Welcome back, faculty!  It’s a new year and a new semester.  Most likely you have a host of experiences and interactions planned for your students and you can’t wait to get started.  The last thing you want to think about is the set up of your grade book.  But if you want to avoid the headaches of grade book reconfiguration at the end of the semester, we suggest getting that sucker set up before you grade anything.  Believe us, we’ve seen enough grade books go radically wrong with end of semester wrangling.

The Gradebook can be set up as a weighted grade book, points grade book, or formula grade book.

• Weighted – Use this if the final grade in your course is based on graded assignments that are each identified as a percent of the final grade.
• Points – Use this if the final grade in your course is based on a totaling of points.
• Formula – Use this if the weighted or points system can’t accommodate your specialized system.

Note:  Both the weighted and points based grade books can easily handle extra credit assignments as well as dropping items from categories.

On to the topic at hand… How do you set up the grade book?  Well here you go…but before you read on, just know that if at any point this feels overwhelming or you would just feel better setting up your grade book with an instructional designer sitting nearby, feel free to drop by the Center for Instructional Innovation in Library South, Room 106.  But for those of you who prefer to go it alone, here’s some help to get you started.

Setting Up Your Gradebook

If you are unfamiliar with the D2L gradebook, we recommend that you first review the following help topics.

• Understanding the Grade Book
• Selecting a Grading System
• Selecting a Grade Scheme

Once you know which grading system you will select you will next complete basic setup of your gradebook using the Grades Setup Wizard.

• Grades Setup Wizard

The last step is to create the columns in the gradebook where you will enter student scores.  These are called Grade Items.  The most commonly used grade item is the numeric grade item.  You may also need one or more Grade Categories.  Grade categories are used to group similar grade items.  They help organize the gradebook and allow you to drop the lowest or highest grades from a category.

• Understanding Grade Items
• Creating Grade Categories
• Creating Numeric Grade Items

For additional support using the gradebook to enter grades, create bonus items, and more, please view the Grades page in our help section.

If you need any additional help, please contact the the Help Center at 404-413-4357 or help@gsu.edu.