Unlike other grade items and categories in the Grade Book, final grades are not available to students by default. Final grades must be released. When setting up the Grade Book, the instructor can choose to automatically release final grades so that the students can see their final grade throughout the semester. If you did not choose to enable the automatic release of final grades when setting up your Grade Book, you will have to manually release final grades in order for students to see their final grade.
Additionally, you can selectively release final grades for some students now and release the final grades for other students later. For example, you can release the final grades for graduating seniors on one date and release the final grades for everyone else on a later date.
Follow these steps to do it.
To manually release final grades:
On the NavBar, click Grades.
On the Enter Grades page, from the Final Calculated Grade or Final Adjusted Grade context menu, click Enter Grades.
To release grades for all users, on the Final Grades page, from the Final Grades context menu, click Release All. To release final grades for a specific user, do one of the following:
Select the check box by the user name and click the Release/Unrelease link.
Select the check box in the Release Final Calculated Grade or Release Adjusted Final Grade column.
Click Save.
OR watch this video for instructions on how to release final grades:
NOTE: There is a slight change in the video instructions. The "Enter Grades" option should be used anywhere in the video where "Grade All" is referenced.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
Image credit: "final grades" by jflorent is dedicated to public domain under CC0 and is a derivative of grade by OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay
D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.
Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.
Here are some of the updates in the November 2024/20.24.11 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Brightspace Community – Increased usability with Community enhancements
The Brightspace Community now provides increased usability with the following enhancements:
Suggested Results in question workflows (English only): Quickly get answers with automatic searches across the Community as you type your questions.
On the Ask a Question page, type your question to view Suggested Results on the right side.
Community announcement banners (English only): Keep up to date with essential news via announcements on specific category pages and within knowledge bases.
ASC Homepage Known Issues automated search (English only): Search directly from the ASC homepage using the new ASC global search bar. Immediately find Known and Fixed Issues that may provide a workaround or a new workflow, speeding up your return to teaching and learning. Note that Known Issues and Fixed Issues can not currently link to cases.
Learning Center course filters in Community search using course tags (English only): Use simple tag filters to find the course that meets your needs.
Quicker search loading times: Search results now load faster with this update.
Event tags for Group or Community-wide Events (English only): Identify group-specific or community-wide events with ease using the new tags in your search experience.
Quicker access to the Best Answers (English only): Look for the Accepted tag on question results to quickly find the most reliable answers to your Brightspace inquiries. Comments on questions also appear in search results.
Persistent saved filters: Maintain your selected search filters on the Search Results page even when switching content sources (for example, from articles to discussions), ensuring your filters stay intact.
Specific documentation article feedback (English only): Use the new feedback feature to vote and provide detailed feedback on Community articles.
At the bottom of a topic page, respond to the Was this article helpful? question. When the feedback prompt appears, type your feedback and click Submit Feedback.
2) Groups – Restore groups and categories
A new Recycle Bin option is available in the Groups tool, enabling you to restore individual group units or entire categories within a course offering. When you restore groups, existing enrollments and lockers are also reinstated (if present). Any activities linked to the restored groups, such as discussions or assignments, can then be individually restored through their respective restore pages.
Click Recycle Bin to view the deleted groups and group categories.Select the check box for a group or group category and click Restore.
Note: Groups and categories deleted before this feature was introduced in this November 2024/20.24.11 CD update do not appear in the Groups Recycle Bin. To restore these previously deleted items, contact D2L Support for assistance.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
As the semester winds down, many faculty find themselves knee-deep in grading. Entering grades into Brightspace may be a tedious time-consuming task, especially when you need to assign the same grade to multiple students. Whether it's a pass/fail assignment, a standardized in-class activity, or a participation grade, manually entering the same score repeatedly can be cumbersome and time-consuming.
In my last blog post, I explained how instructors should input grades and feedback in the Grade Book. Today, I'll share a helpful tip: using the "Set Grades" feature to quickly assign the same grade to multiple students.
Follow these steps to do it.
Give Multiple Students the Same Grade at the Same Time:
From the NavBar, click on Grades.
Click on the arrow on the right of the Grade Item name.
Select Enter Grades.
Select the checkboxes next to the names of the students OR select all of the students at once by clicking on the checkbox above the list of students.
Select Set Grades.
Enter a value in the Grade textbox.
Select Save.
Select Save and Close.
Give Multiple Students the Same Feedback at the Same Time:
From the NavBar, click on Grades.
Click on the arrow on the right of the Grade Item name.
