Weighting Course Activities in the Gradebook (eCampus Ultra)

eCampus' default calculation of the overall grade is based on the number of points (or percentage) you assigned to the item. You can change this default so that individual items or whole categories have more or less weight assigned to them. You can change this default weighting by doing any of the following:

• Removing items from the calculation

• Changing an item’s or category's weight

• Creating a new column with a calculation and then using that column in other calculations

• Altering the overall grade column to use only the categories you specify, and applying your own calculation

Setting up the overall grade

When you first click the Gradebook tab at the top of the screen, you will see a message asking if you want to set up the overall grade:

Open

After clicking Set it up, you can choose if you would like to set this up by points, by weighting categories, or by building your own formula.

Open

Calculating using points

1. In the Points tab, default categories are displayed with the total number of points in each category, based on the number of points you specified when you created the item.

   1. Click Edit calculation rules to drop a specified number of high or low scores for a specific item, or use only a specified number of low or high scores.

   2. Click the inverted caret to choose items to be removed from the calculation or unlinked from the category.

Calculating Using Weighted

1. Click the weighted radio button. By default, percentages will be allocated equally to all categories, even if you are not using that category.

2. To remove a category that you are not using, click the circle with a line through it.

3. The removed categories now have a purple icon. Allocations are recalculated to show the weights according to only the categories that are used in the course.

4. You can change the weight of categories by clicking within a category’s cell and entering a different weight. All weights must total 100%.

5. To view the items within a category, click the inverted caret.

6. Within the category, you can exclude an item’s score from the calculation, or unlink an item from its category.

Advanced Calculations

You can add your own calculations to your course gradebook. A calculation is a formula that produces a numerical result used to view or assign grades, usually based on other graded items.

You can create your own formulas and use common arithmetic operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and use group operators (parentheses).

In the example below, the overall grade will be based on just two categories, Assignment and Test. The Assignment category points will be multiplied by 2 and the Test category will be multiplied by .75.

1. Click the Advanced radio button to open the calculations canvas.

2. To modify the default overall grade,

   1. Choose a function. In the above calculation, click the Total function. Click the dropdown to view all categories or coursework.

   2. Choose an operator, such as add, subtract, divide, multiply.

   3. Click Value and then enter an amount by which the amount of the category will be operated on.

   4. Continue adding to the formula until it is complete.

   5. Click the Validate button to see if this is a valid expression.