Teachers/Course Directors - EDSPORA

How To: Configure the Gradebook in Edspora

Edspora’s gradebook is a powerful tool for sharing grades and feedback with students and calculating final grades. The gradebook provides several different options for how to calculate and display grades. You may configure your gradebook before the start of the semester or build it as you teach.

This page outlines the major functions involved in configuring the gradebook and provides links to step-by-step instructions. For an overview of how to input and record student grades, see Record Grades in Edspora.

Set Up Your Gradebook

Create and Arrange Grade Items and Categories

When you add activities such as Assignments or Quizzes to a Edspora course, corresponding grade items (columns) are added to the course gradebook. Edspora also lets you manually add columns to your gradebook to record extra grade items (for example, if you administer an offline midterm exam). In both of these cases, it’s fine to build your gradebook as you go, but when it’s time to calculate final grades, the organization of these items is essential to making sure you get the correct results.

Create & Organize Items & Categories in the Edspora Gradebook.
Grade Category Options in Edspora.

Calculate Grades

The simplest way to calculate grades is to let Edspora handle calculations. Edspora has built-in calculations (called aggregations) to compute the score for the entire course (and sub-totals if you need them). Edspora can aggregate grades as Natural (which has replaced Sum of grades), Mean of grades, and Custom weights (where weights are applied to individual items or categories as a percentage of the total grade). You can also create a custom formula if you require additional operations.

Grade Calculation in Edspora.
Custom Grade Formulas in the Edspora Gradebook.

Additional Gradebook Options & Grading Methods

Display Grades with Letters and Percentages

By changing settings in your gradebook, you can control how grades are displayed to students, including showing grades as a numeric score (Real), percentage, or letter. By default, Edspora activities use the Grade type of Points, with the maximum points set at 100.

On the Letters tab in the gradebook, you can customize grade boundaries by matching ranges of scores to letter grades (e.g., 93.00-100.00 for A). Then when grading, enter the number that matches the letter grade you want to assign (e.g., 89 for a B+), or upload numeric scores from a spreadsheet. When Edspora generates letter grades, it will match numeric scores to the ranges in the Letters settings and display the correct letter grade to students.

Note: Grade items associated with Edspora activities allow only numeric scores to be entered. Letter grades can be typed directly in the Edspora gradebook or uploaded from a spreadsheet only for manually created grade items that are set to the Letter grade type.

Advanced Grade Item Options in the Edspora Gradebook.

Grade with Rubrics and Non-numeric Scales

If you want alternative methods for evaluating student work, some Edspora activities support grading with rubrics and non-numeric scales.

Rubrics are useful when you want to assess student work using multiple criteria. In Assignment activities, you can use advanced grading options to configure a rubric and criteria, and then when grading, the rubric will calculate an overall score.
Custom Scales are for when you want students to see Excellent, Good, Fair, etc., as a grade on an item instead of a numerical score. While custom scales can be used to display non-numeric assessments (such as ?-, ?, and ?+), the gradebook will still be able to do calculations with these items if needed.

How To: Creating and Using Grading Scales in Edspora

An alternative to giving numerical grades on an assignment is to use Grading scales. For example, you could use a custom scale when you want students to see Excellent, Good, or Fair as a grade on an assignment as opposed to a numerical score.

Grading scales are best for record-keeping purposes and other assessments you do not intend to factor into the course total in your Edspora gradebook. However, keep in mind that Edspora still assigns numerical values to each term within the scale in order to do mathematical operations (see below). Depending on your gradebook setup, these values can impact your grade calculations in ways you may not intend.

How Grading Scales Work

The aggregation method used with Scales affects scores. While you and your students will see the values assigned by a grading scale in the Grader report and User report, these values will function numerically in grade book calculations depending on the kind of grade calculation being used.

Natural: The first value in the scale is given the value of 1, and subsequent values are assigned the next whole number (e.g. “Very Poor” = 1, “Poor” = 2, “Fair” = 3, “Good” = 4, “Excellent” = 5).
Mean of grades or Custom weights: The first value in the scale is given the value of 0, and subsequent values are assigned the next whole number (e.g. “Very Poor” = 0, “Poor” = 1, “Fair” = 2, “Good” = 3, “Excellent” = 4).

Using Scales to replicate a standard letter scale is not recommended:

While you could create a conventional letter scale using a custom scale, doing so may have unexpected effects on grade calculation because of the way each letter is assigned a numerical value (see below).

