Gradebooks - Management

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Weighted Average From Multiple Gradebooks in Scenario III

 

Overview

Goal

Create two or more separate Gradebooks and generate a cumulative grade that consists of the weighted averages from the separate Gradebooks.

For example, I teach a semester-long course, but need two separate quarter Gradebooks. The semester grade is based on 40% from quarter 1 and 60% from quarter 2.

Create Your Gradebooks

In this scenario, you will need to create three Gradebooks: two quarter-long Gradebooks and one special Gradebook for calculating the first-semester grade. The image below illustrates how these Gradebooks should be created.

https://helpcenter.schoolloop.com/hc/article_attachments/360007430272/mceclip0.png

Step-By-Step Guide

  1. From the Gradebooks menu on the navigation bar of your Portal homepage, choose Add/Edit Gradebook for one of your courses.
  2. Click the Edit link next to the name of the default year-long Gradebook.
  3. Add "Q1" to the name of the Gradebook and the term label.
  4. Set the end date to be the last day of Quarter 1.
  5. Click Submit.
  6. Back on the Add/Edit page, click the Add New Gradebook button.
  7. Add "Q2" to the name of the Gradebook and the term label.
  8. Set the start date and end date to correspond to the start and end date of Quarter 2.
  9. Click Submit.
  10. Click the Add New Gradebook button to create the semester Gradebook.
  11. Add "Semester 1" to the name of the Gradebook and the term label.
  12. Set the Start date to the day after the last day of Quarter 2. Set the end date to two days after the last day of Quarter 2.
  13. Click Submit.

Notes:

1. The Semester 1 Gradebook will be used to import the averages for each student from both Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 Gradebooks. As such, its date span only needs to be the minimum possible of 2 days, but you may choose to set the dates as you please.

2. We recommend that you run your Gradebooks back-to-back without any days between Gradebooks. For example, if the 2nd Semester starts on January 12, you should end the previous Gradebook on January 11.

3, Be sure to give each Gradebook an appropriate name and be careful that the start and end dates are accurate for each term.

4. If you have already published grades in a Gradebook, remember to republish after editing the date range.

Cumulative Grade Setup

For this scenario, our Semester 1 Gradebook will have two assignments, each of which will contain the grade from one of the two quarter Gradebooks. Given the weighting of 40% and 60%, we will make the assignments worth 40 and 60 points respectively, so that we achieve our desired weighting without using the weighting feature of the Gradebook. In a more complex scenario, the use of the Gradebook weighting feature may be desirable.

  1. Create two assignments in the Semester Gradebook named Q1 Grade and Q2 Grade with one worth 40 points and the other worth 60 points. 
  2. Click the Q1 Grade assignment in the Gradebook to access the Assignment Scoresheet.
  3. Click the Import Gradebook Scores drop menu and select the Q1 Gradebook.
  4. Click Save & Exit.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 for the Q2 Grade assignment.

NOTE: When you import the scores from another Gradebook, the cell value will equal the student's percent score from the imported Gradebook times the maximum value of the assignment. For example, the Q1 Grade assignment in our example is worth 40 points and we can assume that the student's average from the Quarter 1 Gradebook is 75%. In this case, importing scores from Quarter 1 will cause the cell to populate with a value of 30 points (40 point maximum X 0.75).

Variation: Final Exam Included in Semester Grade Calculation

If your final semester grade must be calculated using the final exam in addition to the quarter grades, then add a final exam assignment to the Semester 1 Gradebook. Depending on your needs, it may be best to use weighting for the Semester 1 Gradebook (see Scenario IV for an example). However, it is also possible to achieve the desired weighting by adjusting the point value of the assignments. For example, let us assume that the final grade is to be calculated using 40% for each of the two quarters and 20% for the final exam - we can also assume that your final exam is worth 150 points. In this example, the two assignments for the quarter grades should be worth 300 points each (300/300/150 matches the 40/40/20 weighting scheme).

Confirmation

The multiple Gradebooks created along with the weighted average will be displayed under the Gradebook section.

Related Articles:

Scenario I

Scenario II

Scenario IV

Scenario V

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