Finalize in Brightspace

You can export Brightspace grades to work on them offline and them import them again. 

Helpful Tips!

1. We recommend having your grade items created in Brightspace BEFORE you export your grades, instead of manually creating the grade items in a spreadsheet. When grade items are created in a spreadsheet, they have to be manually formatted in a very particular way in order for them to be successfully uploaded to Grades. Creating grade items beforehand will allow them to be formatted correctly when exported. 

2. It is not currently recommended to select "Export To Excel" when exporting.  Instead it is recommended that you select "Export to CSV". 

If a file is exported using the "Export To Excel" option, then a user will receive an error notice when they are attempting to import the file into Grades. 

Instructors can work in Brightspace on a supported mobile web browser (i.e., updated Safari on iOS; updated Chrome on Android) and can even markup assignments using a stylus.

To view a list of file types that support inline annotation grading, see File types supported by Annotations

For Brightspace courses that have multiple sections merged into one course, you can grade (and view the roster/ class list) by section within the merged course (similar to how Smart Views worked in Blackboard).

If you want to delete items from your Grades, perhaps because you imported content-including grades-to your Brightspace course, use these steps to do so. Note: Before deleting a grade item associate with a quiz, assignment, or discussion, you must first disassociate it.

Video Demo

Deleting a Grade Item

Before deleting any grade items, be sure to verify that this is the correct option for you. Deleting items includes deleting all associated grades, removal from calculations, and removal from other tool associations. Consider hiding the items instead. If you have decided that you would like to delete, be sure that you have selected the intended grade items and that there are no associated grades that are needed.

To delete a Grade Item from your Grade Book, follow these steps:

1. In your Grade Book, go to the Manage Grades tab
2. Choose More Actions
3. Select Delete
   
4. Choose the grade items you wish to remove
5. Click the Delete button
   

Disassociating a Grade Item

If you are unable to select a Grade Item to delete from the Grade Book, it is most likely because the Grade Item is associated with a Discussion, Assignment, or Exam/Quiz. In the Association column in the Manage Grades tab, you will see which association the Grade Item has. 

Once you have disassociated the Grade Item from the Discussions, Assignments, or Exam/Quizzes tools, they can be deleted using the instructions above. 

Disassociating an Assignment

To disassociate an Assignment, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Assignments tab from the Navbar or the Course Admin menu
2. Select the downward facing arrow next to the assignment you wish to disassociate
3. Click Edit Assignment
   
4. Choose the drop down option that says In Grade Book
5. Select Not in Grade Book
6. To finish, choose the Save and Close button
   

Disassociating a Discussion

To disassociate a Discussion, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Discussions tab from the Navbar or the Course Admin menu
2. Select the downward facing arrow next to the discussion topic you wish to disassociate
3. Choose Edit Topic
   
4. Choose the drop down option that says In Grade Book
5. Select Not in Grade Book
6. To finish, choose the Save and Close button
   

Disassociating an Exam/Quiz

1. Go to the Exams/Quizzes tab from the Navbar or the Course Admin menu
2. Select the downward facing arrow next to the exam/quiz you wish to disassociate
3. Choose Edit
   
4. Choose the drop down option that says In Grade Book
5. Select Not in Grade Book
6. To finish, choose the Save and Close button
   

If you would like to exempt specific students on grade items so that it does not affect their final grade calculation, follow the steps below:

In this example, I'll allow one of my students to be exempted from the final exam. 

1. Go to the Grades tool, and select Enter Grades

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2. Find the grade item you wish to exempt a student from, and select the arrow next to it
3. Choose Enter Grades

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4. Select the checkboxes next to the students who you wish to exempt
5. Above the table, choose exempt, once you do this, the word "Exempt" will appear in the Scheme column
6. Select Save and Close

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Unexempting Students

If you accidentally exempted a student who shouldn't be exempted, you can unexempt them using these steps:

1. Select the arrow next to the grade item that you want to unexempt a student from
2. Select Enter Grades

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3. Select the student you wish to unexempt
4. Choose Unexempt
5. Select Save and Close

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To find grades for students who were removed from your course in Brightspace, follow these steps:

1. Access your Classlist
   
2. Click "Enrollment Statistics"
   
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the Withdrawals section
4. Click the downward facing arrow next to the name of the student you wish to view
5. Click "View Grades"
   
6. Then you can see final grade information, and information of individual grade items
   

This article will show you how to grade your student's assignments via the Assignment tab in the Navbar. If you would like to learn how to grade via the Quick Eval tool, check out our these slides. 

