Grades: Creating Grade Items
Show me Creating Grade Items.
1. Access the Gradebook and click 
Manage Grades in the main menu.
2. Click 
New Item in the toolbar.
3. Choose a Grade Item Type. There are six types, and later options are related to the type you choose. Grade item types are:
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Numeric - Each student receives a number value (e.g., 8 out of 10 points). Numeric grade items are the easiest to set up.
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Pass/Fail - Students either get the full point value or none at all (e.g., a pass/fail item). To use this type, you must first create a corresponding Grading Scheme.
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Selectbox - Grade ranges are selected from a drop-down list based on a Grading Scheme you create (e.g., "poor" = 0 -60%, "good" = 61 - 80%, and "great" = 81 - 100%). To use this type, you must first create a corresponding Grading Scheme.
When using the selectbox type, students typically receive the maximum number of points for the range. For example, a student who receives a "poor" grade will get 60/100 points. However, if you put in only the beginning number for a range when you create the scheme (e.g., poor = 0, good = 61, great = 81), the student gets the minimum number of points for the range.
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Text - Students receive text comments only; these items can't be used in grade calculations.
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Calculated - Informative only, such as an interim grade after a major exam; these items can't be used in grade calculations.
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Formula - Allows you to build formulas from grade items. A formula item can only be used in the final grade if you are using the Formula Grading System. In the Points and Weighted systems, a Formula item can only be used for informative purposes.
Formula grade items cannot belong to a grade category. Also, you must create the grade items to include in the formula before creating a formula grade item. Only numeric, checkbox, selectbox or formula type grade items can be used to create formulas.
Grade items that are numeric, pass/fail, or selectbox can be bonus items. Bonus items have a grade and students can elect to complete them or not without penalty. All grade types except text can allow extra points. Extra points mean that additional points are offered in an existing assignment or exam.
4. Select General settings:
- Type a Name for the Grade Item (e.g., Quiz1).
- Type a Short Name to make the columns thinner when you view this page (e.g., Q1).
Grade item types can't be changed after they are set. As a work-around, you can create an item of the correct type, re-record student data in the new item, and then delete the incorrect item. To delete, Access the Gradebook and click 
Delete in the toolbar. Then, select the item to delete and click Delete Selected.
5. Set properties for the grade item. Properties include:
- General
- Choose an existing Parent Category in which to group this grade item, add a new parent category, or leave this grade item uncategorized. (See Creating Grade Categories for information about Parent Categories.)
- Description (Optional) (This section does not apply to calculated or formula items.)
- Allow this description to be seen by students will show the description for a grade item.
- Fill in a description of the item (e.g., copy the description of the grade item from your syllabus.
- Grading (This section does not apply to text items.)
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- Enter how many points are available for this item. If applicable, enter how the item will be weighted.
- Points: Allow grade to exceed points will allow for extra credit points in a grade item. All grade types except text can allow extra points.
- Bonus: This item is a bonusitem creates an optional assignment for which a grade can be assigned. Grade items that are numeric, pass/fail, or selectbox types can be bonus items. For weighted gradebooks, the weight should be how much the bonus item will count if the student does it. In other words, bonus items means the total weight will be more than 100.
- Restrictions (This section does not apply to text, calculated, or formula items.)
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- Allow this item to be seen by students will show a grade item in the student view of gradebook. If you do NOT wish students to see the grade item, you must uncheck this box.
- Set a Start Date/End Date to set when students can begin and end viewing a grade item.
- Calculation (This section applies to Formula items only.)
- Grade Scheme
- Choose your grade scheme if you don't want to use your default grade scheme for this item.
It is not mandatory that you choose a specific grade scheme for EACH grade item - here you have the option of overriding whatever you previously set as your default grade scheme, if needed, for a particular grade item.
- Display Options
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- Override default display options for this Grade Item allows you to alter for this item the default display options for grade colours, points grade, and percent. (For text items, choose the number of characters to show in the gradebook.)
- Statistics (Both are checked by default. If you do NOT wish to show statistics, you must uncheck these options.)
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- 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.
- Choose Grade Items to Include (This section applies to Calculated items only.)
- Check the box next to each grade category or item to include in calculating the grade. Remember that calculated grade items are for information purposes only and cannot be used in additional grade calculations.
From the Properties page, you can also set Release Conditions opening the Restrictions tab and revealing the Release Conditions. There, you can specify requirements that must be satisfied before students can view a particular grade item (e.g., they must submit an assignment to a certain dropbox folder before they can view a grade item). However, you can only add release conditions to individual grade items, not to entire grade categories or final grades. Click Create and Attach to add a new release condition. See About Release Conditions for details.
5. Click Save when done or click
Save & New to create another grade item.
