NOTICE: Please be advised that the content of this article may only be relevant for users concluding the final stages of course work on eClass or for users on the eClass External system. The eClass Learning Management System is currently in a read-only state that prohibits new courses, enrollments, and users from being added to the site. Credit courses and co-curricular courses at the UofA are now being delivered on Canvas, and full articles on how to use Canvas can be found here.

The eClass Gradebook allows you to manage and organize a collection of grades in eClass. Items that have been assessed using an eClass activity will be automatically added to the gradebook. For example, if you add an Assignment activity to receive student papers, the assignment grades will be added to the gradebook.

The eClass Gradebook also allows you to add manually-graded items for offline activities such as TSQS-scored exams, class presentations, or participation. You can specify the method for calculating and weighting your assessment items and then tailor how these grades are displayed to your students.

Setting up your gradebook:

To set up your gradebook, follow these steps:

From your course main page, specify the following initial gradebook settings to ensure your grades are displayed properly to students:

1. Click on the Settings tab at the top of your course page:

2. Scroll down to the 'Appearance' settings area and ensure that Show students their own grades is set to Yes.

• • • Students will be able to access only their own grades.
      
      
      
      

NOTICE: Please be advised that the content of this article may only be relevant for users concluding the final stages of course work on eClass or for users on the eClass External system. The eClass Learning Management System is currently in a read-only state that prohibits new courses, enrollments, and users from being added to the site. Credit courses and co-curricular courses at the UofA are now being delivered on Canvas, and full articles on how to use Canvas can be found here.

• 1 To select an aggregation method
• 2 Weighted mean of grades (recommended)
• 3 Simple Weighted Mean (recommended)
• 4 Mean of grades
• 5 Natural
• 6 Other less utilized methods of aggregation
•  - Mean of grades with extra credit
•  - Median of grades
•  - Lowest grade
•  - Highest grade
•  - Mode of grades

To select an aggregation method:

1. Go to the Grade administration page by clicking on Grades in the navigation panel, near the top left corner of the page.
   
   
   
   
2. Alternatively, to access the Grade administration page, you can also click on the gear icon on your course main page, then select Gradebook setup.
   
   
   
   
3. Once you are on the Grade administration page, make sure you are in the Gradebook setup tab, under the Setup tab. Open the dropdown menu as shown in the screenshot below by clicking on Edit, then on Edit settings.
   
   
   Note: The weight column will only appear if you have selected 'Weighted mean of grades' or 'Natural' as your aggregation method.
   
   
4. Choose the method for calculating the final grades in your course in the Aggregation dropdown menu.
   
   

There are four main aggregation methods and each method calculates the course total slightly differently. eClass has other aggregation methods but most of them are not usually used for post-secondary course total calculations. They might be used for calculating totals for any sub-categories in your gradebook in cases where only certain grades require a specific calculation. For example, you could use the 'Highest grade' aggregation when you want students to receive a participation-type score for a series of pre-lecture assignments delivered throughout the term. See the article Setting up Gradebook Categories for more information on this process.

Here is a full description of the four main/recommended aggregation methods in eClass:

Weighted mean of grades (recommended) - Each graded item is assigned a weight. This weight is used to determine the relative value of each item in the overall course total. Weights can be assigned as fractions totalling 1 or integers totalling 100 (an item's calculated weight is the specified weight divided by the sum of all item's weights).

You could, for instance, grade all of your assignments, activities, and quizzes out of 100 each but assign each a weight towards the final grade.

Note: If a grade for an item were out of 100, be careful to assign a grade out of 100 and not out of the weight set for the item. If an item were graded out of 100 but weighted at 30% of the final grade, and if you marked it as if it were out of 30, the grade for that item would be worth only 3/10s of its intended value.

Example

Grades: A1 = 70/100, weight 10; A2 = 20/80, weight 5; A3 = 10/10, weight 3; Course total max 100; sum of weights 18
Aggregation: (0.7*10 + 0.25*5 + 1.0*3)/18 = 0.625 * 100 = 62.5%.
Course Total will be displayed as: 62.50 (Range: 0-100)

To enter the weightings for particular items:

Once you have chosen Weighted mean of grades as the aggregation method, type the weightings beside each activity. Weightings can be applied to individual items or entire categories of items. Within a category, you are also able to determine how much each individual assignment is worth within each category (if you set the aggregation method on the category to Weighted mean of grades). Once complete, click on the Save changes button.

