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D2L Grades at MSU
Students access their grades under Assessments > Grades and can only view and print grade items; instructors can also access the gradebook from here, and if they do, they will have the same range of options that are available under Edit Course.
Under the Manage Grades tab, instructors can create new grade items and new categories, and they can reorder and delete items already created. They can also edit each grade item and view statistics and event information for each item.
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Do I enter scores from the tool or in gradebook?
You can enter or update a grade from either the Grades tool or the assessment tool. However, changes made in the Grades tool are not updated in the associated tool. Changes made in the tools are passed to the gradebook.
You can associate quizzes, submission folders, and discussions with grade items and grade them directly from the Quizzes, Assignments, and Discussions tools. You can create the grade item as you set up a quiz, dropbox folder, and discussion topic.
If the scores are not recorded in the Gradebook they cannot be used to generate a Final Calculated Grade and cannot be uploaded from D2L to the Registrar’s office
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D2L Commands and Terminology
Bulk Edit
To make multiple edits, select items (or select all) and click Bulk Edit. This is a great feature to check all values and for entering short names, which will make your spreadsheet view more compact. Students never see the short names. They view the long grade item names in a vertical grades list.
Connect and Assess Activities
To connect activities to the gradebook (e.g., Discussion, Assignment, Quiz), use the Grade Item drop-down menu in the activity’s settings. Select Assess Topic to grade a Discussion, Grade for Quiz attempts, and Evaluate to assess Assignment submissions. You can also click the activity icons in the Standard View of the Enter Grades screen. Check the Publish box when present to transfer scores to the gradebook. To delete the gradebook item, you will have to go to the activity settings and remove the association (i.e., select none or the option at the top of grade item).
Create Schemes
Select Schemes and click on New Scheme to create a new grading scale. Reduce each minimum percent by 0.5 if you would like to allow for rounding. Once created, copy to any section by using More Actions > Copy (start in the section you want to copy to). Edit the Final Calculated Grade to display the scheme.
Enter Grades
Select Enter Grades from the top menu, to enter scores by grade item (use the pull-down menu), or by student (click on a name).
Select Switch to Spreadsheet View to enter grades across all item.
Use short titles to minimize column widths, and use More Actions > Hide/Show Columns to customize your view. Hide/Show Columns does not affect the student’s view. Sometimes you can show more users per page if you show fewer items at a time.
Click on Last Name to sort by name. Click on a column heading to sort lowest to highest and vice versa. This is a fast way to find blank cells and enter zeros while in spreadsheet view. For large courses, use the search options from the item's Enter Grades view and set criteria to equal empty (leave field blank) and click the magnifying glass above to sort. Then select all and use the Set Grades option to enter zeros for all selected.
Export Grades
From Enter Grades, click on Export then select Both, Last Name, First Name, and Export to CSV. For a shorter printout of grades, do not select Grade Scheme, which adds an extra column for every item displaying the scheme for each (usually percentage earned).
You may select Export to CSV (comma separated value) or Export to Excel. Either file will open in Excel. The CSV file is preferred if you plan to make changes offline that can be imported back to Grades. Finally, click on the link in the pop-up window to save the file to your computer.
Manage Grades
Select Manage Grades to create New > Categories and Items. For Items, choose Numeric to assign points (this is used in most cases). Use the pull-down menu next to the category or item title to edit, grade, or view statistics.
Release the Final Grade
By default, the overall grade is not displayed to students until you release them (individual grades are displayed privately for each user but not the final grade). To display the final grade, use the pull-down menu next to Final Calculated Grade and select Enter Grades. Then use the pull-down by Final Grades at the top of the page and select Release All. An open eye icon will appear next to grades to indicate that students can see their final grade at the top of their grades list. This setting does not copy and needs to be repeated each time a course is offered.
Switch Between Calculated and Adjusted Final Grade
You can only release the Calculated Final Grade or the Adjusted Final Grade, not both
To release the Calculated Final Grade: Go to Settings and then Calculation Options to make certain you are releasing the Calculated Final Grade.
To release an Adjusted Final Grade: Go to Settings and then Calculated Options to make certain you are releasing the Adjusted Final Grade. Then use the pull-down by Final Grades to select Transfer All. Make desired grade adjustments and select Release All to release the adjusted grades.
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