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About the Grade system
About the Grade system
One of the greatest benefits of using an LMS like Brightspace is that it provides teachers with a more efficient and easier approach to manage a larger set of students by automating tasks such as grading and assessments. You can also customize BrightSpace so that it reflects how you would usually design assessment and evaluation.
Let’s go over some key concepts about Grading in Brightspace:
A Grade Book contains your grading system, grade calculations, grade scheme, grade items, and view and display options. Grade items in your grade book represent all the work that will be evaluated in the course. You can evaluate specific tasks such as assignments, tests, and participation, and you can also create grade items and associate them with course objects such as assignments and quizzes.
You must set up a grade book before you can use the Grades tool. As you plan your grade book, consider the following:
Which grade items you plan to evaluate.
Which grading system is most appropriate for your course.
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.
The kind of changes made in a grade book's settings and calculation options after you begin tracking student grades that can significantly affect existing data.
The Grading System determines how the grade items in your grade book contribute to your students’ final grades. Grade items can count as a percentage adding up to a final grade of 100% (Weighted), can represent a certain number of points that would be totaled for a final grade (Points), or can follow a custom formula to see how grade items contribute to a final grade (Formula).
Each grade item has an entry in the grade book, which you assign a grade to for each student (either numerical grade or based on a grade scheme). The grades and feedback you manually enter in your grade book synchronize automatically with Quizzes, Assignments, and Discussions and appear in those tools as published feedback for learners to view.
Given that your grading system might be different to other teachers, feel free to experiment with the Grades functionality to see how it can serve you!
Setting up the Grade Book
Setting up the Grade Book
The Grade Book contains all the features you need to implement an evaluation system in your class on Brightspace. Let’s try creating our Grade Book
Click on the Grades tool in your navigation bar. Click the Setup Wizard.
Click Start. Choose your grading system (weighted, points, or following a formula) then click Continue
If you want the students’ final grades to be released automatically, select ‘Automatically release final grade’, then click Continue. Please note that in using this option, any changes after the grades have been released will not be reflected automatically. You have to manually update grades and inform the student of any changes.
If you selected ‘Automatically release final grade’, you may choose to ‘Drop ungraded items’ so that the released grades better reflect the students' current grades throughout the term.
Selecting ‘ Automatically keep final grade update’ will automatically reflect any changes to the final grade resulting from changes in the grade item or calculation option.
Click Continue.
Choose your default Grade scheme (Letter, Numeric, or Text based) and then click Continue.
In the ‘Number of decimal places to display’ field, enter the number of decimal places to be displayed as you enter grades using the grade book.
Click Continue.
Select your learner view display options and then click Continue.
On the Grades Setup Summary page, review your selections.
You can then either make changes to your grade book setup by clicking Go Back, or click Finish.
Setting up Categories and Items
Setting up Categories and Items
The Grade items in your grade book represent all the work that you want to evaluate in a course, and can exist independently or can be associated with course objects such as discussions, quizzes, and assignments. To make a grade item:
From Manage Grades, click New, and select Item
Select a Grade Item Type for the new item. You can choose between the following types, depending on how you want to evaluate your students:
Calculated grade items - Pick this option when you want to look at the cumulative progress of your students. These grade items cannot be associated with course activities such as discussions, quizzes, and assignments.
Formula grade items - This option allows you to automatically calculate the grades based on your preset formula (will not work in a Points-based or Weight-based grading system)
Text grade items - Use these items for providing comments and feedback that do not count towards the final grade. Good for progress checks on projects, for example.
Select box grade items - Use this to apply letter grades to grade items, based on a grade scheme that you are using for the course.
Pass/fail grade items - With this, you can simply grade an item using a pass or fail system
Numeric grade items - You can also use this option to assign a value out of a specific set of points. Numeric grade items can be associated with course activities such as discussions, quizzes, and assignments.
Enter a name for your grade item, which will appear in your Grade Book.
Assign a Category to your grade item from the drop down menu, or create a new category. Grade Item Categories help you organize your different grade items into related sections.
Under the Grading section, enter the maximum grade that can be achieved on the item. This section will look different depending on the grading system you will use.
When you are ready, click Save and Close
Your new grade item will now be displayed in your Grade Book.
Entering grades
Entering grades
To manually enter grades on the Grade Book, do the following:
Click on Grades in the navigation bar
Click on the Enter Grades page
To manually enter grades for an individual student, click on their username. Enter their grades.
To manually enter grades for a grade item, click on the context menu of the grade item, and click Enter Grades. Enter their grades.
To manually enter grades for a category, from the context menu of the grade item, click Enter Grades. Enter their grades.
Click Save and Close.
Brightspace Guides: before Classes
Brightspace Guides: before Classes
Setting up your learning environment
Setting up your learning environment
Preparing your lessons
Preparing your lessons
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