Gradebook Setup - Exclude Empty Grades

Gradebook Setup - Exclude Empty Grades

By default, your gradebook has been set-up to exclude empty grades, which calculates students' grade percentages based only on assignments they have already completed. As a result, students can see their progress as they work through the course, and not be penalized for future work they have not yet completed. This impacts students' course totals, as well as the 'Contribution to course total' column in the User report.

Because this setting does not enter zeros for unsubmitted assignments, zeros will need to be manually inputted for all missing grades before the system can calculate final grades. This setting can be modified, but would result in students' grade percentages being calculated using zeros for all unsubmitted assignments (meaning their course total points would be very low at the start of the semester, and would gradually increase as more coursework is completed.)

Alternately, you may also adjust this setting at the end of the semester, when calculating students' final grades. Please note, when adjusting this setting to tally final grades, we strongly recommend waiting until all course deadlines have passed and no further coursework will be accepted. Otherwise, the final course total points will change if students complete more work, which may cause potential discrepancies in students' final grades.

To include empty grades in course percentages:

1. Access your gradebook from the menu bar above your course home page.
2. From the dropdown menu, select 'Gradebook setup.'
3. The very first item on this page is your course title. To the right of your course title, click 'Edit' in the 'Actions' column.
4. Click 'Edit Settings.'
5. In the 'Grade category' pane, click 'Show more...'
6. Uncheck 'Exclude empty grades.'
7. Repeat this process for each weighted category (categories are denoted by a folder icon to the left).
8. Once you have adjusted this setting for each weighted category, click 'Save changes.' Students' 'Contribution to course total' columns and course total values will now be calculated using zeros for all empty grades.