Grades for Students with Different Assignments

You may have a class where not all students do all assignments, and you want each student to have a points possible in the grades area that matches the assignments required for that student. For example, students who are returning to take the same class might have advanced assignments not required of their beginning classmates. To do this requires the use of groups, calculated grade items, and release conditions:



Begin by Creating Groups

• On the Edit Course page, click Groups
• Create a category with a generic name (e.g., "Grade Groups")
• Choose the option "# of Groups - No Auto Enrollments," type a number of groups to create (e.g., 2), and click the Create button
• 
  Changing the default name for the groups will make working with them easier - click the button Category List and then the name of each group to change it (e.g., "New Students" and "Returning Students") - you do not have to worry about the Group Code
• Click the Enroll Users icon to enroll students in your groups as appropriate - as you add a student to a group, a badge icon appears indicating the student is enrolled in at least one group

Then Create Calculated Grade Items

• On Grades List page (select Manage Grades on the Grades page), click New Item and then click Calculated
• Name the item something appropriate for one of your groups (e.g., "Final Grade - New Students")
• In the Grading section, choose the items that apply to this group of students and then click the Save and New button
• Repeat these steps for the other group

Then Apply Release Conditions

• On the Grades List page, click on an item name to edit it and then click the Restrictions tab
• Click the button to Create and Attach a Release Condition
• Select the Group Enrollment category and then choose the appropriate group (e.g., New Students) and then click the Create button
• Click the Save button
• Repeat these steps for the other calculated grade item and any assignments that are only required of a specific group - otherwise the students who do not have to do the assignment will still see it on their Grades page even though its points are not included in the points possible for their final grade.

One way to check your work is to make sure that each grade item that should be conditionally released (e.g., "Final Grade - New Students," "Final Grade - Returning Students," and any assignments that only have to be done by the returning students) will have the the conditional release icon next to it on the Grades List page.

Finally, remember not to release the "Final Calculated Grade."