Select Enter Grades.
Select the checkboxes next to the names of the students OR select all of the students at once by clicking on the checkbox above the list of students.
Select Add Feedback.
Enter feedback in the textbox.
Select Save.
Select Save and Close.
NOTE: Giving multiple students the same feedback at the same time as described in this blog post is helpful for giving multiple students, like group members, the same feedback on an assignment/activity. I do not recommend using the Add Feedback functionality in this way if you want or need to provide more personalized details to each student. In that case, you should enter the personalized feedback for each student individually.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
Assessments measure student achievement. They may take the form of traditional assessments such as exams, or quizzes, but may also be part of learning activities such as group projects, discussions, or presentations.
Brightspace has a number of tools instructors can use to assess learners and the Grades tool is useful for assigning and keeping track of learner grades. If you are not familiar with setting up your Grade Book, review Brightspace Tip #437: Grade Book for information.
There are multiple ways to enter grades for learner submissions in Brightspace. Three ways instructors can enter grades in their Brightspace courses are:
Using Quick Eval
Within Individual Tools
In the Grade Book
Quick Eval
Quick Eval is a tool that allows evaluators to see a list of unevaluated learner submissions from all their courses. Submissions from Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes are displayed in one location to improve efficiency when locating work that requires evaluation and providing feedback to learners. Instructors can use Quick Eval to assess learner submissions.
Within Individual Tools
For assessments that are created using a Brightspace tool, such as Quizzes, Assignments, and Discussions, instructors will associate the assessment with a Grade Item in the Grade Book. The association is made within the tool itself. When you are ready to grade the student’s work, you will grade it within the tool and the grade will automatically transfer over to the Grade Item in the Grade Book.
In the Grade Book
For assessments that occur outside of Brightspace, instructors have to create a Grade Item in the Grade Book, and then manually enter student grades into the Grade Book. Examples of in-class assessments where you may need to manually enter grades in the Grade Book include participation grades, tests administered on-paper, presentations, and demonstrations.
Instructors can manually enter grades for assessments in the Grade Book’s Standard View or Spreadsheet View.
Standard View
The Standard View allows instructors to enter grades by grade item for all students in the course or for an individual student.
The standard view allows instructors to evaluate individual learner submissions. Each submission type has a unique icon and new learner submissions are identified with a dot on the corner of the icon.
Learner submission icons with a new submission indicator dot on the discussion icon
Click the associated icon next to the learner submission to evaluate the submission.
Spreadsheet View
The Spreadsheet View allows instructors to enter grades for all students and all grade items in a single spreadsheet view. For quick edits, click “Switch to Spreadsheet View” (the button toggles back and forth between “Standard View” and “Spreadsheet View.”)
The Spreadsheet View allows instructors to manually enter or modify grades in cells. Instructors can also override previously-entered grades using the Spreadsheet View.
Entering the new or updated grade in the field for the learner and the submission
Spreadsheet View is ideal for entering grades for assessments that occurred outside of Brightspace. Once you’ve entered the grades, save the changes before leaving the page.
Entering Feedback
You can enter feedback by clicking on the arrow to the right of the grade item (column) you want to add feedback to, then select Enter Grades.
Locate the name of the student you want to provide feedback for, then select the pencil icon under the Feedback column and enter the feedback.
The pencil icon opens the feedback dialog box
Once you’ve entered the grades and feedback, save the changes before leaving the page.
NOTE: When entering feedback you have the option to enter private comments that will only be visible to you and users with grading privileges. Learners cannot see private comments.
Important
Remember tool-based assessments should be graded using the respective assessment tool.
Use the Enter Grades tab to easily view all learner grades, grade categories and grade items. From the Enter Grades tab, instructors can assess and evaluate grades for activities conducted outside of Brightspace.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
Giving students timely, useful feedback can greatly enhance learning and improve student achievement. ICYMI, read my Give Students Feedback That Helps Them Learn blog post for information on providing better feedback.
Are you looking for ways to simplify grading and for providing feedback on assignment submissions? These Brightspace tools can help:
Annotations Tool
The Annotations tool allows instructors to provide feedback directly in submitted assignments. Feedback can be provided as text highlighting, freehand drawing, text annotation, and note annotation.
The use of a stylus is not required when using the Annotations tool. However, it could help to speed up the process of marking up the assignment submissions.
