Grades Tool

Overview

Learners use the Grades tool to check grades on assignments and tests. You control the grading formula used to calculate grades and what projects, assignments, tests, etc. are graded; how grade items are associated with other tools, and when grades are released to users and what information they see.

A grade book is a list of items on which you evaluate users’ performance. Grade items can include assignments, tests, discussion posts, participation, and so on. Together, the items in a grade book represent all the work that you evaluate users on in a course.

Why use the grades tool?

The Grades tool allows you to create a grade book which:

Allows you to control the grading formula used to calculate grades.
Allows you to control what projects, assignments, tests, etc. are graded.
Allows you to submit feedback and grades to learners.
Allows you to control when grades are released to users and what information they see.
Allows learners the opportunity to check their grades on assignments and tests, see class averages and access feedback on their assignments.

Before you set up a grade book in Learning Environment, you should know:

What grade schemes will you use to evaluate users?
What grade items do you plan to evaluate users on?
How much will each grade item should be worth?
How will you want grade items to be evaluated?
How do you want to calculate final grades?

Grading concepts

Grade books

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 you want to evaluate users on in a 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:

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.

Making changes to a grade book’s settings and calculation options after you begin tracking users’ grades can significantly affect existing data.

Grading system

The grading system determines how the grade items in your grade book contribute to users’ final grades. There are three options:

Grade items can count as a percentage of a final grade worth 100%.
Grade items can be worth a certain amount of points that are totaled for a final grade.
You can define a custom formula for how grade items contribute to a final grade.

Grade items

Grade items in your grade book represent all the work that you want to evaluate users on in a course. Grade items can exist independently in your grade book, or you can associate numeric grade items with course objects such as discussions, quizzes, and assignments. Each grade item has an entry in the grade book, which you assign a grade to for each user. Depending on the grade item type you want to create, grade items can be graded numerically or based on a grade scheme. The grades and feedback you manually enter in your grade book for quizzes, assignments and discussions synchronize automatically with Quizzes, Assignments, and Discussions and appear in those tools as published feedback for learners to view. Review Synchronizing your grade book with other tools for more information.

Grade categories

Grade categories organize and group related grade items into sections in your grade book, for example, a Writing Assignments grade category to group assignment items and a Class Participation grade category to group discussion items. Grade categories display in Manage Grades.

Calculated final grade

The final grade calculated by the grade book. You cannot adjust the final grade without adjusting grade item scores.

Adjusted final grade

You can manually change the final grade calculation without affecting grade item scores.

For instructions on grading a discussion board, visit our guide here.

There are two ways to grade a student’s Submission.

If you would like to download all of your students’ files in order to mark or grade them with track changes in Microsoft word, you can batch download and batch upload these files in D2L.
If you just need to be able to read and respond to your students’ files in a single comment or give credit for participation, you can give grades and feedback directly in the Submissions tool. For instructions on how to grade in Submissions, visit this guide.

To set up your gradebook in D2L, check ou t our guide here. Once your gradebook is set up, the next step is to create grade items and/or grade categories.

When setting up your gradebook, the system will ask you what type of gradebook you wish to create.

Points. Grade items can be worth a certain amount of points that are totaled for a final grade. For example, participation is worth 50 points, the midterm is worth 100 points, etc.
Weighted. Grade items can count as a percentage of a final grade worth 100%. For example, participation is worth 10%, the midterm is worth 20%, etc.