Create a Grade Item for Offline (Manual) Items

Revised 11/2013

Not all grade items need be associated with an assessment toul in Desire2Learn (quizzes, dropbox, or discussions). You can also add things that are graded offline. Examples include presentations, bluebook exams, and participation in class:

You can have grade items that are not associated with Desire2Learn's online assessment touls.

• On the grades page click on the Manage Grades link and then the New Item button.

• Select Numeric for the item type.
• On the New Item page, type a Name for the item and a Max Points possible.

• If you will allow students to earn more points than the item is worth, check the box "Can Exceed"
• If this is an extra-credit item, click the "Bonus" check box (the points possible will not be counted toward the total points possible for the class)

• Click the Save button.

Grade Categories

Grade items can be organized within categories. This helps organize the items on the grades page, and you can have some calculations (like drop the lowest item) done automatically.

• From the Manage Grades page, click on the New Category button.
• Type a Name for the category and decide whether students can earn more points than the category is worth.
• The points possible for a category is the sum of its constituent grade items.

• If you want the points per item to be the  same within a category, click in the box to "Distribute points across all items" - this will then allow you to have Desire2Learn drop the lowest (or highest!) grades within that category automatically.

• After you create a grade category, you can add grade items to that category.

• When you create a new grade item, choose the category on the Category menu.
• You can click on the name of an extant grade item to edit it and pick a category.

• If you choose the option to Distribute points across all items, you will not be able to assign distinct points possible for items within that category.

Entering Grades

• From the Manage Grades page, click on the Enter Grades icon () for an item.
• Type a score for each student on the list - you can use the keyboard as if the page were an Excel spreadsheet (tab, arrows, and enter)
• Click the Save button when done
• Remember not to edit the grades for a grade item that is associated with an assessment toul (quizzes, dropbox, and discussions). Changes should be made at the appropriate place for that toul, as changes there are reflected in the associated grade item.
• Clicking on the Enter Grades icon for a category opens a page where you can enter grades for all of the items within that category.

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