F (1), D (2), D+ (3), C- (4), C (5), C+ (6), B- (7), B (8), B+ (9), A- (10), A (11)

When using a custom scale like this instance, calculating a grade percentage will not align with the traditional letter scale. For instance, a C on the scale above would be equivalent to 45% (5 / 11). If you want to see grades in your gradebook displayed as letter grades, it may be simpler to edit the category settings and change the display mode.

Set a Scale Grade Item to Not Aggregate

Any grade item on the gradebook can be set to not aggregate in the calculation of the grade book. To set a scale grade item to not aggregate:

Select Course Management, the Course Management panel will open.
On the Course Management panel, under Grading, select Gradebook setup. The Gradebook setup page will open.
Locate the row for the grade item you wish to edit, go to the Weights column and change the value to ‘0’.
Note: This option will not be available if using the Mean of grades aggregation method.
Note:If using the Natural aggregation method, click the checkbox next to the weight to enable edits of the weight column.
Click Save Changes when complete.

Create a Custom Grading Scale

To create a custom grading scale:

Select Course Management(black gear icon, top right), the Course Management panel will open.
On the Course Management panel, under Grading, select Gradebook setup. The Gradebook setup page will open.
In the navigation tabs, click Scales. The Course scales page will open.
At the bottom of the page, click Add a new scale. The Add a scale page will open.
Type a name for your scale in the Name box.
Enter the actual terms of your scale in order from least to greatest, separated by commas (e.g. “Very Poor, Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent”).
(Optional) Enter a description for your scale.
Click Save Changes when complete.

Apply a Scale to a Grade Item or Category Total

After creating a custom scale, it can be used with a grade item or category total by editing advanced settings. Note: The scale for an activity-based grade item is set on the activity settings page.

Select Course Management(black gear icon, top right), the Course Management panel will open.
On the Course Management panel, under Grading, select Gradebook setup. The Gradebook setup page will open.
Under Actions, in the row for a grade item or category title click Edit. The Edit page for this item will open.
On the Edit page, click to the Grade item or Category total heading to view and adjust the settings.
In the Grade type drop-down menu, select Scale. (If you do not see this option, click Show more… to view all options)
In the Scale drop-down menu, select the name of the scale.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save changes.

How To: Manually Edit Grades in the Grader Report

This page describes how to enter grades directly in the Grader report, how editing grades in this manner causes overrides, and how to enable or disable grade overrides and locks.

Manually Edit and Override Grades in the Grader Report

Edspora allows you to enter or edit grades directly in the Grader report. This method is different than grading submissions from within an activity such as an assignment.

Select Course Management, the Course Management panel will open.
On the Course Management panel, under Grading, select Grader report. The Grader Report page will open.
With the gradebook on the Grader report tab, click Turn editing on.
Grade cells will change to show an entry field and a message appears at the top of the page explaining that if another grader for this course updates the gradebook while you are editing grades, your changes will be lost.:
Search for the column that you want to edit or override. Manually input grades into blank cells in the table, or edit grades already recorded for particular activities (e., quizzes, etc.).
To save changes, click Save changes or press Enter on your keyboard. If you have edited grades linked to a Edspora activity, Edspora will highlight the cells in orange to show that the grade has been overridden.

Modify Grades on the Single View Grading Page

Select Course Management, the Course Management panel will open.
On the Course Management panel, under Grading, select Grader report. The Grader Report page will open.
Each column and row heading contains a Single view icon). To view and edit the Single View page:A grading page will open showing all the grades for the student, or all the students for the grade item.
- For a student, click the pencil icon to the right of a student’s name.
- For a grade item, click the pencil icon in the grade item’s column heading.
In the Override grade column (at left), select the checkboxes for the items you wish to grade. You can select individual boxes, or in the column heading, click All to make all grades editable.
Note: Manual grade items do not require this step, all others that have Override grade deselected will be skipped.
At the bottom of the page, below the table, select the Perform bulk insert checkbox.
From the drop-down menu:
To enter the grade only in cells that are blank, select Empty grades.
To enter the grade in all cells, select All grades.
Enter the grade you wish to give in the Insert value field.
Note: All entries must be numeric. This function does not work with grade items graded with scales or letters.
Click Save to save grade changes. A confirmation message will appear. Click Continue to refresh the Single View grading page.
When you return to the Grader report, overridden grade items will be displayed with an orange background and marked “Overridden” to indicate grades have been edited in the gradebook.

Note: If you enter mistaken grades and wish to start over, see Remove Overrides from Grade Items, below.

