INTERMEDIATE
INTRO
At the beginning of each school year, teachers should aim to setup their Gradebooks as early as possible to avoid grading issues during the course of the school year.
If desired, Final Grade Weightings and Grade Categories can actually be configured before the first day of school to assist with a smooth start-of-year classroom transition.
The guide shown below, instructs teachers on how to configure the Grade Setup Tab correctly for a single class. Once one class has been setup, that same configuration can actually be copied from one class to another to speed up the configuration process. More details about copying the Grade Setup can be found here.
STEP BY STEP GUIDE
1. Launch Gradebook and select a class. We will use the Form Tongan Society & Culture class in this example.
2. Click on the Grade Setup
3. First we need to set the Full Year and SemesterReporting Terms correctly. In this example the Full Year term is abbreviated as Y16. Click on the Y16 Term and select Term Weights, then click Save.
4. Repeat the above step for S1 and S2 respectively. Make sure that FY (Y16 in this example), S1 and S2 are all set to Term Weights. Be sure to Save your changes.
5. Next we need to set up the remaining Reporting Terms correctly. All schools in the Pacific use either 3 or 4 Terms as their major grading periods. In this example we will setup a school with 4x major grading periods. Select the first Term (T1) to configure the Grade Setup correctly for T1.
NOTE: It is recommended that ALL Reporting Terms for ALL Classes are configured at the beginning of the Year. Alternatively you may wish to configure the Reporting Terms at the beginning of each term. Whatever the case, be sure to use the settings and calculation method that your School, HOD and Teachers have agreed on.
6. Most schools use the Category Weights calculation method for End of Term grades. In this example we will be referring to the Category Weights calculation method. Select Category Weights.
7. Click the ‘Plus’ sign to add Categories to your calculation method.
8. Select the Categories that should contribute to the Final Grade for the selected Reporting Term and click OK.
NOTE: In this example the school is has used three different Categories during Term 1 to organize their various assessments: Final Exam, Formative Assessment and Summative Assessment. Each school and department will have their own system of Grading. Please confirm with your School and HoD before finalizing your categories.
9. The selected categories will appear in the Category Weights Table. You will need to assign each Category the appropriate weighting by double-clicking the Weight column and typing in the appropriate figure. In this example the school has chosen to use a 40:30:30 ratio for the weighting of their Final Grades. In other words, the Final Exam is worth 40% of the overall term grade. Formative Assessments are worth 30% of the overall term grade. Summative Assessments are also collectively worth 30% of the term grade.
10. Click Save to finalize your changes.
11. Repeat Steps 5-10 for Terms 2-4 (T2, T3 and T4). Alternatively, if you are using the same Category Weightings for each of the remaining terms, you can use the copy function to quickly copy the Grade Setup from T1 into the other Terms. To do this, go back to T1 and click copy:
12. On the Copy Final Grade Setup dialog box, select T1 only to copy the T1 setup to the other Terms.
13. In the Copy Grade Setup dialog box, select T2, T3 and T4. Do NOT select Y16, S1 or S2 – these terms should be setup differently. When the correct terms have been selected click Next.
14. The next page, will allow you to confirm your changes. If you are satisfied with the changes, click Finish to continue.
15. It may now pay to check to make sure that the changes were correctly pushed through to the other terms. Click on T2, T3 and T4 to quickly check to see if the Category Weight settings were copied over correctly.
NOTE: Steps 1-15 need to be completed for EVERY Class in the Teachers’ Gradebook. Please do not make the assumption that configuring the Grade Setup Tab for one class will automatically configure all classes. Please refer to the article named: ‘Copy the Grade Setup Configuration from One Class to Another’ for more information about copying the Grade Setup configuration from one class to another.
LETS RECAP
1. Full Year Reporting (FY, Y16, Y17, Y18 etc) should be set to Term Weights.
2. Semester Reporting (S1, S2 etc) should be set to Term Weights.
3. Term Reporting (T1, T2, T3, T4 etc) are usually set to Category Weights.
4. Most schools use Summative, Formative and Final Exam categories with a ratio of 30:30:40 for Category Weights.
5. Use the copy function for terms that use the same grade setup.