Edit Calculations For A Single Course

Grade Book calculations are used to control how the grade book calculates semester and final grades. If your school configured calculations before creating grade books, those calculations were passed on to each grade book. Calculations are set up by department or for all departments at once. When a grade book is created, the program adds the appropriate courses to the grade book from scheduling. As the courses are added the program checks the department to which the course belongs and then appends the appropriate calculation.

If you do not have Scheduling, then calculations are added as you add courses directly to the grade book, based on the department associated with the selected course.

Each course in the grade book has a separate calculation associated with it that can be edited. For example, if the course is a Semester 1 course the user may chose to edit the calculations so that no Semester 2 information is used.

You may also choose to Use Total Points, thereby ignoring weights given to assignments. You must do a Recalculate on the desktop if you make this change.

Note: If your school did not set up default calculations your calculations window will not have any information.

Note: Grades are not recalculated immediately when changes are made to calculations. To recalculate, go to Administration-Grade Book-Configure Course Information, select the course and click the Recalculate button at the bottom of the window.

Steps

1. Click on the AdministrationMenu and select Teacher Desk. 
2. If you are an administrator, click on the arrow in the Teacher field and select the teacher whose grade book you wish to access. If you are a teacher, your name should be displayed in the Teacher field and your courses will be listed.
3. Click once to highlight the course for which you are editing calculations.
4. Click the Calculations button on the left of the window to display the Grade Book Calculations By Course window.

Note: You do not have to use all of the calculations. You can do Semester 1 only or Semester 2 only or Final Grade only or any combination.

5. To enter or modify a calculation for Semester 1: click on the Semester 1 check box to mark it with a checkmark.
6. Click the Edit button to display the Semester 1 Calculation window.
7. In the Grade column click the arrow in the drop-down list to select the grades to be included in this calculation. You can select one of the following: Term Averages, Midterm Exam, Final Exam and/or Custom Exam.

Note: If you are a four term school Term Averages would be the Term 1 and Term 2 grades. If you are a 6 term school, Term Averages would be the Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3 grades.

8. Once you have selected an option, such as Term Averages, click in the % field and indicate the percentage of the semester grade that will be represented by the selected grade. For example, you might put 80 percent of the grade is Term Averages and on the next line put 20 percent of the grade is Midterm Exam.
9. Continue adding items in the Grade and Percent columns until you have included all of the items that are appropriate. You do not have to use all of the grade types for this calculation.
10. To enter or modify a calculation for Semester 2: click on the Semester 2 check box to mark it with a checkmark.
11. Click the Edit button to display the Semester 2 Calculation window.
12. In the Grade column click the arrow in the drop-down list to select the grades to be included in this calculation. You can select one of the following: Term Averages, Midterm Exam, Final Exam and/or Custom Exam.

Note: If you are a four term school Term Averages would be the Term 3 and Term 4 grades. If you are a 6 term school, Term Averages would be the Term 4, Term 5 and Term 6 grades.

13. Once you have selected an option, such as Term Averages, click in the % field and indicate the percentage of the semester grade that will be represented by the selected grade. For example, you might put 80 percent of the grade is Term Averages and on the next line put 20 percent of the grade is Midterm Exam.
14. Continue adding items in the Grade and Percent columns until you have included all of the items that are appropriate. You do not have to use all of the grade types for this calculation.
15. To enter a calculation for Final Grade: click on the Final Grade check box to mark it with a checkmark.
16. Click the Edit button to display the Final Grade Calculation window.
17. In the Grade column click the arrow in the drop-down list to select the grades to be included in this calculation. You can select one of the following: Term Averages, Semester 1 Average, Semester 2 Average, Midterm Exam, Final Exam and/or Custom Exam.
18. Once you have selected an option, such as Term Averages, click in the % field and indicate the percentage of the semester grade that will be represented by the selected grade. For example, you might put 80 percent of the grade is Term Averages and on the next line put 20 percent of the grade is Midterm Exam.
19. Continue adding items in the Grade and Percent columns until you have included all of the items that are appropriate. You do not have to use all of the grade types for this calculation.

Note: We do not recommend using the same items in two calculations. For example, if you use Mid-term exam in the Semester 1 calculation, you should not use it in the Semester 2 calculation.

20. Click the Use Total Points box if you would like to have the calculation ignore weights that have been given to assignment types.
21. Once you have set up one or more calculations, click OK on the calculations window to save.

See Also

Configure Course Information