Working with Multiple Graders

Only one grader (Instructor or TA) can manually enter grades in the gradebook at the same time. Edspora will not allow you to save changes to a gradebook that has been updated by someone else after you opened the page for editing. This is to prevent grading conflicts and unintended overrides if multiple graders use a gradebook at the same time.

To avoid this issue:

Don’t open grading screens in multiple windows on your own computer. For example, don’t turn on editing in the gradebook Grader report in one browser window, while entering grades on the Assignment submission screen, or rating Forum posts in another browser window.
If more than one person will need to manually enter grades in a course gradebook, we recommend you agree on a plan to alert each other when you are entering grades and when you complete a grading session.

Note: More than one grader can safely grade Edspora Assignments at the same time if they work from the Assignment submission page, grade one student at a time, and do not use the Quick grade feature.

About Grade Overrides

Overrides are triggered when you manually edit grades for Edspora activities such as Quizzes, Forums, Assignments, or Category totals in the gradebook. Once saved, these items become highlighted in orange and will display “Overridden” in red text, indicating that the grade is overridden. The override prevents further updates to the grade from outside the gradebook.

Grade overrides occur with several types of gradebook activity:

Editing Category or Course Totals in the Gradebook – If you edit cells in a Calculated column, such as a Category total, the calculated column will be overridden and will not recalculate if grade items within the category are changed.
Manually Grading Edspora Activities from within the Gradebook – If you manually edit grades in the gradebook for an activity such as a Quiz, Assignment, or Forum, grades will be overridden and will no longer automatically update if changed from outside the gradebook (e.g., if a quiz is re-graded or an assignment is graded from the Assignment submission page).
Changing Grades from the Grade Page – To make changes on the Grade page, users must first select the Override grade checkbox. This page also includes a column of Exclude from totals checkboxes.
Importing Grades from a Spreadsheet – If you import grades for a Edspora activity or category from a spreadsheet, the grades will be flagged as overridden and will no longer automatically update if grades are changed from outside the gradebook (e.g., if a Quiz is re-graded, or an Assignment is graded from the Assignment submission page).

In all of these cases, overridden grades can still be changed from the Grader report by further manual editing, but will not change if grades are updated somewhere else in the course.

Note: Grades can also be locked, meaning the value cannot be changed even when editing is turned on in the Grader report. Locks are turned on by editing settings in the gradebook (see below) and are not triggered by editing a single grade.

Reasons to Override or Lock Grades

You no longer want grades to be updated by assignments.
You want to override a grade received on a quiz.
You do not want teaching assistants to change grades after a certain deadline.

Potential Issues When Grades Are Overridden or Locked

Overridden Calculated columns will not automatically update when changes to grade items are made.
If a grade is overridden in the Grader report, you cannot change a grade or edit comments on the activity grading screen unless you disable the override/unlock the grade.

Lock/Unlock a Grade Column

To prevent further changes for an entire column, you can lock that column and preserve the currently displayed grades.

Open the Grader report and click Turn editing on. Grade cells will change to show an entry field and settings icons will appear in the table.
In the Controls row, click Edit immediately below the column heading. The Edit grade item screen will open.
Under Grade Item, select or deselect Locked, then click Save changes. The Grader report will reload reflecting the changes made (e.g., highlight color or edit fields).

Enable/Disable an Override or Lock for a Single Student’s Grade

If you release an override or remove a lock, grades will revert to the value recorded in the activity or, for a calculated column, the calculated value.

Open the Grader report and click Turn editing on.
Click Edit next to the overridden grade. The Edit grade page will open.
Select or deselect the Overridden box and/or the Locked box, then click Save changes. When the Grader report loads the display will change to indicate the state (i.e., previously overridden grades will not be highlighted, or locked grades will not be editable when editing is on).

Note: To release the override for all grades for a grade item, use the Single View tool.

Exclude Grades from Category Calculations

On the Edit grade page, you can exclude grade items from the grade calculations for particular activities. This can be used to excuse a student from a graded activity, or to show students a grade for an activity (e.g., practice quiz, etc.) that will not count towards their final grade.

If a grade is excluded, it will not be part of the aggregation calculation that you have selected for the category. It will also be excluded from any Drop the lowest category settings you have selected. Once saved, these items become highlighted in orange and will display “Excluded” in red text indicating that the grade is excluded.

Note: A grade item that is excluded from a category calculation is also excluded from the Course Total.

Open the Grader report and click Turn editing on.
Click Edit next to the grade you wish to exclude. The Edit grade page will open.
Select Excluded, then click Save changes. When the Grader report loads the excluded grade will be marked.