1. Go to the Assignment Menu of your course
2. Click on the Assignment Name
   
3. Once you are here, you can view your student's submissions. To view their submission, click on either:

• The student's name
• The student's file submission
• The evaluate button next to the student's name
  

4. On the left of the screen, you can view the student's submission by clicking on the name of their paper. For a file submission, you will have access to leave annotation feedback. Check out this article to learn more on leaving inline annotation feedback.
   
   
5. On the right of the screen, you can enter an Overall Grade, type Overall Feedback, and Include Attachments to the feedback.
6. Once you are finished, you can either Publish your evaluation, or Save it as a Draft.
7. When you are ready to move on to the next student, you can click the arrow on the top right of the screen.
   

In Brightspace, you can make any grade item worth extra credit by turning it into a bonus grade item using the steps below:

1. Go to the Manage Grades tab of your Gradebook
2. Select the arrow next to the grade item you wish to turn into a bonus item, and select Edit

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3. Select the checkbox that says Bonus

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4. Choose Save and Close to finish

When creating bonus grade items, there are some important things to consider:

Weighted Gradebooks

• My bonus items are going in a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?
• Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the highest possible score in the category?
• My bonus item is outside a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?
• Can I allow my students to achieve a score for their final grade that is higher than 100%?

Points Gradebooks

• How many points should my bonus item be worth? Does it matter that the bonus item is in a category?
• Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the max amount of points for the course?

Weighted Gradebooks

My bonus items are going in a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?

For weighted gradebooks, if you place a bonus grade item in a category, then students who complete the bonus item will have their score go towards the overall category's weight. However, you still need to determine how much this bonus grade item will assist by assigning a weight for the bonus grade item itself. 

In this example, I have a discussion category worth 15% of my final grade. Within this category I have five discussions, each with a weight of 20 (meaning 20% of the category).

If I add a bonus grade item to the category, I can decide how much this grade item will assist students by adjusting it's weight. For example, if I gave the bonus grade item a weight of 20, then it would be equal in weight to all of the other discussions within the category. So if a student did not complete one of the discussions and received a score of 0, they could still complete the bonus grade item, which would make up for their missing work without penalizing their overall score for the category. 

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This is just one example of assigning a bonus item to a category in a weighted gradebook. When deciding the weight of a bonus grade item, make sure to take the weight of the other grade items in the category into consideration. This will assist in determining how much the bonus grade item will effect the students grade for the category. 

Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the highest possible score in the category?

Bonus grade items can assist students by giving them an opportunity to make up for lower scores on grade items, or missing work which resulted in a score of 0. However, some instructors may consider allowing students to complete bonus grade items, even if they already achieved higher scores. If you are considering this, you may run into the possibility of your students scoring higher than the max amount set for a category or final grade.

If you wish to allow for your students to exceed the max score for a category, follow these steps:

1. Edit the category
2. Select Allow category grade to exceed category weight

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3. Select Save and Close to finish

My bonus item is outside a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?

If you have a bonus grade item outside of a category, and a student completes it, then the score will go towards the final overall grade for the course. But how much should that bonus grade item be worth? 

The answer depends on the purpose of the bonus grade item. For example, are you are creating a bonus item to make up for low scores on a particular grade item? If so, then you should take into consideration the weight of the grade item with low scores. In this example, multiple students did not do well on a midterm that was worth 15% of their final grade. 