NOTE: The Assignment Grader app allows instructors to make annotations on assignments. The Assignment Grader app is no longer available for download to new users. Existing users may continue to use the app if they have it installed on their device, but no further updates or support will be made available by D2L and the app is scheduled to be removed from app stores. As an alternative mobile grading option, D2L recommends using the Quick Eval tool. More information can be found in this Quick Eval, Assessment, and The Future of Evaluation in Brightspace article.
Rubrics
Rubrics allow instructors to establish set criteria for grading assignments. Using the rubrics click-and-score simplicity saves time when grading. With a rubric you can provide consistent evaluation and contextual feedback to students. You can add additional personal feedback to each criterion, expanding on why you chose that level and what additional work would be required to improve on it.
For more information, refer to this using interactive rubrics in Brightspace blog post.
Video Notes
Audio and video feedback can provide richer and more detailed feedback than may be possible through written comments. Visual or audio feedback also provides a more personal way of giving feedback. You have the option to provide audio and/or video feedback in Brightspace. Use Video Notes to provide short, video-based feedback, comments, or instructions.
Here are a couple of blog posts with more information:
Quick Eval allows evaluators to see a list of unevaluated learner submissions from all their courses. Submissions from Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes are displayed in one location to improve efficiency when locating work that requires evaluation and providing feedback to learners.
For more information, refer to this blog post on using Quick Eval.
The Orange Room
Have you visited The Orange Room (Brightspace Educator Share Showcase)? The Orange Room is a community where educators can learn from each other about efficient and innovative ways to use Brightspace. Several of your colleagues shared tips and suggestions already. Here are two contributions that may be of interest to you:
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.
Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.
Here are some of the updates in the October 2024/20.24.10 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Assignments – Retract button removed for users without the Give Feedback permission
With this release, the Retract button is removed from submission evaluation pages for users who have the Assignments > Delete Feedback permission but not the Assignments > Give Feedback permission.
Previously, all users with the Delete Feedback permission could click the Retract button on submission evaluation pages. However, when they clicked the button, nothing happened unless they also had the Give Feedback permission.
Before this update, on the submission evaluation page for users with the Delete Feedback permission but not the Give Feedback permission could click Retract.After this update, the Retract button is removed from the submission evaluation page for users with the Delete Feedback permission but not the Give Feedback permission.
2) Brightspace Editor – Path detection warning and configuration variable
A warning now appears when a user attempts to add an object (such as a link or image) in Brightspace Editor that has a path outside of the current course offering. The warning tooltip explains that if the item is copied to another course, the incorrect path would also be copied, potentially preventing learners from accessing the object.
This new warning alerts the content creator to ensure a consistent experience for learners.
The path detection warning and tooltip appear in the Brightspace Editor.
Note: Files shared from Public Files or external URLs are not affected and will not trigger the warning.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
Thanks to those of you who attended last week's "Unlocking the Potential of Brightspace to Help Identify and Support At-Risk Students" workshop. The workshop, the twentieth in our #LEX Advanced series, helps you to build on the skills you learned in the #LearnEverywhereXULA course and will help you to unlock the full potential of Brightspace to more effectively support the success of your students.
In case you missed last week’s training session or if you attended the training session and want to recap what was covered, a copy of the workshop recording and resources referenced in the workshop are available. You can find the workshop recording and other resources in support of the workshop on the CAT+FD wiki.
Additionally, if you did not get the opportunity to earn a digital badge for participating in the workshop, it's not too late to earn that badge. We have a corresponding “Support At-Risk Students” module in the #LearnEverywhereXULA (#LEX) course that you can complete to earn a digital badge for this topic. The badge will count towards your #LEX Advanced certification.
Quiz Results Displays (formerly known as Submission Views) can be created to allow students to go back and review a submitted quiz. Customizing the Quiz Results Displays allows instructors to choose what information the student sees upon completing the quiz, as well as what they can see when they go back to review a quiz. The default Quiz Results Display shows the overall score to the student (when they submit their quiz) and nothing else. To release more information to students (i.e. feedback, their submitted answers, the answers to each question, class averages and statistics, etc.) you need to either edit the default view or set up an additional view.
The Default View is what students see immediately upon submitting their quiz. The Default View typically does not allow students to see answers to a quiz, but does allow them to view their score on auto-graded items. You can adjust the Default View to allow students to see the answers to a quiz, keep in mind the Default View is what students see as soon as they submit their quiz. Thus, auto-publishing the attempt results and/or showing the answers in the Default View while the quiz is still in progress would reveal the score and/or answers to the quiz before ALL students have submitted the quiz.
