To set up your gradebook in Brightspace, follow these steps:
- From your course, click Grades in the navbar.
- In the grades section, you will see an option called "Setup Wizard," which is used to set up the gradebook. Click Setup Wizard and scroll to the bottom. Click Start to start the wizard.
- Choose the grading system option you prefer. In this example, the "Weighted" 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. If you prefer to set up your gradebook by points, reference Set up the Gradebook for additional details.
- Select Adjusted Final Grade as this allows you to change the grades as needed. Click Continue.
- Next, select Drop ungraded items since this provides you with an accurate representation of students' grades. If you choose not to drop the ungraded items, your students will receive 0s for every item in the gradebook, even if it is not due yet, making it appear as if they are failing the class. 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 have one grading scheme active. For this example, the gradebook is set up to show percentage grades. Click Continue.
- You can set how many decimal places to show in a student's grade. The default is 2. Click Continue.
- Next, configure how your gradebook will appear to students. It is recommended that the Points grade, Weighted grade, and Grade scheme symbol are all selected. Click Continue.
- Review your changes and verify that everything is 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 will allow you to troubleshoot grade items that may not add up correctly.
- Click New and select Category from the drop-down menu.
- Next, 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.
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You can set the weights to get distributed automatically, but if it is assigned manually, you need to keep track of the individual assignment weights. Weights can be evenly distributed or distributed based on the amount of points each item is worth. In this example, the weight is set to be distributed by the points each assignment is worth.
- Click Save and Close. Now the "Homework (Weights)" category has been created and you can repeat the process to create categories for quizzes, exams, and forums.
- You have now successfully created and set up your gradebook to use weights.