Grade Items and Categories

Grade Items and Categories

 

Grade Items

 

Grade items represent the individual assignments, quizzes, performance measurements, etc., that you want to grade a user on.  The grade items have their own entry in the grade book, to which you assign a grade to each user.  Grade items can be tied to course objects, such as quizzes, assignments, or discussions forums, or they can exist independently.

For example:

  • Assignment One is out of 40.  It is worth 20% of the final grade.  This grade item is associated with an assignment in the course because students submit their assignments electronically.
  • Assignment Two is out of 50.  It is worth 20% of the final grade. This grade item exists independently because students submit their assignments in class.
  • Final Exam is out of 100.  It is worth 30% of the final grade.  This grade item is associated with a quiz in the course because students complete their final exam online.

 

Grade Categories

 

Grade categories allow you group similar grade items into categories such as assignments or quizzes.  When grade items are grouped together in a category you can distribute the points evenly across all grade items and drop the highest or lowest items.

 

For example:

  • Quizzes is a category.  It is worth 30% of the final grade.  Within the category are four grade items (Quiz One, Quiz Two, Quiz Three and Quiz Four).  Despite the fact that the quizzes have different point values each item is worth the same weight in the category (25%).

  • I have chosen to drop the two lowest quizzes from the category, therefore, only the students 2 highest marks contribute towards their grade.
  • As you can see, this student achieved their highest marks on Quiz One and Quiz Two.  The system has automatically dropped Quiz Three and Quiz Four from the student’s grade: