For a clear and organized gradebook, you can use categories to group similar grade items. For example, create categories in the gradebook for exams, assignments, quizzes, etc., so that similar grade items are neatly grouped together. Grade items within the same category do not need to have the same weight. For instance, the category "Quizzes" might count for 10% of the final course grade but consist of two different quizzes, where quiz 1 contributes 60% and quiz 2 contributes 40% to the quiz category subtotal.
What types of categories are there?
Within grading categories, the type of grade items determines how the category functions and what it can be used for. There are two types of categories. To explain the difference, we call them the calculating category and the organizing category:
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Calculating category:
These are grading categories that calculate the category's subtotal. This subtotal is included in the final grade. Grade items in this type of category include Numeric, Selectbox, and Pass/Fail Grade Items. -
Organizing category:
These are grading categories that do not calculate a subtotal and therefore have no impact on the final grade. The grade items within the category are included in the final grade, but the category itself does not influence it. These categories are used solely to keep the gradebook organized when managing a large number of grade items. Grade items in this type of category include Formula, Text, and Calculated Grade Items.
Categories are not the course components you assess; these are the grade items that populate the categories.
Creating Grade Categories
After setting up the Gradebook for the first time using the Grades Setup Wizard, you can create Grade Categories to group your Grade Items.
- Click on Course Admin in your course navigation bar.
- Click on Grades.
- Click on the Manage Grades tab, which is your gradebook.
When you navigate to Grades, you will land on the Manage Grades tab by default. If you want to land on a different tab, you can adjust this in the settings.
- Click on New.
- Then click on Category.
- Give the category a name (e.g., Assignments).
- Provide a short name for the category (e.g., Assign). The short name will be displayed when entering grades under Enter Grades. Using short names saves space.
- Optionally, click Show Description to expand the HTML editor and add a brief description of the category, such as explaining what items fall under this category.
- Check Allow users to view description if you want students to see the description.
- Next, decide how items in the category are weighted under Distribution:
- Check the option Distribute points across all items if you want all items in the category to have equal value.
If you selected the Weighted Grading System as your grading system, you will have several options to choose from.
- Keep Manually assign weight to items in the category selected if you want to set the weight for each grade item within the category yourself. Choose this option when the grade items in the category have varying weights (e.g., the first assignment counts for 20%, the second for 30%, and the third for 50%).
Note: If you select this option, you will need to manually adjust the weight distribution each time you add new grade items to the category. - Select Distribute weights by points across all items in the category if you want each item's weight to be proportional to the points it is worth. Weights are automatically recalculated whenever new grade items are added to the category.
Note: In this option, you cannot manually adjust the weights of grade items. For example, if Assignments 1 and 2 are each worth 10 points and Assignment 3 is worth 20 points, Assignments 1 and 2 will automatically have weights of 25%, and Assignment 3 will have a weight of 50%. - Check Distribute weight evenly across all items if you want all items in the category to have equal weight. Weights are automatically recalculated when new grade items are added to ensure equal distribution. For example, if Assignments 1 and 2 each have equal weight at 50%, adding a third assignment will evenly distribute the weight across all three, making it 33% each. Within this option, you can choose to exclude the highest or lowest scores from a student’s final grade calculation for this category. Specify the number of lowest or highest scores you want to exclude.
You can configure what students can see under Display Options:
- Check Display class average to users to show students the group's average grade.
- Check Display grade distribution to users to provide students with a visual chart showing how grades are distributed across the group.
- Check Override display options to customize the display settings for this category, overriding the general display options set during the Grades Setup Wizard. You can adjust what students see by toggling options such as Points grade, Grade scheme symbol, and Grade scheme color under Show.
- Review your input and click on:
- Save and Close to save this category and return to the gradebook.
- Save and New to save this category and create a new one.
- Save to save this category and continue working on it.
- Cancel to discard the changes.
You are now ready to assign grade items to the categories, which you can then link to activities to assess course components.