Brightspace: Grades - Create a Grade Book Category

Learn how to set up a grade book category in Brightspace by defining its grading rules and connecting grade items to it so you can group related work and manage how it contributes to the final grade.

Overview

This article explains how to create a grade book category in Brightspace.

Instructions

Navigate to Manage Grades

• Access the "Manage Grades" page in your course's gradebook.

Create a New Category

• Click "New" and select "Category" from the dropdown menu.

Enter Category Details

• Enter a name for the category. This name will display in your gradebook. For example, "Discussions."

Set Grading Distribution

• In the "Grading" section, set the distribution for the grade items included in this category. The distribution method varies depending on the grading system used:
  • Weighted Grading System:
    • Assign a weight to the category. For example, set the category's weight to 15.
    • Select the distribution method. For example, distribute the weight evenly across all items in the category. If there are three discussion topics, each worth 5% of the final grade, they will collectively make up the 15% category weight.
  • Points Grading System:
    • Click "Distribute points across all items."
    • Set the "Points per item" field. For example, set it to 15 points per item.
    • Determine if you want to drop the highest or lowest non-bonus grade items for each user (optional). For this example, leave the non-bonus item fields at 0.

Save the Category

• Click "Save and Close" to add the category to your gradebook.

Assign Grade Items to the Category

• You can now create new grade items and assign them to this category or move existing grade items into the newly created category.