Grades: Creating Grade Categories

1. Access the Gradebook and click Manage Grades in the main menu.

2. Click New Category in the toolbar.

3. Select General settings:

Type a Name for the grade category (e.g., Quizzes, Papers, Exams, Assignments, etc.)
Type a Short Name to make the columns thinner when you yourself view your gradebook(e.g., Qz, Pprs, Exm, etc.).
Enter a Description for this category (e.g., copy the description of the category from your syllabus).
Choose Statistics options, as listed below. By default, both options are enabled. If you DO NOT wish to have students see these statistics, you must uncheck each box.

- Display class average for this category to everyone will show everyone a graphical representation of the class average.
- Display grade distribution for this category to everyone will show users a grade distribution graph.

4. Select Grading settings. Depending on whether you chose a Points or Weighted system, different options appear.

You may choose to distribute the weight (in the Weighted system) or points (in the Points or Formula system) evenly across a category or to drop* a prescribed number of the lowest-graded or highest-graded items. (*Items can only be dropped if they belong to a category and if the points/weights are distributed evenly within the category (see Dropping the Lowest Item in a Category for details.)

If bonus items appear in the category, check the box to allow the category grade to exceed the category weight. Otherwise, bonus points will only apply to items within the same category.

5. Click Save, or click Save and New to start another grade item. Click Grades List to return to the Manage Grades main screen. See Creating Grade Items to continue.

After a grade category has been saved, you can use the Restrictions tab to hide it or make it visible only for a specified date range. Release conditions can also be applied. See Release Conditions: Basic for details.