Welcome

Mini Byte: �Brightspace Gradebook

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Housekeeping Rules

• This session is a demonstration. Disconnect from everything else and see how cool the features I am going to show you!
• Post questions in the chat as questions come to mind.
• We will prompt for verbal questions, please raise your hand. Moderators will call on people in the order that hands are raised.
• Stay muted unless we invite you to unmute.
• After we are done demonstrating the features I want to show you, we will have Questions and Answers that we will be happy to answer.

Best Practices

1. Set up Gradebook before adding/connecting gradable items (e.g., quizzes, assignments)
2. Once there are student grades in gradebook, always EXPORT a copy of Grades before making any changes to grade book settings, item points, weights, etc.

Objectives

You will be able to

1. Copy in a course with a good grade book OR Start Fresh and Delete any existing Grade content
2. Configure Grades using the Brightspace Setup Wizard
3. Create Categories based on your syllabus for use with your Gradebook
4. Add gradable items
5. Utilize Bulk Edit to update settings throughout the Grades

Accessing the Gradebook

To access the grades,

1. Select Grades in the Nav bar�
2. Across the top, you’ll see the Grades sections: Enter Grades, Manage Grades, Schemes, Setup Wizard, and Settings

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1. Cleaning Out Grades

It’s best to start fresh with empty Grade Book* and create your Grade book from scratch.

1. Start by deleting existing Grades content

*Exception - If the course you’re copying from has Gradebook exactly as you want, you can copy it in

1. Exception - Perfect GradeBook

If the course you’re copying from has Gradebook exactly as you want, you can copy it in.

1. Less-than-perfect Gradebook

If the course you’re copying from has a Gradebook that’s less than perfect, do not copy in Grades or Grades Settings (it’s easier to start from scratch)

1. Deleting Grades

If you copied content into your course and the Grade Book is messy, delete everything from Grades and then rebuild your Grade book

1. In Grades, select Manage Grades
2. Select More Actions
3. Select Delete
4. Select the grade items you wish to remove
5. Click Delete
6. If you can’t select a Grade Item to delete it, you’ll need to first unassociate the content from the Grade item. Here’s how.

Click here to learn more!

2. The Setup Wizard

In Setup Wizard, you customize your gradebook settings (e.g., weighted or points grade system; how to handle ungraded items). Access it:

1. Select Grades
2. Select Setup Wizard near the top left�(or you may be directed to it automatically)

2. The Setup Wizard

Use the Setup Wizard when managing your gradebook to

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• Set up Grade Calculation

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• Associate gradable items (e.g., quizzes, assignments, discussions) with the correct gradebook weighting/points

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• Set how your gradebook will appear to you

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• Set how your gradebook will appear to students

2. Setup Wizard Step 1

Choose your grading system:

• Choose weighted or a points system (Formula system isn’t recommended)
• We will review a weighted gradebook

2. Setup Wizard Step 2

Final Grade Released options:

1. Calculated Final Grade (Not Recommended)
2. Adjusted Final Grade (Recommended)

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Additional Option:

Automatically release final grade (Not Recommended - you can manually release grades later)

Recommended

The Setup Wizard: Step 3

Choose how ungraded items (regardless if students completed them or not) will appear in the gradebook. Your options are:

• Drop ungraded items: Any ungraded item will not have a score associated to it until the instructor enters a grade

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• Treat ungraded items as 0: Any ungraded item will have a 0 as it’s score until the instructor enters a grade

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The Setup Wizard: Step 3

Additionally, there is a feature to automatically give a student a zero for a missing submission.

If this is enabled, students who do not complete an assignment, discussion, or quiz by their due date in Brightspace will automatically receive a 0 for their score. This can be overridden by the instructor if the student completes assessment.

Also featured is an option to automatically keep the final grade updated. This should be enabled.

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2. Setup Wizard Step 4

Default Grade Scheme:

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Should be set to percentage by default (recommended)

2. Setup Wizard Step 5

Choose the amount of decimal places that will appear for each graded item.

