To set up your gradebook, follow these steps:
- From your course, click Grades in the navbar.
- Click the Setup Wizard tab and scroll to the bottom. Click the Start button to start the wizard.
- Choose the grading system you prefer. In this example, the "Points" option is selected. There is no significant difference between the points and weighted options for setting up the gradebook, and grade items except for extra credit. There are additional steps required to get extra credit to appear in the gradebook correctly if you choose the weighted option. After selections are made, click Continue.
- Select Calculated Final Grade as well as Automatically release final grade. Click Continue.
- Next, select Drop ungraded items. This gives you an accurate representation of your students' grades. If you choose not to drop the ungraded items, students will receive 0s for every item in the gradebook, even if it is not due yet, which will appear as if students are failing their classes. Click Continue.
- Choose one of the three grading schemes available. The three default schemes are percentage, undergraduate letter grades, and graduate letter grades. It is important to note that you can only one grading scheme can be active. For this example, the gradebook is set up to show percentage grades. Click Continue.
- You can set the number of decimal places to show in a student's grade. The default is 2. Click Continue.
- Next, configure how your gradebook will display for students. It is recommended for the Points grade, Weighted grade, and Grade scheme symbol are all selected. Click Continue.
- Review your changes and verify that your selections are correct based on how you would like your course gradebook to display. Click Finish.
- Click Manage Grades to set up gradebook categories. This is important as it allows you to troubleshoot grade items that may not add up correctly.
- Click New and select Category from the drop-down menu.
- Assign a name and configure the category with the selections you prefer. In this example, points are set up for an assignment, but if you would like to distribute points evenly across items in the category, you need to configure the "Distribution" section. Please note that the "Can Exceed" checkbox is unchecked by default and it can remain unchecked if you do not have extra credit to add.
- Click Save and Close. Now the "Homework" category has been created and you can repeat the process to create categories for quizzes, exams, and forums.
- You have successfully created and set up your gradebook.