How To: Assign an Activity to a Group or Grouping in Edspora

Use Groups in Edspora, to assign a particular activity (or all course activities) to groups of students. Groups can be especially useful for activities where students interact with one another. With forums, wikis, and databases, students in the same group can post and reply only to each other. Each group member always works in their own group, but you can control whether or not they can see contributions of members of other groups.

Before you begin, please note that if you are using a Edspora Assignment activity there are two ways to use groups:

Each student in a group submits individually – If you follow the instructions below for an assignment activity, each student will make their own submission(s), and will not be able to interact or see other student’s postings. If you want students to be able to see each other’s work, consider using another activity.
A group of students works together to make a common assignment submission – If you want students in a group to make a common submission that represents their joint work. The group submission will not be visible to other groups. If you want students to be able to see each other’s work, consider using another activity.

Assign an Activity to a Grouping

Groupings are a collection of groups, and you can assign activities to specific groupings as needed.

To assign a specific activity to a grouping, you must first set up the grouping.
On your course page, click Turn editing on (top right).
Add the activity you will assign to groups, or if the activity has already been added to the course, click Edit (at right of activity), then Edit settings. The activity’s Settings page will open.
Click Common module settings to view and adjust group settings for the activity.
In the Group mode drop-down menu, select either Separate groups or Visible groups.
- Visible groups allows non-group members to see the work of other groups
- Separate groups allows only group members to see work within the group
From the Grouping drop-down menu, select the name of the grouping you wish to use.
Click Save and display to save and open the assignment or click Save and return to course to return to your course page.

Use Restrict Access to Assign an Activity to Groups

Restrict access can be used to assign an activity to a particular group without having to use a grouping. For example, you can create an activity for only one section of a multiple-section course, such as an honors or graduate section. You can also use Restrict access to assign an activity to course members who are not in a particular group or grouping, or, by adding multiple restrictions, a mix of Groups or Groupings.

On your course page, click Turn editing on.
Add the activity you will assign to groups, or if the activity has already been added to the course, click Edit (at right of activity), then Edit settings. The activity’s Settings page will open.
Configure the settings for the activity but do not set Common module settings as you normally would when assigning an activity to a grouping.
Under Restrict access, click Add restriction…. The Add restriction… pop-up opens.
In the Add restriction… pop-up, click Group or Grouping. A new restriction will appear on the Settings page and the pop-up will close.
For Access restrictions, from the Student drop-down menu, select whether the student must or must not match the group.
From the Group (or Grouping) drop-down menu, select the name of a group (or grouping).
(Optional) To add an additional restriction, click Add restriction.
Click Save and display to save and open the assignment or click Save and return to course to return to your course page.

How To: Configure a Quiz with Questions Conditional on Other Questions

You can configure a quiz to have questions which are conditional upon another question. This will force a student to answer a question before they can proceed. This mode allows you to include material from the correct answer of a quiz question into another question. For example, if Question 1 asks “What is the first step in turning on your computer?” with the answer being “Press the power button”, Question 2 can ask “After you have pressed the power button, what screen will you see?”

Conditional questions can only be used with Interactive with multiple tries, Immediate Feedback, or Immediate Feedback with CBM and Free Navigation must be enabled.

Questions conditional upon other questions will display as either grayed out or with text indicating they will be unavailable until a previous question is answered. Some question types do not work with conditional options. Those questions will not appear with the option to lock them.

This setting is not recommended for use with randomization of questions within a quiz. Configure your quiz for conditional question dependencies

To configure your quiz for conditional question dependencies you will need to change your Layout and Question behavior on your Edit settings page. To do so,

On your course page, click the link to open the quiz. The Quiz summary page will open.
On the Quiz summary page, select the Actions menu, a drop-down list will open. From this listselect Edit settings. The Editing settings page will open.
Under the Layout heading, click Show more…. This will display extra Layout options.
In the Navigation method drop-down list, select Free.
Under the Question behavior heading, from the How questions behave drop-down list, select either Interactive with multiple tries, Immediate Feedback,or Immediate Feedback with CBM.
Click Save and Display. You will be returned to the Quiz Summary page.

Enable conditional question dependencies

On your course page, click the link to open the quiz. The Quiz summary page will open.
On the Quiz summary page, select the Actions menu. A drop-down list will open. From this list select Edit quiz.
To the left of each question, there is an unlock icon. To add a conditional dependency, click the unlock icon. This will create the conditional dependency. The icon will change to a lock icon.
To check the dependency, hover over the lock icon.
To unlock the question and remove the conditional dependency, click the lock icon. This will remove the conditional dependency. The lock icon will change to an unlocked icon.