Simple Weighted Mean (recommended) - The difference between this aggregation method and 'Weighted mean of grades' is that the weight of each item is simply its maximum grade. A 100 point assignment has a weight of 100; a 10 point assignment has a weight of 10; items with higher total scores are weighted greater. This is the simplest method to set up, especially if you can match your syllabus breakdown for assessment items to their total in eClass, ie. Assignment 1 counts 20% out of final grade so is its maximum score in eClass is 20.

Example

Grades: A1 = 70/100, A2 = 20/80, A3 = 10/10, category max 100; total points: 190
Aggregation: (0.7*100 + 0.25*80 + 1.0*10)/190 = 0.5263 * 100 = 52.63%
Course Total will be displayed as: 52.63 (Range: 0-100)

Mean of grades - Each graded item is converted to a percentage. The overall grade is a simple average of these percentage values. Each item (regardless of points) has the same weight. The result will be displayed as a point value out of 100 points.

Example

Grades: Assignment 1 = 70/100, Assignment 2 = 20/80, Assignment 3 = 10/10, category max 100
Aggregation: (0.7 + 0.25 + 1.0)/3 = 0.65 * 100 = 65%.
Course Total will be displayed as: 65 (Range: 0-100)

Natural (Sum of grades) - Grade is based on total points – each graded item has a number of points that contributes to the total points. A student’s grade is the number of points earned divided by the total points. This is the only type that does not convert the grades to percentages internally (normalization). The course total is the sum of the maximum grades from all aggregated items.

When using the Natural aggregation method, it's important to note that:

• The faculty grade book shows point totals, not percent. The student report shows point totals and percent.

Example

Grades: A1 = 70/100, A2 = 20/80, A3 = 10/10: total possible points: 190, then
Aggregation: 70 + 20 + 10 = 100
Course Total will be displayed as: 100 (Range: 0-190)

To enter the weightings for particular items:

Once you have chosen Natural as the aggregation method, the relative weighting of each grade item will be displayed in the Weights column. These weights can be manually adjusted by checking the box next to a grade's weight and entering a new value. After selecting Save changes, the other grade items' weights will automatically re-adjust themselves to total 100.

Other less utilized methods of aggregation:

Mean of grades with extra credit - Normal aggregation using the mean method is used but with the addition of a multiplier that can provide bonus points for particular items. Extra credit can also be added on individual grade items within categories in the standard aggregation methods.

Median of grades - The overall grade is the middle grade (or the mean of the 2 middle grades) when the grades are normalized and arranged in numeric order.

Lowest grade - The overall grade is the lowest grade, after normalization.

Highest grade - The overall grade is the highest grade, after normalization.

Mode of grades - The overall grade is the grade that occurs the most frequently, after normalization.

NOTICE: Please be advised that the content of this article may only be relevant for users concluding the final stages of course work on eClass or for users on the eClass External system. The eClass Learning Management System is currently in a read-only state that prohibits new courses, enrollments, and users from being added to the site. Credit courses and co-curricular courses at the UofA are now being delivered on Canvas, and full articles on how to use Canvas can be found here.

In addition, categories can be used to weight the grade items within the category differently from the course total calculation. This can be helpful in cases where you might want to drop the lowest grade or give bonus marks.

Note: Basic assessment items should be added as automatically-graded  'Grade items' not 'Grade categories.' Using grade categories instead of grade items can cause problems in calculating grades.

Set up gradebook categories:

1. Go to the 'Grader report' page by clicking on the Grades tab at the top of your course page.
   
   
   
   
2. Click on the Grader report dropdown menu and click on Gradebook setup.
   
   
   
   
3. Click on Add category at the top of the page.
   
   
   
   
4. On the next screen, you need to enter the following required information:
   • "Category Name" - Required name for your grade category. (E.g. "Lab Assignments")
   • "Aggregation" type - Select the aggregation method to determine how grades in this category will be combined (e.g., Mean of grades, Weighted mean, Simple weighted mean, Sum of grades).
     • For a description of the different aggregation methods see the article Calculating Your Course Total)
   • "Exclude empty grades" - if you do not wish to include ungraded assignments in the grade calculation (e.g., different groups of students submit different assignments)
   •  "Drop the lowest" - You may also decide that only the best grades are included. Set a number for the number of assignments to exclude from the grade calculation
   • "Grade type" - Choose from a value (numeric value), scale (item from the list that allows the options of quarter points, half points and discussion forum grading form) and text (feedback only).  
   • "Hidden" - Grades are hidden from students.
   • "Locked" - Prevents grades from being automatically updated by a related activity.
     