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If I want to create a bonus item in the gradebook to make up for this low score, I would have to take the 15% the midterm was worth towards the final grade into consideration to determine the weight of the bonus item and how it can assist students. For example, I can make the weight of the bonus item 3%, which would give students an opportunity to make up 1/5 of the original weight of the midterm. 

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If your bonus item is not making up for scores on a particular grade item, and you just wish to give students an opportunity to increase their final overall grade, then choose the weight based on how much you would like to increase their final score by. For example, you could set the weight to the bonus item to 2 so they could make up 2% towards their final overall grade. 

Can I allow my students to achieve a score for their final grade that is higher than 100%?

If a student who is already achieving high marks in your gradebook completes bonus items, it is possible for them to receive a score higher than 100% for their final grade. In order to allow this, you would complete these steps:

1. Edit the final grade column

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2. Under Grading, select the Can Exceed checkbox

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3. Select Save and Close

Points Gradebooks

How many points should my bonus item be worth? Does it matter that the bonus item is in a category?

A bonus item in a points style gradebook can be worth any amount the instructor wishes. Points style gradebooks do not separate points by category. So any bonus items within a category will go directly towards the final overall grade of the course. Please note however that if a bonus item is in a category, and you wish for students to achieve a score higher than the max amount of points of other items in the category, you must follow these steps:

1. Edit the category

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2. Under Grading select Can Exceed

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3. Select Save and Close

Otherwise, the bonus points will not apply to the final grade.

Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the max amount of points for the course?

To allow students to achieve a score higher than the max amount of points for the final grade, follow these steps:

1. Edit the final grade column

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2. Under Grading, select the Can Exceed checkbox

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3. Select Save and Close

Checklist:

• Check Weighted Grade Items and Categories
• Verify All Grades Are Entered
• Create and Apply a Grade Scheme
• Make Grade Scheme Symbol Visible to Students
• Verify Your Final Grade Release Settings
  • Enter Grades in the Final Adjusted Grade Column
• Release Final Grades in Brightspace

Check Weighted Grade Items and Categories

For those using a Weighted Gradebook, are your grade items and categories each reflecting the correct weight? If you are receiving messages like below, you will have to make adjustments for your course to equal 100%.

For more information on how to setup the weighting of your grade items and categories, please view this article. 

Verify All Grades Are Entered

Check your gradebook to verify that all grades have been entered correctly before importing final grades to Solar. 

Create and Apply a Grade Scheme

Have you applied a letter grade scheme for your course? This allows you to apply a letter grade automatically for students who achieved a score within a specific range that instructors can set manually. To create a scheme, please read the instructions in this article.

After your scheme is completed, please make sure it is applied to either the Final Calculated Grade or Final Adjusted Grade column of your gradebook (please verify which column you are using in the step below). Whichever column is enabled is where the results are pulled from to go into Solar. The scheme can be applied to either column by selecting the arrow next to it and choosing Edit.

Then for the Grade Scheme, choose the scheme that you created and save your changes. 

Make Grade Scheme Symbol Visible to Students

In your Gradebook settings, go to Org Unit Display Options and verify in the Grade Details section that Grade Scheme Symbol is enabled. If this is not enabled, students will not be able to see their letter grade in Brightspace and the import of grades into Solar will not work. 

Verify Your Final Grade Release Settings

In Brightspace, there are two final grade columns, Final Calculated Grade and Final Adjusted Grade. While both columns will appear to instructors in the gradebook, only one can be enabled to be released to students. Whichever column is enabled will also be where Solar pulls the final grade from. To see which column is enabled, look for an eye icon (this icon means the grade is released to students) or an eye icon with a slash through it (this icon means the grade is not released to students) under each column. If either icon is present under a column, that is where the final grades will be pulled from. 

If the wrong column is enabled, you can adjust this setting by using the setup wizard (Instructions on how to use the setup wizard can be found in this article), or by going into the calculation options section of your gradebook settings.

