This guide pertains to Ultra Course View.
If your course is in Original Course View, see the Original Course View tutorial collection.
Overall Grade Column Explanation
Some instructors prefer to define the overall grade calculation based on points, giving greater flexibility and support for varied evaluation practices.
The instructor may use the 'Set it up' option to configure the Overall Grade. See Overall Grade Column - Explanation and Set Up.
Using Points as the Overall Grade Column Calculation Type
The setup wizard guides the instructor to select Points, Weighted, or Advanced as the preferred calculation type. The wizard provides examples of each calculation type:
The interface displays all grade categories with their associated point values. The total points available in the course is the sum of all graded activities not excluded from the overall grade calculation. Choose Points, Letter, or Percentage from the Select How The Overall Grade is Displayed drop-down menu.
Instructors can also:
- Add calculation rule to assessments within a category to handle the following:
- dropping scores
- using only the lowest or highest score in the total calculation of the category
- Exclude a category from the overall grade calculation. This removes the category's points from the total points available in the course.
- Expand categories to reveal the individual items within the category and point values.
- Unlink an item from its category. This is useful if you want to exclude an item from a category calculation rule.
- Exclude an item within a category from the overall grade calculation. This removes the item points from the total number of points available in the course
Expand categories, unlink or exclude items within a category
Display of Points
When Points is the preferred Overall Grade Display, the actual Total Points available in the course displays under the Overall Grade cell (in the image below, it is the 776 points). Note: When either Letter or Percentage are the preferred display of the Overall Grade, "100 pts" is displayed under the Overall Grade cell in the Gradebook. This does not reflect the total points available in the course but is not changeable. Students do not see the "100 points" in their view of the Gradebook.
Instructors and students see the Overall Grade as a fraction showing the total points earned out of total points available for the assessments the student has completed. Assessments a student has not completed are not included in the calculation. Running Total does not include grade columns not yet attempted in its calculations in order to present students with a realistic view of their standing in the course. This is why each student’s total points available, the second number in the fraction, differs among students.
