Use the Grades tool to create and manage your grade book, calculate final grades, and communicate learner progress throughout your course.
New to Grades? Start with Set up your grade book to choose your grading system, configure calculation settings, and prepare your grade book before you begin grading.
Getting started with Grades
Most instructors follow the same general workflow when setting up and using the Grades tool. If you're new to Brightspace, the sequence below is a good place to begin.
- Set up your grade book: Choose a grading system, configure grade calculations, and review display options.
- Create, delete, and restore grade categories and items: Add grade categories and grade items that match your course design.
- Create grading schemes: Add grading schemes that display grades as letter grades, achievement levels, pass/fail results, or other custom grade values.
- Enter grades in the Grades tool: Evaluate submissions, record grades, and provide feedback throughout the course.
- Handle missing or excluded work: Decide how to manage excused work, missing submissions, and low scores using exemptions, automatic zero grading, or category drop rules.
- Enter grades in the Grades tool: Confirm calculations, review final grades, and make grades available to learners.
What would you like to do?
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Start here |
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| Set up a new grade book |
Set up your grade book
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| Choose a grading system |
Grading systems types
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| Create grade categories or grade items |
Create, delete, and restore grade categories and items
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| Convert percentages to letter grades, achievement levels, or custom grade values |
Create grading schemes
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| Enter grades, evaluate submissions, or override scores |
Enter grades in the Grades tool
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| Configure grade calculations, display options, or personal grade settings |
Define settings in the Grades tool
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| Excuse work, handle missing work, or drop low scores |
Handle missing or excluded work
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| Prepare final grades |
Enter grades in the Grades tool
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| Review permissions or find the Grades tool |
Grades permissions
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Browse Grades tasks
Plan and set up your grade book
Build and manage your grade structure
Enter and manage grades
Handle missing or excluded work
- Excuse a learner from work: Work with exemptions
- Understand how exemptions affect grades: Understand how exemptions affect calculations
- Assign zeros for missing submissions: Automatically assign zeros for missing work
- Ignore a low score in a category: Drop the lowest grade
- Review how formula grade items evaluate exemptions: Formula evaluation rules for grade exemptions
Prepare final grades
Review settings and permissions
Common questions
How do I set up my grade book?
Use the Setup Wizard to configure your grading system, grade calculations, and display options. For more information, refer to Set up your grade book.
How do I enter grades?
Use Enter Grades to review learner grades, evaluate submissions, manually enter or override grades, and import or export grade data. For more information, refer to Enter grades in the Grades tool.
How do grading schemes work?
Grading schemes map percentage ranges to grade values, such as letter grades, achievement levels, or pass/fail results. For more information, refer to Create grading schemes.
Why can't learners view their grades?
Grade visibility depends on your course display settings, grade item visibility, release settings, and whether grade items and final grades are visible to learners. Review Define settings in the Grades tool and Set up your grade book.
How do I excuse a learner from required work?
Use an exemption when a learner is excused from completing a grade item or activity. For more information, refer to Work with exemptions.
How do I assign zeros for missing work?
Use automatic zero grading when missing required work should count against the grade after the due date passes. For more information, refer to Automatically assign zeros for missing work.
How do I ignore a low score?
Use category drop rules to automatically drop the lowest grade in a category, or use an exemption to manually exclude a grade item for one learner. For more information, refer to Drop the lowest grade.
Why did a grade calculation change after I exempted or dropped a grade?
Exemptions and dropped grades remove items from grade calculations, which can change category scores, final grades, and statistics. For more information, refer to Understand how exemptions affect calculations.
Recommended setup sequence
Before learners begin submitting work, review your grade book setup in this order:
- Choose the grading system that matches your course design.
- Configure your grade book using the Setup Wizard.
- Create or confirm your grading schemes.
- Create grade categories.
- Create grade items.
- Review grade calculation and display settings.
- Decide how you will handle missing, excused, or low-scoring work.
- Confirm how final grades are calculated and displayed.
Visual tour of the Grades tool
The Grades tool includes several work areas that support different parts of the grading process. Understanding what each area is used for makes it easier to set up your grade book, enter grades, manage calculations, and prepare final grades.
- Enter Grades: Review learner grades, evaluate submissions, import or export grade data, and manually enter or override grades. For more information, refer to Enter grades in the Grades tool.
- Manage Grades: Create and organize grade categories and grade items that make up your grade book. For more information, refer to Manage grades in the Grades tool.
- Schemes: Create and manage grading schemes that display grades as letter grades, achievement levels, pass/fail results, or other custom grade values. For more information, refer to Create grading schemes.
- Setup Wizard: Configure your grading system, final grade options, and other grade book settings before you begin grading. For more information, refer to Set up your grade book.
- Settings: Manage personal display options, course display options, and grade calculation settings. For more information, refer to Define settings in the Grades tool.
Video: Overview of the Grades tool
Watch the following video for a guided introduction to the Grades tool and its main work areas.
Requirements
To use the Grades tool, the required permissions must be assigned to your role.
- To access and use the Grades tool, you must have the required Grades permissions applied to your role. These permissions are managed by your organization administrator.
- To add the Grades tool to your course navbar, you must have the required Navbar permissions applied to your role. For more information about adding tools to your course navbar, refer to Customize your course navbar.
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Important: If you cannot find the Grades tool in your course, first check Course Admin to see whether it is available. If it is not available, contact your organization administrator to verify that the required permissions have been assigned to your role.
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Need more help?
If you can't find the information you're looking for, the following resources can help.
- Brightspace Community: Browse documentation, best practices, and product updates in the Brightspace Community.
- Product Release Notes: Review the latest changes and enhancements to the Grades tool in the Brightspace Release Notes.
- Permissions: If features or menu options are unavailable, review Grades permissions or contact your organization administrator.