How To: Automate Midterm Grade in D2L Gradebook

A recent change in the grading policy at Oakton created an opportune time to start my first blog in ID Corner. The policy asks instructors to calculate and report a letter grade to each student by the end of Midterm. To students, the midterm grade is an effective way to check their progress, and at the same time, to scare them. However, it’s up to you how to communicate with your students and let them know you can work out a plan with them.

As for the actual process of calculating the midterm grade, this blog post will help you a great deal. D2L Gradebook has the capability to do just that automatically with a few settings you have to make.

Traditional Grading Criteria

Let’s assume you are teaching a hypothetical course, HPC101. The following are the grading criteria commonly stated in a course syllabus:

8 Discussions @ 10 points	80
5 Quizzes @15 points	75
6 Assignments @ 20 points	120
2 Exam @ 50 points	100
1 Group Project @ 50 points	50
Course Total	425

New Approach to Grading Criteria

You can make your grading criteria clearer by separating activities into two groups before and after midterm as follows:

4 Discussions @10 points	40
2 Quizzes @15 points	30
4 Assignments @ 20 points	80
1 Exam @ 50 points	50
Midterm Total	200
4 Discussions @10 points	40
3 Quizzes @15 points	45
2 Assignments @ 20 points	40
1 Group Project @ 50 points	50
1 Exam @ 50 points	50
Course Total	425

Associating Activities to Grade Items

It is important that you know when you set up an assessment activity, you need to create a corresponding grade item in the D2L Gradebook. Otherwise, student scores remain on the activity page. By associating mapping or linking the activity to a grade item, scores can flow from the activity page to the grade item in the Gradebook. Please note that the Final Calculated Grade is the default grade item that automatically sums up all student scores.

4 Discussions @10 points	40	D1, D2, D3, D4
2 Quizzes @15 points	30	Q1, Q2
4 Assignments @ 20 points	80	A1, A2, A3, A4
1 Exam @ 50 points	50	E1
Midterm Total	200	?
4 Discussions @10 points	40	D5, D6, D7, D8
3 Quizzes @15 points	45	Q3, Q4, Q5
2 Assignments @ 20 points	40	A5, A6
1 Group Project @ 50 points	50	P
1 Exam @ 50 points	50	E2
Course Total	425	Final Calculated Grade

Midterm Total Grade Item Required

From the mapping table above, the only missing grade item is Midterm Total, and you will have to create it manually. Follow the steps below to create it.

Step 1: Go to Grades > Manage Grades where you will see the list of all grade items you have created and associated with corresponding assessment activities.

Step 2: Select New > Item to manually create a grade item.

Step 3: Choose Calculated so that you can define how the scores should be calculated.

Step 4: Fill out necessary attributes for the grade item. You may leave Short Name and Category unchanged.

Step 5: Choose Percentage or the grade scheme you may customize (Refer to Important Note#3 below. Then, you proceed to select grade items to be included in the midterm grade calculation and click Save at the bottom.

There you go, you have a new column as Midterm Grade added to the gradebook. The numerator is the sum of student scores whereas the denominator is the sum of maximum scores from all selected grade items. 

Important Notes

Note#1: Make sure that you treat assessment activities that students failed to submit as 0. Activities will be included in the midterm grade calculation as 0 if they missed them or whatever scores they achieved from the work submission. Otherwise, those activities will be ignored as if they were not part of the midterm grade calculation. The grades are considered biased and will lead to misinterpretation of student progress. To set up, go to Grades > Setting > Calculation Options. Under Grade Calculation, choose Treat ungraded items as 0.

Note#2: If you use a weighted grading system AND Drop ungraded items, you will have to choose a Calculation Method:

• Milestone Grade Calculation: all ungraded items are removed for a student while all weights remain the same.
• Final Grade Calculation: all ungraded items are removed for a student and weights of the ungraded items are redistributed.

Nonetheless, it will not affect instructors using a point-based grading system. Since we choose Treat ungraded items as 0, it will not affect those who use a weighted grading system either.

Note#3: If you want the Midterm Grade grade item to display letter grades instead, you need to define a grading scheme on your own. Go to Grade > Schemes > New Scheme

Use the grade scheme you specified in your course syllabus to fill out the above form. You may need to add rows by using the Add Ranges feature below. Click Save and Close and it’s ready to use.