Create a Weighted Gradebook in D2L

If you are using D2L for your course and would like your students to be able to see their grades online, you can set up an online gradebook.

Selecting a grading system is the first step in setting up your grade book. The grading system determines how the grade items in your grade book contribute to a student’s final grades. Use the weighted system to calculate grade categories and items as percentages out of 100. The Max. Points you assign to individual grade items can be any value, but their weight determines how much they impact the overall final grade.

Use the Grades Setup Wizard

When you select the Grades link for the first time in any course, you will be prompted to use the Grades Setup Wizard. It is a seven-step process that allows you to set the basic structure of the gradebook even before you add grade items. The Wizard makes selecting the necessary elements of your gradebook easy. Once the structure is in place, you can simply begin adding grade items and categories.

To begin, log in to your D2L course and select Grades on the Navbar. If this is a new course you will automatically be brought to the Grades Setup Wizard. (If you are not automatically brought to the Wizard, select the Setup Wizard button at the top of the page.) The page you see is a summary of the Grades defaults.

Select the Start button at the bottom of the window.

In STEP 1, you will decide which grading system you want to use: weighted or points.

• Use the weighted system if you want grade items to be calculated as a percentage of a final grade worth 100%
• Use the points system if you want to calculate the final grade by totaling the points students received on grade items

Select the radio button next to Weighted, and select Continue.

In STEP 2, you will decide which final grade will be released to students at the end of the term: calculated or adjusted.

• Choose calculated if you want to plan to release the final grade at the beginning of the semester or at any time before the end of the semester. This grade will show the grade achieved by students based on grade item scores. It cannot be adjusted without editing individual grade item scores.
• Choose adjusted only at the end of the semester. This grade type should be used if there is a chance you would like to adjust a students' final grade (i.e. if a student has 89 out of 100 and you’d like to adjust the final grade to 90).
• If you want the final grade to be released to students automatically (right away at the beginning of the term), select Automatically release final grade

The Final Grade in D2L is not visible to students until you release it to them. You can manually release the Final Grade at any time; however, if you would like to Automatically release the final grade now, select the box. This means that students will see their cumulative final grade throughout the term. As you add more scores, the final grade will be updated.

Make your selection, and then select Continue.

In STEP 3, you will decide how ungraded items will be used in calculating the final grade: drop ungraded items or treat ungraded items as 0.

• [Recommended] If you drop ungraded items, as you move through the term, the student's final grade will reflect how they are doing based on completed grade items
• If you treat ungraded items as 0, the student will start the term with 0 points and will work their way up. NOTE: If you decide to begin the term by dropping ungraded items, at the end of the term you can change the setting to treat ungraded items as 0. By doing this, you eliminate the need to manually enter 0's for all incomplete assignments.
• Leave the checkmark for Automatically keep final grade updated

Make your selection, and then select Next.

In STEP 4, you will select a default grade scheme: percentage or one of the letter grade schemes.

• Choose percentage if you want your students to see the percent correct for all grade items, depending on the display settings
• Choose one of the letter grade schemes if you want your students to see a letter grade for all grade items. You can select the preview button to the right of the scheme to see the details. NOTE: You are setting the default scheme in this step. If you want some grade items listed as percentages and some as letter grades, you can modify individual grade item settings.

Make your selection, and then select Continue.

In Step 5, you will select one of your managing view display options: how many decimals to display. This setting controls how many decimals will be displayed to the instructor grading the course. The value must be an integer between 0 and 5. (Other Managing View display options are available from the Settings link on the Grades page.)

NOTE: if you choose 0, all percentages of points will be rounded to the nearest integer.

Enter a number, and then select Continue.

In STEP 6, you will select student view options: grade details, decimals displayed, characters displayed, and final grade calculation. These options affect the student's view of the gradebook.

• Grade Details: Select how grades will be displayed to students. You may choose points, weight, grade scheme symbol (percent or letter grade as determined by Step 4), and/or grade scheme color. You may select one or more options.
• Decimals Displayed: Select the number of decimals that will be displayed in the student's view of Grades. The value must be an integer between 0 and 5.
• [Rarely Used] Characters Displayed: Select how many characters of a Text grade item display on the student list. The value must be an integer between 0 and 50. If the Text item is longer than the value specified, the text will be truncated.
• Final Grade Calculation: Choose whether or not students can see how their final grade was calculated

Make your selections, and then select Continue.

In STEP 7, you see a summary of the new gradebook settings. Please review the summary and go back to make changes, if necessary. If you are satisfied with your selections, select Finish.

NOTE: To make changes to the Gradebook, or to access additional grade settings, select the Grade Settings button in the left sidebar.

