Create Grades in the grade book in D2L Brightspace

Overview

Grade items in your grade book represent all of the work you want to evaluate students on in a course.  Grade items can exist independently in the grade book, or you can associate them with course objects such as discussions, quizzes, and assignments.  Each grade item has its own entry in the grade book, which you assign a grade for each student.  Depending on the grade item type you want to create, grade items can be graded numerically, based on a grade scheme, with a calculation or formula, or by entering a text description. Learn more about setting up a gradebook in this MediaSpace video.

Organize grades into categories

Use grade book categories to organize and group related grade items. For example, you could have separate categories for Exams, Participation, Discussions, and so on.  When grade items are grouped together in a category, you can distribute points equally across all grade items and drop the highest or lowest item in the group.

Note: Only Numeric, Selectbox, and Pass/Fail items can be associated with a grade category. Text, calculated, or formula items cannot be associated with a grade category.

Create a category for grades

1. Navigate to the Grades tool.
2. Click the Manage Grades link.
3. From the New button, click Category.
4. Enter a Name for the category.
   Note: If you are using the weighted system, enter the total Weight you want the category to contribute toward the final grade.
5. Set additional options as required and click Save, and then click Close. 

Create a grade item (numeric, selectbox, pass/fail)

1. Navigate to the Grades tool.
2. Click the Manage Grades link.
3. From the New button, select Item.
4. Click Numeric, Selectbox, or Pass/Fail.
5. Enter a Name for the item.
6. Place it in a Category.
7. Enter the number of Maximum Points and/or Weights student could achieve.
   Optional: From the Grade Scheme menu, select a grading scheme.
8. Click Save and Close.

Associate grade items with assessment materials

You can attach a grade item to individual course assessment materials when editing their properties.  The following course materials can be connected to a grade item:

• Quizzes
• Assignments
• Discussions
• Content SCORM objects
• LTI/External learning tool links

Grade item types

Numeric

Grade students by assigning a value out of a specified total number of points.  Numeric grade items can associate with discussions, quizzes, and assignments.

Selectbox

Grade students by assigning a grade scheme level that is equivalent to a percentage grade range.  You cannot create Selectbox grade items if you do not have at least one course grade scheme.  Selectbox grade items can be associated with assignments, but not quizzes or discussions.

Pass/Fail

Grade students using a simple pass/fail grade scheme.  Note that you cannot associate pass/fail grade items with discussions, quizzes, and assignments.

Formula

Formula grade items automatically grade students using a custom formula based on achievements in other grade items. You cannot associate formula grade items with discussions, quizzes, and assignments. The following limitations apply to formula grade items:

• Formula grade items cannot belong to a category.
• Formula grade items do not contribute to the calculated final grade in a points-based or weighted-based grade book.  You can only calculated the final grade with formula grade items using the Formula grading system.

Calculated

Display a student's cumulative achievement across multiple grade items with a calculated grade item.  Calculated grade items cannot belong to a category and they do not contribute to the final calculated grade.  Note that you cannot associate calculated grade items with discussions, quizzes, and assignments.

Text

Use text grade items to provide comments that are not counted towards students' final grades.  Text grade items cannot belong to a category and they do not contribute to the final calculated grade.  Note that you cannot associate text grade items with discussions, quizzes, and assignments.