Figure 6.60: Gradebook Setup

Figure 6.61: Assignment Weights

After selecting a course, select Gradebook followed by Gradebook Setup to access the setup page. Gradebook Setup can also be found by selecting Course Administration followed by Course Summary.

For each of the grading assignment categories, a category weight percentage can be assigned (Fig. 6.60). To include that category in the Gradebook, you must set this percentage greater than 0. The total percentage weight of all categories combined must equal 100%, or an error message will display when attempting to save the Gradebook Setup page.

Assignment Weights

The assignments within each Gradebook category can also have different weights. The weight of each individual assignment can be assigned by clicking on the Edit link found below the category name. When you are entering the weight for each assignment, there is a toggle link to Show or Hide the details of the weight of each assignment. These details include the percent value of each assignment within the category and the percent value as a component of the total grade (Fig. 6.61).

Dropping Low Scores

On the assignment weighting page there is a drop-down menu that allows the instructor to specify how many (if any) of the lowest scores will be dropped from the gradebook (Fig. 6.61). Only regular (non-extra credit and non-zero weight) assignments can be dropped. Suppose that 10 ALEKS Quizzes have been set up for the term and the 2 lowest quiz scores have been set to be dropped. ALEKS will not drop any scores until the 9th Quiz has been completed by the students. At that time, the lowest of the 9 scores is determined, and it is dropped when ALEKS computes the overall score for the Quiz category in the Gradebook. When the 10th Quiz has been completed by the students, the 2 lowest of the 10 scores are determined, and they are dropped when ALEKS computes the overall score for the Quiz category in the Gradebook. ALEKS recommends that you wait until the end of the course to drop the lowest score(s).

Extra Credit

Also on the assignment weighting page, there is a check box that can be used to designate the assignment as extra credit (Fig. 6.61). Students who do not complete the extra credit assignment will not be penalized. (Students who do complete the assignment can only improve, never hurt, their grades.) Extra credit assignments are differentiated from regular assignments in the gradebook by a + next to the score.

NOTE. In ALEKS, assignments not assigned to the entire course are automatically flagged as Extra Credit. This ensures that the assignment to only some students will not hurt the grades of other students.

Assessments

In the Gradebook, assessments refer only to Scheduled Assessments; results from other assessments cannot be used in the Gradebook (Sec. 4.3).

Each Scheduled Assessment in the course can be assigned a goal percentage. The Goal is the percentage of the course that grades on the assessment are based on. For example, midway through the course, the goal for an assessment might be set at 50%. Then, a student who assessed as knowing 40% of the entire course would get a score of 80% on the assessment. (Meeting or exceeding the goal percentage gives a score of 100% for the assessment.)

Disable Gradebook

The Gradebook can be disabled by clicking Disable the Gradebook for this Course on the Gradebook Setup page. Disabling the Gradebook for the course will hide the course Gradebook from you and the students in the course. The Gradebook can be reactivated at any time by clicking on the link Enable the Gradebook for this course link.

Total Grade Display Settings

By default, the option Show total grades to students will be selected in this section of the Gradebook setup. If desired, you can elect to hide the total grades from students by selecting Hide total grades from students.