Grades | Introduction to the Grade Book

A grade book contains a grading system, grade calculations, grade scheme, grade items and view and display options. Grade items in your grade book represent all the work that needs evaluation of users in a course.

When setting up your course in Brightspace, one of the first steps is to set up the Grade Book. Make sure to do this before adding other activities such as assignments, quizzes and/or discussion to the course because you might want to link them to the Grade Book. Before you set up your Grade Book it is good to have an overview of what type of grades will be given and how they relate to the final grade.

When setting up the Grade Book it is recommended to start the process with the Grade Setup Wizard.

Navigate to your course, in the green navigation bar,

  1. Click on Grades
Course home - in the green navigation bar click on Grades

In the Grades homepage, there are four tabs

In the Grades tool, if a grade book is not set up, the Grades Setup Wizard page will appear when you first navigate to the tool

In the grades homepage, there are four tabs
1. Enter Grades

Contains an overview of the list of students, the individual grade items, grade categories and the final grade

Once you enter grades, students are automatically notified however, you can release the grades at a later date if you prefer. In case a grade item is linked with an assessment tool (assignment, quiz, etc.) the grade given via the assessment tool will automatically appear in the grade book.

Enter Grades tab
1.1. Import

This will open the Import Grades homepage,

For further information on how to Import Grades, please visit: How to import grades in Brightspace

Import Grades
1.2. Export

This will open the Export Grades homepage,

For more information on how to export grades, please visit: How to prepare the .csv file

Export Grades
1.3. Switch to Speadsheet View

This will open the Spreadsheet View, this view enables modification of grades for all students and all assignment on one page

This view does not allow for qualitative feedback

For further information on the spreadsheet view, please visit: How to enter grades manually

Swtich to Spreadsheet View
1.4. More actions

After clicking on More Actions, a drop-down menu will appear

More actions button, a drop-down menu will appear
1.4.1. 1. Hide/Show Columns

This will open a pop-up window,

  1. Tick the box of the Grade item(s) you wish to display
  2. Click on Save
Hide/Show Columns pop-up window
1.4.2. View Event Log

This will open the View Event Log homepage, it records a history of all changes made, including the time the change was made and by whom it was made

View event log records
2. Manage Grades

This will open the Manage Grades homepage,

Manage grades homepage
2.1. New

When clicking on New, a drop-down menu will appear

For further information on how to create a new Grade Item or Category, please visit: How to create a Grade Item/Grade Category

New - a drop-down menu will appear click on Item or Category
2.2. More actions

After clicking on More actions, a drop-down menu will unfold

More actions, a drop-down menu will appear with more options (Reorder, View Event Log, Make Visible to users, Hide from users and delete)
  1. Reorder - to How to reorder Grade Items
  2. View Event Log - to view event log record history
  3. Make Visible to Users - to make the grade items visible to students
  4. Hide from Users - to make the grade items hidden to students 
  5. Delete - to delete grade items
2.3. Bulk Edit

Multiple grade items or categories can be edited,

  1. Click on the box in the grey row to select all the grade items
  2. Click on Bulk Edit
Bulk Editing

Bulk Edit Items and Categories homepage, once finishing Editing,

  1. Click on Save
Bulk Edit Items and Categories
3. Schemes

A grade scheme is used to represent the student's performance (scored points, percentage, etc.) regarding one or more grade items, into levels of achievement. Each level of achievement has its own range of acceptable grades that fall within that range. Each range has an associated symbol which can be a number, text, or letter.

The most commonly used Default Scheme is the '1-10 (for partial grades, 2 decimals, min=5.5)'.

Note, that for the Final Calculated Grade you would have to individually select the 'WUR-grading 1-10 (based on EER)' scheme.

Scheme Tab
3.1. New Scheme

This will open the New Scheme homepage,

For more information on how to create a New Scheme, please visit: How to create a grade scheme

New Scheme homepage
3.2. More Actions

By clicking on More Actions, a drop-down menu will appear

More Actions
  1. Copy - to copy a scheme
  2. Delete - to delete the deleted schemes
4. Setup Wizard

The Setup Wizard contains an overview of all the grade book settings that display how the grading system, grade items, categories and calculations work

It is possible to set up or adjust the settings of the grade book, for more information please visit: How to use the Grades Setup Wizard

As a reference, please visit: Recommended Grade Book Settings

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You now know about the Grade Book in Brightspace!