2. Setup Wizard Step 6

Student View Options

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Grade Details:

• Points and Weighted grade are recommended
• Grade scheme symbol and color aren’t necessary

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Decimals displayed should be consistent to what the instructor selected for their view

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Characters displayed defaults to 50

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Final grade calculation is instructor preference

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2. Setup Wizard Step 7

Review all of the options you set for your gradebook in Step 7 before continuing. These settings can be adjusted later if needed.

3. Categories

Categories assist with keeping gradebooks organized and weighted. By adding a category to the gradebook, it will display as a heading that you can assign grade items under.

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It’s recommended to make categories for items listed on the syllabus that go towards a students final grade. See below for an example:

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Sample Syllabus Weights

• Discussion Category (worth 20% of final grade)
• Quiz Category (worth 30% of final grade)
• Assignment Category (worth 20% of final grade)
• Attendance and Participation Category (Worth 10% of final grade)
• Presentations Category (Worth 20% of final grade)

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Categories add up to 100% of final grade.

3. Quick Note: Categories

The term “Category” is applied to different areas of Brightspace (e.g., in Assignment and Quiz tools).

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The terminology for categories in these other areas differs from the terminology referenced in this training.

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3. Creating a Category

There are two ways to set up a category.

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The first method can be found immediately after you finish choosing your setup wizard preferences.

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The options displayed in the image to the right will appear, and one of them gives you the option to create a category.

3. Creating a Category

The second option is to follow these steps:

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1. Select the “Manage Grades” tab

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• Click the “New” button

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• Choose “Category”

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3. Creating a Category

When creating a category, enter the following information:

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• The name of your category

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• The short name of the category (optional)

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• A description of your category (optional) and if you would like students to see your description

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• The weight of your category towards a students final grade, this should match your syllabus

3. Creating a Category

• Review the weight distribution for grade items that will be added into the category by selecting one of the following options:

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• Manually assign weight to items in the category

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• Distribute weights by points across all items in the category

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• Distribute weight evenly across all items

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• Review display options for students

3. Creating a Category

The distribution options when creating a category are similar to the option below when creating a weighted column in Blackboard. In Blackboard this option is to weigh “Equally” or “Proportionally”.

3. Manage Grades Tab

Once you create categories, you can assign grade items to them.

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In the Mange Grades tab, you can see how grade items appear under each category.

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This area will also inform you if your gradebook is not properly weighted (meaning not equal to 100% in weight).

Category

Grade Items

3. Example of Weighted Gradebook

Once all categories are created and the weights are distributed, they should equal 100% of the Final Calculated Grade

100% = Balanced Gradebook

4. Creating a Graded Item

There are a few different ways to add a graded item in Brightspace.

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Similar to Blackboard, Brightspace allows you to create graded items through it’s quiz, discussion, and assignments tool.

4. Adding an Assignment to Gradebook

When you create an assignment, you need to link it to your Gradebook for the grade to be included:

1. In your course, click Assignments
2. Click ˅ next to the assignment you want to add and select Edit Assignment
3. Click under Grade Out Of, enter the number of points.
4. Click In Grade Book and select Edit or Link to Existing*�Tip: If you leave this as In Grade Book, a grade item will be added but it won’t be categorized

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4. Adding an Assignment to Gradebook

If you already added the grade item in your Gradebook,

5. Select Link to an existing grade item, choose the item, and click OK

If you haven’t added the grade item yet,

6. Select Create and link to a new grade item
7. Select Choose Grade Category and choose a category

Optional: Select Change Grade Type & Scheme to choose Selectbox vs numeric, for example

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4. Adding a Discussion to Gradebook

When you create a Discussion, you need to link it to your Gradebook for the grade to be included (please note discussion topics can only be added to grades, not forums):

