Using the gradebook>>Weighting grades

How grades are weighted

You can assign weights, in percents, to either gradebook items or gradebook categories so that items are averaged relative to one another.

Caution: When assigning weights to gradebook items, setting the percentage total to greater than 100% may produce inaccurate results for the final grade calculations. You can set the percentage total to less than 100%, however.

Notes:

• You can set up your gradebook so grades are not weighted. In this case, student averages are simple, rather than weighted, averages.

• Items that are not assigned a weight are included in the calculation shown in the Total column of the gradebook spreadsheet. This calculation is the student's total points earned divided by the total points possible for all graded items. They are not included in the calculation of the weighted average, shown in the Weighted Total column of the spreadsheet.

• If you want to exclude specific gradebook items from gradebook calculations altogether, modify the gradebook item and select No for the option, Include item in gradebook score calculations.

Weighting by item

By assigning weights to individual gradebook items, you can weight specific assignments relative to one another. For example, if you assign three papers, a mid-term, and a final exam, you can assign different weights to each of these five assignments. The papers may be weighted incrementally (10% for the first, 15% for the second, and 20% for the third), and the mid-term may be weighted less than the final exam, with the mid-term receiving 25% and the final 30% of the total weight.

How weighted item averages are computed

If you assign different weights to individual items, the averages are computed as follows:

(points earned / possible points) * item weight

Example: A score of 35 out of 50 points with an item weight of 25% would average to 17.5%.

(35/50) * .25 = .175

Weighting by category

By assigning weights to categories, you can weight types of student work relative to one another. If, for example, you assign homework a weight of 15%, papers 30%, tests 45%, and class attendance 10%, then tests count three times as much as homework, one and half times as much papers, and four and half times as much as attendance. The CourseCompass gradebook provides a number of default categories you can choose from. You can also create your own categories for the gradebook.

When you weight grades by category, the weight for each item in the category is calculated by dividing the category weight by the number of items in the category. Item weights are recalculated as new items are assigned to the category. For example, assume there are three assignments in the Assignment category, which carries a weight of 45%. Each of the three assignments carries a weight of 15%. If another assignment is added, each assignment now carries a weight of 11.25%.

How weighted category averages are computed

If you assign different weights to categories, the averages are computed as follows:

(points earned / possible points) * (category weight / # of items in the category)

Example: If there are four items in the Assignment category and the category is assigned a weight of 25%, each assignment has a weight of 6.25%. A score of 40 out of 50 points on one of these assignments would average 5%.

(40/50) * (.25/4) = .05

Calculating the weighted total

A student's weighted total is the sum of all the weighted averages for items in the gradebook. This value appears in the Total Weight column in the spreadsheet view of the gradebook.

The following table shows a student's weighted average per item as well as the total weighted average.

If these assignments all had a weight of 0%, the final average would be 81.13% (which is the total points earned divided by the total number of possible points, 215/265).