You are here: Weighting Grades Grades can be weighted by item or by category. 1. Log onto Blackboard at http://bb.elmhurst.edu. 2. Under Courses you are teaching, click the link of the desired course. 3. Click the "Control Panel" button (the bottom-most button located to the left of the screen). 4. Under "Assessment," click on "Gradebook." 5. Click on "Weight Grades" icon. 6. Then, choose either "Weight by Category" or "Weight by Item" and enter the percentages you'd like to assign. 7. Click "Submit." The following information is important when weighting grades: · Gradebook items that have not been completed by Students are still calculated in the weight. Instructors may also exclude items from all calculations on the Add/Modify Gradebook Item page. · The percentages in the selected option (Weight by Category or Weight by Option) must add up to 100%. An error message will appear if the percentages do not add up to 100%. · If an item has a weight of 0%, the item will not be calculated in the grade weight. This will occur if a new Gradebook item is added and a percentage for the item is not added to the Weight by Item column or if an item falls into a category that is weighted 0% and the category weight is not adjusted. When Weight by Category is selected, the following information will apply: · The weight for each item is calculated by taking the weight for the category it’s in and dividing that by the number of items in the category. · The number of items in the category is counted as the number of items the Instructor has created in that category. Therefore, if Quizzes have a 100% weight and a Student takes an exam and gets a perfect score, his or her weighted total will be 100%. If the Instructor adds a second quiz, the Students weighted total will drop to 50%, since the weight for each item is divided by two. Since, the Student has not taken the second exam yet, their score for it is zero. · Each item in a category is worth the same weight, regardless of total points. For example, if quizzes are worth 25% as a category, a quiz worth 50 points will not be weighted more then a quiz worth 15 points.     Note: While the gradebook will show the instructor the weighted percentage, it will not show this information to students. One way around this is to add a few more items to your gradebook. Add a Numeric Final Grade item, assigning 0 points and the category "Final Grade." You can then enter the numeric final grade manually. You can also add a Letter Final Grade item, again assigning 0 points and the category "Final Grade." While this means that the total number of points possible will be smaller that the student's Total Points, this a handy way to convey the desired information.   Back to Blackboard Help This page was last modified 21 July, 2006 by Jennifer Paliatka .