Setting up the Grade Book using the Setup Wizard
Brightspace has a setup wizard that will help you set up your gradebook with all of the initial settings that will help you provide grade information to students.
Once you have completed the steps for the setup wizard you will want to then set up Grade categories and items: view Manage Grades and Settings
For additional Grade book training and help sign up for a Grade book training session.
Access the Setup Wizard
- From your course click on Grades
- Select the Setup Wizard tab
- You'll be able to review the default settings, at the bottom of the page click the Start button
Step One: Choose Grading System
On this page you will see examples of Weighted and Points based grading systems. Choose which option matches the grading system in your syllabus. Once you have made your selection click Continue.
If you want to use the custom formula please sign up for the Gradebook training and indicate that you would like to use the custom formula.
Step Two: Final Grade Released
On this page you will select if you want to use the Calculated Final Grade or Adjusted Final Grade
- Calculated Final Grade: Use this if you do not typically make adjustments to the final grade. Brightspace will keep a running calculation of all entered grades in the grade book. Note: Brightspace will treat a non-entered grade as a drooped grade so for a grade to be part of a calculation there needs to be a number entered.
- Adjusted Final Grade: Use this if you typically make adjustments to the final grade. Selecting this means you must manually enter a grade for the final grade.
Another option on this page is to Automatically release final grade. Turning this on will allow students to see the grade as it is calculated. In step 3 you can choose to auto enter 0s in the grade book. If you plan on selecting this it is recommended to have this option turned off.
Step Three: Grade Calculations
This step allows you to chose how ungraded items are treated in the gradebook (the selection here will affect the final grade calculation as a running total)
- Drop ungraded items: Items that do not have a grade inputted are not counted in the final grade.
Choose this option then you have grades you are often excluding for students. Know that for missing assignments you will need to manually enter in 0s for the grade to calculate correctly
- Treat ungraded items as 0: Items that do not have a grade inputted are counted as 0 in the final grade.
Choose this option if all missing assignments are always a 0. Know that the student grade will increase over time and that you will need to do a manual calculation for the midterm grade to exclude assignments that do not need to be part of the midterm grade.
- Auto Update: Final grades are automatically adjusted when changes are made to grade items or calculation options.
Step Four: Choose Default Grade Scheme
From here you can leave the default of Percentage which will show grades as a percentage. As an example a 3.5/5 will show as both the points value and as a 70%.
Alternatively you can scroll down and select the HVC - General Letter Scheme to have the letter grade that corresponds with the HVCC catalog display. Note: This only shows A-F and will not show W, IC for more information on adding a column to the Gradebook for showing a final letter grade please see the information under Showing a Letter Grade to Students
Step Five: Managing View Display Options
On this page you'll select the number of decimal places you'd like to show. This is for your view of the gradebook and not what students will see.
Step Six: Student View Display Options
The options here affect how students will view grades on their grades page.
- Points Grade: Students will see the point value of their score.
- Weighted Grade: Students will see the weight achieved for their score.
- Grade Scheme Symbol: Students will see a grade displayed here
If using the Percent Grade Scheme this will be a percent, if using the HVC Grade Scheme this will be a letter.
Example of a Weighted Gradebook using the Percentage Scheme with the student options for Points Grade, Weighted Grade and Grade Scheme Symbol set to display
- Grade Scheme Color: This setting determines whether or not the grade scheme color associated with a grade item is displayed in the student view of grades.
- Decimals displayed: Set how many decimals you want to display to students, best practice is to leave this at 2.
- Characters Displayed: Best practice is to leave this at 50
- Final Grade Calculation: Check this box for students to view their final grade calculation throughout the semester
Step Seven: Grades Setup Summary
Review the summery of your selections and click Finish.
You can always re-visit the set up wizard or make adjustments in Settings at any time.
Note: Once grades have been entered for students the grade system should not be changed. Making a change from Points to Weighted or from Weighted to Points will convert all grades to .01 and everything would need to be re-entered.
Next: Manage Gradebook & Settings