Associate Grade Items

Grade items can be automatically created when you create D2L Quizzes, Assignments and Discussion Topics. In addition, when you embed MediaSpace videos containing quiz questions, and activities integrated into D2L from a publisher or other 3^rd party tool, grade items may automatically be created.

You can manually create additional grade items for activities that are not associated with D2L, MediaSpace or a publisher activity (i.e. in class activities, lab work performed in class, attendance, etc.)

It is recommended that you create your assignments, quizzes, and discussions first since the associated grade items can be created during that process (you will enter the total points and select the grading option “In Gradebook”). Once those items are created, you can add additional items that are not connected to D2L activities, Mediaspace quizzes or publisher activities. You may need to clean up the gradebook after all items are created to adjust weights and get them into their appropriate categories.

Create a Category

As you begin creating your weighted gradebook, you will likely use categories to group grade items together. For example, you may create a category called “Exams” that will be worth 50% of the final grade. Under this category heading you could create four grade items called Exam 1, Exam 2, etc. each worth 25% of the category (see example below).

Grade items that reside in a category count as a percentage of that category not of the final grade. Therefore, grade items in a category should combine to a weight of 100%.

NOTE: You receive a warning message at the top of your grade book if your grade items and categories do not add up to 100%.

 Create a Category

1. Select Grades on the Navbar, then select Manage Grades
2. Select New and select Category
3. Enter a Name for the category (i.e., “Exams.”)
4. If a student’s grades for the category can exceed 100% (e.g., 105%), select Allow category grade to exceed category weight. Creating categories gives you additional grading options. These include distributing weight evenly across grade items in a category and dropping the highest or lowest grade in a category.
5. [Optional] Select Distribution if you would like all grade items in this category to be worth the same weight; otherwise, skip to step 7
6. [Optional for Distributed items]: Enter the number of highest and/or lowest non-bonus items you would like to drop for each user. We recommend you do not use this option until all grade item scores have been entered.
7. Select Show Display Options
8. If you would like students to see grade statistics for the category, leave the boxes checked for Submission View
9. Select Save to save your category. If you wish to create multiple categories, select Save & New.

Create a Grade Item

Most of your grade items will be numeric. These items may include weekly assignments or papers, exams, and discussion participation.

NOTE: When setting up your gradebook, it is helpful to have your course syllabus nearby with information on how the students will be evaluated throughout the semester.

1. Select Manage Grades at the top of the Grades page
2. Select New and then select Item
3. Select Numeric from the list of grade item types
4. Enter a Name and a Short Name for the grade item. Entering a Short Name will save space in your gradebook.
5. Select the Category for the grade item. If you have not yet created the category, select New Category, and complete the form. If the item stands alone (such as the Final), you do not need to place it in a category.
6. Enter the point value in the Max Points field
7. Enter the Weight. If you selected a category in step 5 which has the weight distributed evenly across items, the weight will fill in automatically; however, if the grade item is a stand-alone item (such as the Final), you must enter the weight for the item.
8. If students can earn more on this assignment than the Max. Points, select Can Exceed
9. If this grade item is not to be used in determining the total points possible for the course, select Bonus Item (i.e., extra credit). Please Note: When using Bonus Items, you need to allow the Final Grade to exceed points.
10. Select Save and Close to save your grade item or select Save & New to save your grade item and continue creating new grade items

Enter Grades

1. Select the arrow next to the grade item and select Enter Grades
2. Enter scores for each student, and then select Save
3. [Optional]: To add overall feedback, select the Show details and overall feedback link at the top of the page. Overall Feedback will be displayed to all students who complete this item.
4. [Optional]: To add individual feedback for a student, select the pencil icon to the far right of a student’s score. A new window will open, allowing you to enter Feedback (comments visible to you and the student) and/or Private Comments (comments visible only to the teacher in the course).

Preview: If you would like to see how a student will view their grades, return to the main Grades page, select the arrow next to a student’s name and select Preview.

Delete Grade Items

WARNING: Deleting a grade item will permanently delete all students’ grades that have been entered for that item.

1. Select Manage Grades
2. Select More Actions and then select Delete
3. Select the items that you would like to delete
4. Select Delete to complete the process

NOTE: If the grade item you wish to delete is associated with a Quiz, Discussion, or Assignment, you must first edit the Quiz, Discussion, or Assignment and unlink it from the gradebook. Then you can return to Manage Grades and delete the grade item.

Re-order Grade Items

1. Select Manage Grades
2. Select More Actions and then select Reorder
3. From the drop-down list in the Sort Order column, select the position in the list where you want each Category or Item to appear
4. Select Save to complete the process