When the semester ends, it'll be time to post your
students' final grades in Sakai.
There's four important steps you'll need to perform
before posting the final grades.
In this video, we'll review a course's grading scale,
make an item part of the Final Course Grade,
reconcile missing items, and override a
student's final course grade.
This video assumes you've organized your gradebook
with Categories & Weighting.
If you're not using this option, we have a handout with tips which
may help you with your grade calculations.
Let's begin by reviewing the grading scale that tells Sakai the
letter grade to assign to your students based on their
overall numeric course grade.
We'll need to make sure we've chosen the scale that matches the
course's syllabus.
Click Gradebook...
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and then the Settings tab.
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Expand Grading Schema to view the scale.
The default grading scale is the Letter Grades option,
which is a 10-point grading scale.
If you need to change the scale, click the drop-down menu
next to Grade Type and select the desired option.
In the table, review the letter grades and their
minimum percentage values.
This information should match the grading scale in the course's syllabus.
If it's not correct, type the correct percentage values,
and then click Save Changes.
In this example, the grading scale matches the
syllabus, so we'll return to the gradebook by clicking the Grades tab.
Next, we'll make sure all of the Gradebook items we intend to
include are being calculated in the final course grade.
Focusing on the row of cells that contains the names
of each gradebook item, we'll scroll to the right and
make note of any cells that have a crossed out calculator icon.
This icon lets you know that the item is not being included
in the course grade calculations.
I want to make sure this item is included,
so we'll click the cell's drop-down arrow...
and select Edit Item Details.
If the item is Uncategorized, first select a category for it.
Then check the box next to Include item
in course grade calculations, and then click Save changes.
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The crossed out calculator icon is no longer appearing, which means this
gradebook item is now being included in the course grade calculations.
Okay, now, let's consider what will happen if you missed grading an item.
In other words, what does the Gradebook do with an item that
perhaps was never turned in by a student and does not have a
grade, such as this Module 2 Summary assignment that Fred did not submit?
Well, the Gradebook will not include the ungraded item
in the final course grade.
This is analogous to forgiving the assignment and
allowing the student the possibility of receiving a
higher course grade.
We want final course grades to be accurate, so it's important to
always give a zero for any missed assignments.
Since there are several tools that send grades to the gradebook,
you could go to each one and give zeros for missing grades,
but the gradebook provides an option that makes it easier
to manage this task – with this option, you can set ALL ungraded --
or empty-- cells across the entire gradebook to zero.
Before we "zero out" this gradebook, it's important to
acknowledge the importance of waiting until the end of the
semester before you perform this action.
Once you zero out all empty cells in the gradebook,
your students' final grades will be recalculated.
If you do this earlier in the semester,
every ungraded item you have in your gradebook,
such as future assignments, will be set to zero.
Though editable, this has the potential of making the
Gradebook difficult for you and your students to use,
so we strongly encourage you to wait.
But at the end of the semester, when you're ready to assign zeros
for all empty cells in the Gradebook,
locate the Course Grade column...
and click the drop-down arrow in the top cell.
Select Set Zero Score for Empty Cells, and then click Update.
All ungraded items now have a zero.
The final step in preparing final grades is to take a moment
to review each of the final letter grades assigned by Sakai.
The purpose of the review is to see if there is a need to override any
of the letter grades that the Gradebook did not round up.
For example, consider Sandra's final grade.
She has a number grade of 89.92, and since the grading scale
for this gradebook is set to a 10-point scale, Sakai assigned
Sandra a "B" letter grade.
This is because 89.92 falls below the minimum percentage threshold
of 90 that is needed to receive an "A" in this course,
but if her number grade were to be rounded up, the grade
would become an "A."
We caution you to be careful during this step.
Make sure you override only those grades that are not rounded up.
Do not change letter grades that have been calculated correctly.
Let's go ahead and override Sandra's letter grade.
Hover the mouse over her current course grade,
and a drop-down arrow appears.
Click the arrow and select Course Grade Override.
In the box that appears, locate the cell
under Grade Override and type the new letter grade.
In this example, we'll type an "A."
Click Save Course Grade Override.
Sandra's new final course grade appears.
Ninety percent is appended to the "A" because
89.92 rounds up to 90, and 90% is the minimum percentage
associated with an A in the 10-point grading scale.
Okay, the final grades for this gradebook are a ready!
Let's make sure that students can see their
final course grades.
To confirm this, I'll click on any student
in the Gradebook, ...
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then click the tab for Student Review Mode,
which shows me exactly what is displayed to the student.
In this example, next to Course Grade,
I can see that Sandra's final course grade
is displayed to her.
If I had forgotten to release final grades to students,
I would see Not Yet Released, instead.
To correct this, I would go to Settings...
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and select Grade Release Rules.
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If you need assistance while preparing your final grades,
please contact sakaihelp@durhamtech.edu.
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