You can determine how to set up your grade book using the Grades tool. You can choose a grading system that best reflects your approach to evaluation.
The grading system determines how the grade items in your grade book contribute to users’ final grades. There are three options:
- Grade items can count as a percentage of a final grade worth 100%.
- Grade items can be worth a certain amount of points that are totaled for a final grade.
- You can define a custom formula for how grade items contribute to a final grade.
Note: For more information about the Grades tool, refer to About Grades.
Grade books
A grade book contains your grading system, grade calculations, grade scheme, grade items, and view and display options. You must set up a grade book before you can use the Grades tool.
As you plan your grade book, consider:
- Which grade items you plan to evaluate.
- Which grading system is most appropriate for your course. For more information about grading system options, refer to Grading systems types.
- How you will allocate points or weights across grade items.
- Which grade items you want to associate with course objects. Note that only numeric grade items can be associated with course objects.
- If you want to include a milestone grade at least once during the course.
- How you want to calculate final grades. For more information about grade schemes, refer to Create Grading Schemes using the Grades tool.
Making changes to a grade book's settings and calculation options after you begin tracking users' grades can significantly affect existing data.
Grade items
Grade items in your grade book represent all the work that you want to evaluate users on in a course. Grade items can exist independently in your grade book, or you can associate numeric grade items with course objects such as discussions, quizzes, and assignments. Each grade item has an entry in the grade book, which you assign a grade to for each user. Depending on the grade item type you want to create, grade items can be graded numerically or based on a grade scheme. The grades and feedback you manually enter in your grade book for quizzes, assignments and discussions synchronize automatically with Quizzes, Assignments, and Discussions and appear in those tools as published feedback for learners to view.
Note: For more information about grade items, refer to Create and delete grade categories and items.
Synchronize your grade book with other tools
Your grade book synchronizes automatically with the published scores and feedback that you enter for grade items in Assignments, Discussions and Quizzes. All scores and feedback on grade items that you directly enter in Assignments, Discussions and Quizzes in your grade book synchronize directly with the associated tools and appear automatically as published grade items that are visible to learners.
Entering grades into your grade book using the import via CSV, import via Excel, or using the Brightspace API methods for grade items in Assignments and Discussions also appear automatically as published feedback in the tools.
Synchronize with Assignments
- Scores and feedback that you enter and publish for grade items directly in Assignments automatically synchronize with Grades and appear in your grade book. Any scores and feedback that you retract from publication are removed from the grade book automatically.
- Scores and feedback that you enter and keep as drafts do not synchronize back to Grades until they are published.
Synchronize with Discussions
- Scores and feedback that you enter and publish for grade items directly in Discussions automatically synchronize with Grades and appear in your grade book. Any scores and feedback that you retract from publication are removed from the grade book automatically.
- Scores and feedback that you enter and keep as drafts do not synchronize back to Grades until they are published.
Synchronize with Quizzes
The grades you enter directly in Quizzes automatically synchronize with Grades and appear in your grade book. The scores and feedback for quizzes grade items that you enter directly in your grade book synchronize automatically with Quizzes and overwrite any calculated score for the quiz.
- Overall scores and feedback that you enter and publish for grade items directly in Quizzes automatically synchronize with Grades and appear in your grade book. Any scores and feedback that you retract from publication are removed from the grade book automatically.
- Overall scores and feedback that you enter and keep as drafts do not synchronize back to Grades until they are published.
- Scores and feedback that you enter for quiz attempts in Quizzes only synchronize with Grades if you have selected the Automatically update evaluations in grade book when published option for the quiz. If you have not enabled Automatically update evaluations in grade book when published then the quiz attempt score and feedback will not synchronize to your grade book until you click Export to Grades and you publish the attempt score and feedback.
Grade categories
Grade categories organize and group related grade items into sections in your grade book, for example, a Writing Assignments grade category to group assignment items and a Class Participation grade category to group discussion items. Grade categories display in Manage Grades.
Note: For more information about grade categories, refer to Create and delete grade categories and items.
Calculated final grade
The final grade calculated by the grade book. You cannot adjust the final grade without adjusting grade item scores.
Adjusted final grade
You can manually change the final grade calculation without affecting grade item scores.