.
Edit Multiple Grade Items & Categories
Most basic changes can be performed very quickly using the Bulk Edit tool.
Go to the Grades tool, as previously described.
Click the Manage Grades tab.
Click the check boxes next to all the Grade Items and Categories you need to change.
TIP: Click the top-most check box in the table's header row to select everything with one click.
Click the Bulk Edit button.
When the Bulk Edit screen appears, make your changes.
When you are finished, click the Save button.
Deleting Grade Items & Categories
Important: You cannot delete grade items that are associated/connected with an assessment in one of the Activity tools (Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes & Exams). To delete the Grade Item you must first remove the association.
Go to the Grades tool, as previously described.
Click the Manage Grades tab.
Look in the Association column to the right of the Grade Item or Category you want to delete.
If the column for that Grade Item is empty, proceed to Step 4.
If it's not empty, click the Information Icon (question mark) in the Association column to view the associated assessment's name. Go to the tool for that assessment type and delete or edit the assessment. To edit the assessment for this purpose, either select a new Grade Item or set it to None (see II. Create Course Assessments or Activities for help deleting or editing). Then proceed to Step 4.
Click More Actions button.
Select Delete from the menu that appears.
On the next screen, click the checkbox next to each grade item and category you want to delete.
Click the Delete button.
Note: Selecting a category does not select or delete the grade items that reside in it. If you delete a category, the grade items associated with it become independent grade items.
Understanding Weighted Courses
If your course is Points-Based you can skip this section. In Weighted courses, there are four rules you need to be aware of:
The Weight of Grade Items not in a Grade Category counts toward the Total Course Weight (the same as categories do).
The Weight values of all Grade Categories and Grade Items not in in a category must total up to 100.
The Weight of Grade Items inside a Grade Category count only counts toward that category's weight.
The Weight values of all Grade Items within a category must total up to 100.
The chart to the right depicts a course which has two Grade Categories. The Quizzes category is weighted at 30% of the course and it contains four Grade Items, each worth 25% of the Quizzes category. The same is the case for the Discussions category, which is weighted at 40% of the course.
Make it Easy on Yourself
If you have a Weighted (Percentage-Based) course, set your Grade Categories to distribute their weight evenly across all items as shown in Step 4 of the Category Setup for Weighted Courses section. That means Brightspace will do the math for you on what the weight should be for the items in that category. It also means you can easily add and remove grade items from that category without messing things up, because Brightspace will automatically recalculate the in-category weight distribution.
Setting up Extra Credit / Bonuses
There are several ways to implement "extra credit" or "bonus" points/assignments in Brightspace. This selection covers a few scenarios.
Go to the Grades tool, as previously described.
Click the Manage Grades tab.
Click the Action Button (little down-facing arrow next to the grade item) to the right of the Grade Item.
Choose Edit from the menu that appears.
In the Properties tab, scroll down to the Grading section.
Do whichever one of the following applies:
a) If this is a normal assignment everyone will be graded on and you just want to add bonus points, click the Can Exceed check box. Then simply give students extra points as you grade.
b) If this entire assignment is for bonus points, click the Bonus check box.
Click the Save and Close button.
If this Grade Item is attached to an assignment in the Assignments tool, you might need to force the Grades tool to re-calculate the scores. Do this by going to the Assessments menu and selecting Assignments.
Click the Action Button to the right of the assignment using the Grade Item you previously edited and choose View Submissions.
Click the top-most check box in the table header to select all students.
Click Publish Feedback in the row of blue links/options above the list of names.
Click the Yes button in the alert box that will appear.
Click the Action Button next to a Grade Item or Category and select Edit.
Click Can Exceed if you just want to add bonus points to the Grade Item of a normal assignment everyone will be graded on. Click Bonus if this entire grade Item will be used to add bonus points to the final grade.
If the Grade Item you changed is attached to an assignment that has already been all or partially graded, you may need to re-publish all students' feedback to force the Grades tool to recalculate scores.
Understanding How Points Work in Brightspace
Brightspace has several (too many) places which allow you to set a "points" value for things and they are all unconnected to each other. For example, you can have an Assignment whose Grade Item is set to 100 points, while the assignment itself is set to 10 points in the Assignments tool. You could also attach a rubric to this assignment that totals up to 15 points. This seems like a huge problem until you realize that Brightspace is always converting everything back to a 100 point scale (percentage) behind the scenes. Which essentially means that any point values you enter are mostly cosmetic. In other words, they just define how they display scores to students.
In the example above, an instructor has set up an assignment worth 10 points. The Grade Item they created for it is set to 100 points. They also attached a rubric to the assignment that totals 6 points. A student completes that assignment and the instructor grades the student using the Rubric. Their score comes out to 3 points. Brightspace takes that score from the rubric and converts it to the equivalent on the 10-point scale set for the assignment in the Assignments tool, which is 5, and this is the score you and the student will see when looking at the assignment in the Assignments tool. Brightspace does the same thing for the score it reports in the Grades tool, which in this case is 50. Brightspace will always use the Grade Item score when calculating the final grade, and what the instructor and the student will see when going to the Grades tool.
Bottom Line: Be consistent in the values you enter for a grade item and the assignment it will be associated with, because the score for it will look different depending on where it is being looked at. However it isn't the end of the world if it's different because Brightspace converts everything to the relevant scale anyway.
In-Depth Video Demonstrations
Below you will find longer, in-depth video demonstrations for setting up both Points-Based and Weighted courses.