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1. In your course, select Discussions
2. Click ˅ next to the topic you want to add and select Edit Topic
3. Click under Grade Out Of, enter the number of points.
4. Click In Grade Book and select Edit or Link to Existing*�Tip: If you leave this as In Grade Book, a grade item will be added but it won’t be categorized

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4. Adding a Discussion to Gradebook

If you already added the grade item in your Gradebook,

• Select Link to an existing grade item, choose the item, and click OK

If you haven’t added the grade item yet,

• Select Create and link to a new grade item
• Select Choose Grade Category and choose a category

Optional: Select Change Grade Type & Scheme to choose Selectbox vs numeric, for example

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4. Adding an Exam/Quiz to Gradebook

In Brightspace, you must complete the following actions to add your exam/quiz as a graded item:

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• Select Exams/Quizzes
• Click ˅ next to the exam/quiz you want to add and select Edit
• Select Not in Grade Book and then choose Add to Grade Book
• Then type in a point value in the Grade Out Of field

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4. Adding an Exam/Quiz to Gradebook

4. To categorize the grade item, select the In Grade Book button and then choose Edit or Link to Existing

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• Select Choose Grade Category and select the category this will be assigned to

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If you already added the grade item in your Gradebook,

6. Select Link to an existing grade item, choose the item, and click OK

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4. Creating a Numeric Grade Item

• Select the Manage Grades tab

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• Click the New button

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• Choose Item

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4. Creating a Numeric Item

In this area, you can select multiple types of graded items to associate under a category that you have created.

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Numeric is the simplest option to use when adding a graded item that cannot be automatically evaluated in Brightspace. IE: In person presentations.

4. Creating a Numeric Grade Item

This is an example of creating a numeric graded item. Enter the following:

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• The name of your graded item

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• The short name of the item (optional)

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• What category this item will be associated with

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• A description of the item (optional) and if you would like students to see the description

4. Creating a Numeric Grade Item

• Enter the amount of points your item will be scored out of
• Verify the weight of the item (this may be unchangeable due to previous settings for the category)
• Choose if you would like for it to be possible to exceed the max amount of points for this graded item
• Choose if you would like for this to be a bonus item
• Keep you grade scheme as default
• Decide if you would like a rubric to be attached to this graded item

4. Creating a Text Grade Item

One other type of grade item that you can add is a text item. A text item is written text to include in your gradebook that can be used in a variety of ways. IE: To add student pronouns, pronunciation of student names, or to add notes for yourself to reference.

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Text grade items will not count towards a students grade.

4. Reordering Graded Items

If you would like to reorder a grade item in your Manage Grades tab, you can follow these steps:

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1. Select More Actions in the Manage Grades tab

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• Choose Reorder

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• In the Sort Order column, determine what you want to appear first in your gradebook in numeric order. IE: 1, 2, 3, 4.

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4. Hiding Graded Items

To hide a graded item from students, go to the restrictions tab when making/editing it and select Hide from Users

4. Edit a Grade Item

To adjust a graded item or category, select the chevron next to its title and select “Edit”

5. Bulk Edit

You also have the ability to bulk edit graded items and categories in the Manage Grades tab.

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To do so, select the checkboxes next to each item or category you wish to edit and select Bulk Edit

5. Bulk Edit

In bulk edit, you can…

1. Change the name or short name of your category or graded item
2. Change the number of points the graded item is worth
3. Change the weight of the category or graded item
4. Select if you wish for a graded item to be a bonus item that can or can’t exceed the weight of the category
5. Change the grade scheme of the graded item
6. Change the category of the graded item

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Blackboard vs Brightspace Gradebook Terms

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Click Here to Check Out Some Additional Training Resources!

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SUNY Online

Brightspace Support via SUNY Helpdesk:

Phone: 1-844-673-6786

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Submit a ticket or chat online at �https://online.suny.edu/help/

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Support Hours

Monday - Friday 7:00AM-12:00AM Midnight EST

Saturday 10:00AM-8:00PM EST

Sunday 10:00AM-9:00PM EST

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