You set up your grade book but the grades don’t look right. How can you find out where the problem occurred?

Sometimes the problem may be settings. For example, I recently reviewed a problem grade book where the total points for a category were not what was expected. The category was made up of four items:

• Outline 12.5 points
• Draft 12.5 points
• Review of Draft  12.5 points
• Final Draft 12.5 points

The grade book was displaying the category grade out of 38 points, not 50 points which were expected. A check of the settings showed that the grade book was set to drop ungraded assignments and display 0 decimal places. Increasing the decimal places to 1 changed the points possible to 37.5 points. This change helped explain what was happening, 12.5 x 3 = 37.5 points (which rounded to 38 points with no decimal places), the missing 12.5 points was due to the assignment not being graded yet, so it was dropped from the calculation.

In other cases, the problem may be elsewhere in the grade book. If you use a weighted grading system using categories sometimes the problem may be that some activities are not connected to grade items so not included in the grade calculation. The manage grades tab is useful to use to track what grade items are in each category – is something missing? The association column indicates if there is an activity tied to the column. If not, should the grade item be tied to an activity or will the grade be entered directly in the grade book because the activity is in class (paper-based exam or presentation)? If there should be an activity feeding the grade, then check the activity and ensure that it is connected to the correct grade item. If a connection is missing it can be made at any time:

Another scenario is that the points in the grade book are not adding up based on what the points are for each assignment. Because Brightspace allows you to create assignments that are graded but not included in the grade calculation, assignments have points associated with them and grade items have points associated with them. The assignment and grade item points may not match. Check both in the assignment in the grade book to make sure that they are the same.

A final (but certainly not the last) problem is when a points-based grade book doesn’t add up to the correct points possible for the course. Again, reach for the Manage Grades tab in the grade book and check to see if what you see matches what you have told your students. You may have a missing grade item or missing connection or you may have entered the points incorrectly in creating the grade item. All things to check.

If in the end, you can’t find the problem, don’t hesitate to reach out for a Grade Book Consultation with a member of the team.