Another Way to Do a Letter Final Grade

Though you can create a grade scheme that displays the total points earned as a letter grade instead of a percentage, you may want to allow for another way to allow for the "Smith factor" besides creating additional hidden grade items or changing extant grades as described in this post. You can also create a second grade item that is solely for the course's letter grade.

Here are the steps:

Rename the "Final Calculated Grade" item to something like "Points Earned."

1. On the Manage Grades page, click on the name of the Final Calculated Grade item to rename it.
2. Type a new name and make sure that the Display Options do not include a custom grade scheme that displays a letter grade - if in doubt, turn off grade scheme and just leave points.
3. Click Save and Close.

Create a new grade item

1. On the Manage Grades page, click on the New button and select Item.
2. Click on the link to create a Text grade item
3. Type a name for the item.
4. You may want to type a description and display that to your students so that they understand the difference between the points earned and the letter grade.
5. Click Save and Close.
6. On the Manage Grades page, click on the More Actions button and select Reorder.
7. Move the recently created grade item to an appropriate position. Remember that the renamed Final Calculated Grade item will be at the top of the students' view of the Grades page.
8. Click Save.

The following video demonstrates these steps: