You can store results of all student work in the gradebook. Students’ results on assessments are automatically submitted to the gradebook. Also, tracking information about students’ assignments is automatically posted to the gradebook when students submit them. For example, the gradebook indicates whether an assignment is submitted but ungraded, in progress, or not yet begun. You must manually grade assignments as well as any essay questions on tests.
You can manually add other types of student work to the gradebook and grade it there. Any grades you enter are included in gradebook calculations unless you specifically exclude them.
The gradebook calculates student grades in two ways:
Total, which is the number of points a student earns divided by the maximum points possible on all graded work
Weighted total, which is the sum of the student's scores (calculated according to the weight assigned to the work)
In addition to posting and storing student scores, the gradebook displays other details associated with student work, such as the class average, high and low scores on tests and assignments, and the percentage of correct and incorrect responses to test questions.
The gradebook is populated with gradebook items, which represent various types of student work. Gradebook items are automatically created for assessments (both CourseCompass and TestGen tests) and assignments that you add to a content area.
Gradebook items are categorized so that you can weight grades by category. CourseCompass provides default gradebook categories, such as Assignment, Exam, and Paper. You can also create and weight your own categories.
The main view into the gradebook is the spreadsheet view. All features of the gradebook can be accessed from this view. In addition to the spreadsheet view, the gradebook lets you view data by student (user) or view data by gradebook item.
You can use criteria to sort gradebook views. For example, you can sort by item name, by date, or by relative weight. You can also apply filters to show the data for only one category, one subset of students (by last name), or both.
You can weight grades for categories or for individual gradebook items relative to one another. For example, you might assign exams a weight of 50%, papers a weight of 40%, and homework a weight of 10%. Alternatively, you can assign certain items a lower weight than others, depending on the level of difficulty or on the scope of content covered. For example, you might give the mid-term and final exams more weight than chapter exams and quizzes.
You can exclude certain items from gradebook calculations altogether. For example, you might exclude exams that are for diagnostic or practice purposes only.