     
     
     
5. Select the Save changes button at the bottom.
   
   
6. Categories appear as folders in your list. Once you have created the necessary categories, you will need to move existing activities or create new activities in these categories.
   
   

Move Existing Activities to Categories:

There are a couple of ways to move existing activities into new categories:

Option A) Using the move icon for each individual activity

1. Click on the move icon next to the activity.
   
   
   
   
2. Dashed rectangular boxes will appear highlighting the slots in which the activity can be moved to.
   
   
   
   
3. Continue to move any necessary activities.

Option B) more conveniently uses a the drop-down menu to move multiple activities:

1. Select the checkboxes next to the activities you want to move.
   
   
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Move selected items to on the dropdown menu.
   
   
3. Then, choose the category where you want to move the selected item(s):
   
   
   
   

Notes:

• If you later add new activities, you can select an existing grade category under the Grade setting of the activity.
  
  
  
  Complete the remaining activity details as necessary and select Save and return to course. Your new activity should appear in the selected category when you return to the 'Gradebook setup' page. Continue to add any necessary activities and return to 'Gradebook setup' in the Gradebook.
  
  
• Using the Add grade item at the bottom of the page will generate a column for grades in your gradebook, but no corresponding activity in your course. The Add grade item feature is commonly used for recording grades that are not taken via eClass, e.g. exams, presentations, or participation scores.
  
  
• To access the advanced options for aggregating categories (such as dropping the lowest mark), select Show more... under Grade category in the category's settings.

NOTICE: Please be advised that the content of this article may only be relevant for users concluding the final stages of course work on eClass or for users on the eClass External system. The eClass Learning Management System is currently in a read-only state that prohibits new courses, enrollments, and users from being added to the site. Credit courses and co-curricular courses at the UofA are now being delivered on Canvas, and full articles on how to use Canvas can be found here.

1. Go to your Grader report by clicking on the Grades tab at the top of your course page:

2. Click on the Grader report dropdown and then on Gradebook setup.

3. Click on Add grade item:

4. Enter a name and a value for your grade item. Then, click on Save changes when you are done. 

 

5. A new column containing your grade item will appear in your gradebook.

6. To input grades manually, activate the Edit mode toggle in the top right of the course page:

7. Enter the students' grades in the text entry boxes in the column. The 'Tab' key can be used to move to the next student.

8. When you are finished, click on Save changes at the bottom of the page.

NOTICE: Please be advised that the content of this article may only be relevant for users concluding the final stages of course work on eClass or for users on the eClass External system. The eClass Learning Management System is currently in a read-only state that prohibits new courses, enrollments, and users from being added to the site. Credit courses and co-curricular courses at the UofA are now being delivered on Canvas, and full articles on how to use Canvas can be found here.

This filtering can be especially useful in the gradebooks of large courses that contain multiple sub-sections (where groups are automatically created and updated based on all the sub-sections). This allows different instructors or TAs to sort the gradebook depending on the sub-sections they are responsible for grading.

To enable this filter:

1. Click on the Settings tab on top your course main page. Expand the Groups section then from the Group mode dropdown box, select Visible groups (leaving the other settings unchanged).
   Click on Save and display
   
   
   
   
2. In your gradebook, you will now see a dropdown box allowing you to sort by groups.
   
   

Example for Use:

A scenario where this could be very useful in large multi-section courses is to automatically sort the optically scored exams into sub-sections for review or offline grading.

1. First upload the spreadsheet provided by TSQS into your combined eClass course following these instructions: Importing Grades.
   
   
2. Once uploaded, you can view specific sections of grades by filtering the gradebook to a single one of the course sub-sections.
   
   
3. If you want to turn around and export just a subset of the gradebook to work offline, you can similarly filter the export page to include only a single sub-section.
   
   
   
   
4. This method could be used to divide a large TSQS spreadsheet into several smaller ones each representing a single sub-section.

 

Notes:

• Whichever option you choose for Group mode will automatically be selected for any new activities you add for the course so you may want to consider turning on groups at the course level AFTER you have completed course construction if the bulk of your activities or resources do not need to be split into groups. This is also the reason we recommend Visible groups as this has slightly less effect in case you create a new activity and forget to adjust the group settings for it specifically.
• Either Separate groups or Visible groups will add the filter option to your student lists. 
• The option to Force group mode should be set to No unless you are still constructing the course and know that you want activities to be split up into groups.
• By default, the filter dropdowns will contain ALL the groups in your course - if you have a number of groups that you want to strip out of the gradebook filter, you can create a grouping of those required and specifying it in the Default grouping dropdown. This would also be the required process to display only the groups in a specific grouping on the course participants page, for example to only display the 'public' groups in a course. For more information, see the article: Setting Up Groupings.
• Important note: both group mode options will allow students to see a filtered list of the groups in the course (all groups if the setting is Visible groups; only the groups they are enrolled in if Separate groups.) This means that if instructors are also using a group to apply overrides for accommodations since the users could see other student's private information. Instructors should can prevent students from viewing the participants page if they need to BOTH filter their gradebook by groups AND are using a accommodations group for overrides.

NOTICE: Please be advised that the content of this article may only be relevant for users concluding the final stages of course work on eClass or for users on the eClass External system. The eClass Learning Management System is currently in a read-only state that prohibits new courses, enrollments, and users from being added to the site. Credit courses and co-curricular courses at the UofA are now being delivered on Canvas, and full articles on how to use Canvas can be found here.

To access the grade item editing screen:

1. Go to the Grades from the top menu bar on your course page.
   
   
   
   
2. Select the menu item located below and then Gradebook setup.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Edit then Edit settings in the row of the grade item you need to edit.
   
   
   
   
4. Or, if you are already inside the gradebook in the Grader report menu, toggle on Edit mode at the top right and then click on the gear icon in the top row of the column you need to edit.
   
   
   
   
5. Once you are on the grade item editing screen, if no student grades have been entered, the screen will be easily editable just as if you were adding a new grade item (see Adding Grade Items for more information).
   
   If student grades have already been entered, the screen will appear differently, alerting you to that fact. At this time you are also prevented from changing the 'Grade type' and from editing the 'Maximum grade' until the 'Rescale existing grades' dropdown is specified.
   
   
   
   
6. To determine whether to rescale or not, all that is required is to know whether the existing student grades have been scored as if the maximum grade was already correct, ie. if you were entering scores as if the total was 50 but the grade item had the default maximum grade of 100 specified. Selecting No will result in no changes to the student scores - so that they will remain the correct raw score for the new maximum grade (this is the most common use case and should be the selection in most cases).
   
   Selecting Yes will convert the scores to so that their original percentage is retained, rescaling them to be out of the new maximum grade - this would only be required if you had initially scored an item out of 100 and wanted to convert the item and all scores to be out of a different total.
   
   
   
   

Note that grade settings changes for built-in eClass activities (such as quizzes or assignment) must be changed in the activity itself rather than through the gradebook.

Duplicating a manual grade item:

Manual grade items can be duplicated via their 'Edit' menu in the gradebook setup . Grades aren't copied, only settings, including weight (if applicable).

NOTICE: Please be advised that the content of this article may only be relevant for users concluding the final stages of course work on eClass or for users on the eClass External system. The eClass Learning Management System is currently in a read-only state that prohibits new courses, enrollments, and users from being added to the site. Credit courses and co-curricular courses at the UofA are now being delivered on Canvas, and full articles on how to use Canvas can be found here.

NOTICE: Please be advised that the content of this article may only be relevant for users concluding the final stages of course work on eClass or for users on the eClass External system. The eClass Learning Management System is currently in a read-only state that prohibits new courses, enrollments, and users from being added to the site. Credit courses and co-curricular courses at the UofA are now being delivered on Canvas, and full articles on how to use Canvas can be found here.

• 1 Enable Calculations 
• 2 Set up Calculations
• 3 Constructing Calculations
• 4 Example Calculations
• 5 Additional Notes