Overview
The weighted grade setup can be accessed through the Gradebook settings area of your course. Here, you may decide what percentage of the overall grade to assign each graded activity or category.
Before beginning this process, ensure that your grade categories for each assignment are accurate. Follow the instructions outlined in the overall grade setup article to access this page.
Using Weighted Calculation as the Overall Grade Column Calculation Type
Proportional and Equal Weight
First, you must decide how to weigh each item within its designated category. Proportional grading weighs each item relative to one another’s point value. This means that an assignment worth 100 points will have a higher influence on one’s performance compared to a ten-point assignment.
The equal weight option sets each assignment within a category to the same percentage.
Setting Percentages
After deciding how each item is weighted, you must define the percentages for each of the categories. Click on the white boxes to enter a score. Upon entering a score, each of the remaining categories will automatically adjust to ensure that they reach a total of 100%.
Locked categories are indicated by a gray box and will not automatically adjust upon entering percentages. Unlocked categories are indicated by a white box and can be adjusted as needed. Click on the lock icon to lock and unlock your materials.
Click on a category to review specific graded activities within.
To exclude a category or item from the overall grade, click on the circle with a line through it. These items will remain locked at zero percent and grayed out until the circle icon is clicked again.
To remove an item from its category, click on the link icon highlighted below. Doing this will prompt you to enter a percentage for this specific item. In the example below, I have excluded the "Week 1 Journal" from the journal category.
Note that you can edit the calculation rules to automatically drop or remove specific scores from your students' overall scores.
Once you are finished, click on the drop-down icon on the right side of your screen to determine how your students will see their overall grade. Save your work once you are finished.
Weighted Overall Grade Calculation Video
The following narrated video shows how to configure a weighted overall grade that includes empty grade categories.
Weighted Overall Grade Calculation Improvements video