Written by Mike Moore, Sr. Manager Product Management
From the May 2023 Release (23.05), individual course instructors and course designers can select the appropriate achievement scale for use within a course when evaluating the achievement of learners related to the learning outcomes of the course.
Previously, users could select only one achievement scale to apply to all courses across the organization. Many clients have been limited by the ability to only select one achievement scale for their entire org. They have needed to allow different segments of their org to utilize different achievement scales for a variety of reasons. Sometimes these were institutional preferences, but sometimes they were requirements from external agencies or reporting bodies.
That ability to support multiple achievement scales within the org is now available in Brightspace. For example, in a K-12 scenario, the elementary grades could choose one achievement scale while the secondary education classes could choose another. In higher education, each program of study could potentially have its own achievement scale based on the reporting requirements of that accreditation agency.
Edit Settings
This feature introduces the Edit Settings button on the Outcomes in this course page to select the proper achievement scale. The page is also being enhanced by displaying the currently selected achievement scale for that course.
The selected achievement scale will apply to all outcome evaluations completed in the course and will be used to determine the suggested level of achievement for both individual activity evaluations and the overall suggested level of achievement in Mastery View.
Achievement scales will need to be created at the main org level for courses to be able to select them. The Achievement scale of a course can be selected or changed up until assessment evaluation begins in the course. Once the first evaluation has been recorded for the course, the achievement scale selection is locked for that course offering.
Assessment Settings Page
The Edit Settings button takes you to a new Assessment Settings page. This page lists all available defined achievement scales within the org. The tag Org Default is displayed next to the achievement scale currently selected as the org default scale. New courses will automatically pick up the org default scale as their selected scale.
Creating New Scales
The creation of new achievement scales is not available on this list page. To create achievement scales for courses at the main organization level, administrators should click Admin Tools and select Standards (Outcomes) under Organization Related.
When an administrator create and save the first achievement scale, that scale is automatically designated as the organization's default scale. Previously, this was a separate manual step after the scale was created.
Changing the Org Default Scale
Any created scale can be designated to be the org default scale. Changing the selected org default scale will not impact the achievement scale selection for any existing course offerings. If the org default scale is changed, all existing courses will continue to reference their selected achievement scale or the scale that was the org default scale when they were created. Only courses created after the new org default scale is selected will automatically reference the new org default.
Changing Course Selected Scales
The achievement scale in a course can be changed until evaluation (grading) begins. Once the first evaluation has been recorded for the course, the achievement scale selection is locked for that course. The ability for administrators to set defaults on behalf of instructors/courses or for various parts of the organizational structure is not included in this update but is planned for future development.