Additional Views can be created with a specified release date and time that allows instructors to release information, or answers, after a certain time. For example, an Additional View could be created for after all students have submitted the quiz (i.e., after the quiz is closed) to allow students to view their score and which questions they answered correctly and/or incorrectly, as well as answers to questions. Another Additional View could also be created to allow students to see the class statistics and could be set to release at the end of the semester. If a quiz has multiple attempts, you can also specify a score required on an attempt in order to release the submission view. You may want an Additional View to be available to the students for a short period of time. To make this happen, you would create another Additional View with the date/time you would like the system not to show any questions.
You may decide that you want the Additional View to be available to your students through the end of the semester. In this case, I suggest creating a “Shutdown View” with an end-of-semester date/time. Creating a “Shutdown View” with an end-of-semester date/time is good practice if you are planning to copy a course with quizzes that have Additional Views into another course. This ensures that a quiz with a Shutdown View will force you to update the settings in the course you are copying to. Thus reducing the possibility that you have a Additional View enabled before you want it to be.
Important Notes:
Additional Views DO NOT take effect until the quiz scores have been published.
The Limited Duration option allows students to only be able to access the submission view for a short period immediately after completing the quiz. This option SHOULD NOT be used if you want students to review at a future date/time. In this case you should set up an additional view for the date/time you want the view to start AND set up a “Shutdown View”.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
Wednesday, October 16th, is International Pronouns Day. International Pronouns Day is celebrated on the third Wednesday of October and seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace. Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity. Being referred to by the wrong pronouns particularly affects transgender and gender nonconforming people. For more information about International Pronouns Day visit pronounsday.org.
Did you know, users have the option to indicate their pronouns in their Brightspace user profiles? Brightspace user profiles are visible to anyone who shares a course with a particular user, including students, instructors, administrators, etc.
The area in your Account Settings, where you can set your pronounsA user profile card with the pronouns displayedPronouns display in the 'Last Name, First Name' column of Classlist, to the right of the user's name, in parentheses. User name text is blue, pronoun text is grey.
Celebrate International Pronouns Day by entering your pronouns into Brightspace and invite your students to do the same.
If you are looking for a good pronoun primer on inclusive teaching, check out this Gender Diversity and Pronouns resource from the University of Michigan.
Also, check out name.pn if you or your students are looking for an easy way to share how you would like people to use your name. You can create a URL that links to information to help users get your preferred pronouns, title, and the pronunciation of your name correct.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
Do you want to see the coursework that needs to be graded all on one page in Brightspace? The Quick Eval tool can help.
Quick Eval is a tool that allows evaluators to see a list of unevaluated learner submissions from all their courses. Submissions from Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes are displayed in one location to improve efficiency when locating work that requires evaluation and providing feedback to learners.
The Submissions tab of the Quick Eval page.
Evaluators can sort, filter, and search submissions to prioritize their evaluation work. Sorting can be done using the first or last name of the learner, Activity Name, Course Name, and Submission date. Filtering can be done using one or more of the following categories: Activity Name, Course Name, and Submission Date. Clicking on a user’s name opens an evaluation screen directly from the Quick Eval list where the evaluator can complete their assessment. The search function in Quick Eval allows evaluators to locate submissions for evaluation by searching for a specific user, assignment, quiz, discussion topic, or course.
The Activities tab of the the Quick Eval page.
When learner submissions are evaluated and published, they no longer show up in the Quick Eval list. An empty Quick Eval list gives educators confidence that no learner submissions are pending evaluation.
Quick Eval Widget
Did you know that Quick Eval can be added to your course homepage as a widget? The Quick Eval widget displays a list of up to six activities with submissions to evaluate. The activities are sorted by due date, with the earliest date first. The icon indicator in the widget shows the type of activity (assignment, discussion, or quiz), and the number of unevaluated submissions for each activity.
Activities dismissed in the Quick Eval tool are not displayed by the Quick Eval widget.
The Quick Eval widget on course homepage displaying no submissions needing evaluationThe Quick Eval widget on the Organization homepage displaying unevaluated activities from multiple courses
If you interested in customizing your course homepage with widgets, here are some blog posts with information that explains how to do it:
On the NavBar, click Course Admin, then click Quick Eval.
Click Submissions on the View By toggle.
All ungraded submissions will be displayed. You can sort submissions by first and last name, activity name, course, or submission date. You can also filter results.
Click the learner's name to evaluate the submission.
As you complete and publish evaluations they will no longer appear in Quick Eval.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