Enter Grades in the Final Adjusted Grade Column

If the Final Adjusted Grade column is enabled, you will need to manually enter grades in the column using the instructions provided for either of the options below:

Option 1 (Transfer and Adjust Grades in Brightspace)

1. Select the header titled Final Grades and select Transfer All.
   
2. This will move all the student's grades from the Final Calculated Column to the Final Adjusted Column. If you would like to override grades for specific students, please type the grade you wish to give them in the Final Adjusted Column. 
   
3. Once the grades are ready, make sure to save what you entered. If you wish for these grades to be visible, you can release the grades. 
   

Option 2 (Export and Enter Final Grades):

For larger class sizes, it's recommended to enter the final adjusted grade, by exporting your gradebook into a .csv file.

1. Export your grades into a .csv file
2. In the exported .csv file, copy the grades from the final calculated grade column and paste them into the final adjusted grade column. (If necessary, you can type in a different grade in the column for students who you wish to provide extra points to.)
3. When all grades have been entered in the .csv, you can import the .csv file back into your gradebook.

Release Final Grades in Brightspace

If you would like for your students to see their final grade in Brightspace before being made available in Solar, you can do so by following the steps in this article. 

Use the Preview option to see exactly how a student sees his/her grades. (If a grade is missing in the student grade preview, check the Grade Item to see if it has a restriction.)

Video Demo

1. In Brightspace, click the course selector near the top center and select the course
2. Once in the course, in the Navbar select Grades
3. Near the top left, select Enter Grades
4. Scroll down (or use the View By or search tools) to find the student whose grades you want to preview grades for and select the dropdown next to the student's name and select Preview
   
5. The student's grade preview will open in a new window. Scroll down to view all the grades and select Close when done.
   

You need to manually link a Brightspace Exam / Quiz to Grades either by linking it to an existing grade item or by creating a new one.

You can tell if a quiz is linked to grades directly from Exams / Quizzes. You can also tell if a Grade Item is linked to a quiz from Grades.

If you would like to learn how to publish your students' exam/quiz attempts, check out this article.

Link an Exam / Quiz to a Grade Item

Creating a Grade Item 

1. When creating or editing your exam/quiz, find the Grade Out Of area
2. Select the Not in Grade Book button and choose Edit or Link to Existing (You can also choose Add to Grade Book, however if you do this, it will add the exam/quiz to Grades uncategorized)
   
3. If you would like to add your grade item to a category, select the Choose Grade Category button
   
4. Select the Category from the drop down selector
   
5. Select OK
6. Type the amount of points this will be graded out of in the Grade Out Of area
   
7. Select Save and Close

Linking to an Existing Grade Item 

1. When creating or editing your exam/quiz, find the Grade Out Of area
2. Select the Not in Grade Book button and choose Edit or Link to Existing
   
3. Select the option labeled Link to an existing grade item
4. In the drop down selector, choose the grade item to link this to
   
5. Select OK
6. By default, the amount of points the grade item was originally worth will populate in the Grade Out Of field, this can be overridden
   
7. Select Save and Close

How To Know if a Quiz is Linked to Grades (from the Exam / Quizzes tool)

1. Back in the list of Exams / Quizzes, you'll know a quiz is linked to Grades when it shows a ribbon next to the name
    
2. If you see the linked to grade item ribbon but the results still don't show up in Grades, make sure to check ☑︎ ​​​​Automatically update evaluations in grade book when published in the Assessment tab

How To Know if a Grade Item is Linked to/Associated with a Quiz (from Grades)

1. In Grades, you'll know a grade item is linked to an Exam / Quiz from the Association column: Any grade item linked to an Exam / Quiz will show Quizzes ? in the Association column. Click the ? to see which quiz the grade item is linked to:
   

By default, the Brightspace Enter Grades view for instructors shows 20 students. To show more students, at the bottom select to show up to 200 per page. 

If the course has a lot of grade items/columns, you might not be able to show more per page. Instead, you can hide some grade items/categories (columns), which may allow you to show more students per page (Brightspace can only show so many "cells" in Enter Grades, so if your course has a lot of displayed grade items/columns, you might not be able to show more students per page).

Select to see up to 200 students per page in Enter Grades

1. Sign into your Brightspace course as an instructor
2. Near the top, select Grades and then Enter Grades
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and near the left select the 20 per page dropdown and select to show 50, 100, or 200 per page
    
4. If you don't have the option select more per page, there are likely many grade items/categories or "columns" showing on the page. Collapse or hide columns to be able to show more per page:

Collapse or Hide Grade Item/Category Columns to be able to show more per page

Brightspace can only show so many Grade Objects (i.e., grade items and categories) on the screen in Enter Grades, so if your course has a lot of displayed grade items/columns, you might not be able to show more students per page. You can either collapse grade category columns or hide some grade items/categories to be able to show more students per page:

1. Collapse Category columns:
   1. If your Grades use Categories, you can collapse category columns by selecting the category - minus button at the top (e.g., - Quizzes will collapse quizzes and only show the Quizzes subtotal column)
      
   2. If you collapse a column, you will only see the Subtotal column for that category. Click + to expand the category again
      
2. Hide grade items/categories:
   1. You can temporarily hide grade items/categories. In Enter Grades, select More Actions and then Hide/Show Columns
   2. Check and uncheck the boxes for the columns you want to show and hide. Click Save
      
   3. When you have hidden grade items/categories in the Enter Grades view, the top will show a Note indicating there are hidden columns: Some grade items/categories are not displayed, click More Actions - Hide/Show Columns to change which items are visible.
      
   4. Once you've hidden some columns, try selecting to see more students per page 

A grade scheme enables you to organize learners performance on grade items into levels of achievement. For example, you can apply a scheme to show letter grades on all, or individual grade items.

To learn how to create a scheme, please view these slides. Or, you can watch this video:

When an instructor creates assignments, discussions, quizzes/exams in Brightspace, they don't automatically appear in grades; the instructor has to link them. See these links for how to link each type of gradable activity to grades:

Linking a Brightspace Assignment to Grades

Linking a Brightspace Discussion Topic to Grades

Linking a Brightspace Exam / Quiz to Grades

Even if an Assignment, Exam / Quiz, or Discussion grade is published and linked to Grades, students won't always see a grade if the Grade Item has a Restriction.

As an instructor, you'll know a Grade Item has a restriction if, in Manage Grades, you see a stopwatch icon or hidden icon next to the Grade item OR in in the Grade Item's Restrictions, the Grade Item shows ☑︎ Hide from Users,  ☑︎ Has Start Date, or  ☑︎ Has End Date.

Tip: For how to release final grades, see Releasing Final Grades in Brightspace

Remove or Add Restrictions on Grade Items

Use restrictions (e.g., Hide or apply a start/end date) on Grade Items if you want to restrict when/if students can see that Grade Item in Grades. Alternatively, remove restrictions so that students can see the grade item without restriction.

1. In Brightspace, *click the course selector near the top center and select the course 
   *only Instructors and Graduate TAs can add/remove grade item restrictions
2. Once in the course, in the Navbar click Grades
3. Near the top left, click Manage Grades
4. Click the dropdown ⌄ next to the Grade Item you want to change and select Edit
   
5. Near the top, click the Restrictions tab
6. To hide/show the Grade Item from students, check or uncheck Hide from Users
7. To make the Grade Item visible to students only after or before a certain date, select Has Start Date and/or Has End Date and enter a time and time
8. Optionally, if you add a start and/or end date, select the box for Display In Calendar
   Note: If you also display the dates for Assignment, Exam/Quiz, or Discussion in Calendar, also displaying in calendar the date for the grade item could be confusing
9. Optionally, for Release Conditions, Attach Existing or Create and Attach a new release condition to only show this grade item if certain conditions are met (e.g., if the student has a score on a quiz, has viewed specific content, is in a certain group, etc.). Or, click Remove All Conditions to remove release conditions.
10. Click Save and Close
    
11. To see exactly how grades appear for a specific student, use the Preview option in Enter Grades.