Brightspace Gradebook Best Practices

Tags Grades

Gradebook Expectations: 

  • The Grade Area is able to handle most grading styles but is not as flexible as a spreadsheet program and might have limitations in converting varying grading scales to a final grade. 

  • The more consistent your grading scales are the better any course management system can accommodate it. 

  • Mixing percent-based assessments with points-based assessments may not calculate correctly and should be avoided.

  • Decide on either a point or percent scheme.

Points Gradebook Best Practices: 

  • Points Systems work best when your total points for the entire course equal to or over 100 points. 

  • Each assessment item would have a set amount of points awarded to it. 

Final Calculated Grade Column:

  • This column is a type of calculated column that generates a grade based on the cumulative points earned, related to the points allowed.  

  • You select which columns and categories are included in a total column's calculation. 

  • This column is created by default and appears in new courses. You can rename, change the settings, change which columns are included, or delete this default column.

Percent Weighted Gradebook Best Practices: 

  • Percent Systems work best when your total points for the entire course are equal or up to 100 percent. 

  • Assessments are scored on a scale of 0-100 percent. 

Final Calculated Grade Column: 

  • The final calculated grade column generates a grade based on the result of all included grade items and categories and their respective point values or weights. 

Course Grade Display Options: 

Numeric
Grade users by assigning a value out of a specified total number of points.
E.g. 8/10

Selectbox
Grade users by selecting the grade scheme level that best matches their achievement.
E.g. "Very Good" or "B+"

Pass/Fail
Grade users using a simple pass/fail grade scheme.
E.g. "Pass" or "Fail"

Formula
Automatically grade users using a custom formula based on achievement on other grade items.
E.g. Give users who received at least 50% on all participation grade items a perfect attendance bonus.
IF{ MIN{ [P1.Percent], [P2.Percent] } < 50, 0, 1

Calculated
Calculate users' cumulative achievement across multiple grade items.
E.g. Midterm Grade
A1+A2+Q1+Q2 / Total Max. Points * 100 = 73%

Text
Provide comments in the grade book that are not calculated in the final grade.
E.g. "Course Evaluation Completed"

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