Gradebook Profile Preferences

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview
• Grading Preferences
• Display Preferences
• Assignments factored into MP Grades

Overview

The preferences screen is split into two parts, Grading Preferences and Display Preferences.

The first section is Grading Preferences. This is a set of some of the most important features in your Gradebook.

The grading options can be changed at any time during the school year, but be very wary of doing this.

Once this option is changed, any course which has this profile will recalculate the student grades in their courses according to the new grading type.

This can and will change student scores drastically. With that being said, you can always just change the setting back to its original value and then grades will be recalculated back to their original value.

This is found via Gradebook>Profiles>Click the "Open" button to the right of the profile>Preferences.

Grading Preferences

Marking Period Average Calculation in the Gradebook is explained in detail here.  The information there explains more fully the Marking Period Grading Type, Calculate Category Averages by and Calculate Unit Averages by Grading parameters.

• Marking Period Grading Type: Total Points or Category Weights.  
  • If you select Total Points then then categories are ignored in grading: this the same as saying "all categories have equal weight". Your homework is considered just as important as your quizzes with this setup. "Total Points" means the "max possible score" for each assignment in the Marking Period is added up into the total "Points Attempted" for the Marking Period. Each student's actual "grade" for each assignment is added up into the student's "Points Earned". The student's MP Average is then their "points earned" divided by "points attempted".
    
    
  • If you select Category Weighting then each category is assigned a different weight to determine the marking period grade. For instance, your homework can be worth 25%, while your quizzes can be weighted 75%, in order to stress their importance. The weights are specified on the Profile's Categories screen. With "Category Weighting" an average must first be calculated for each Category. The "Calculate Category Averages by" parameter species how to calculate the Category Averages. The student's MP Average is the result of first calculating an average for each Category, then plugging those "Category Averages" into the weighted formula for the MP specified on the Profile's "Categories" screen.
    
    
• Calculate Category Averages by: dictates how to create an average for each category in a Marking Period. This is used if you select the Category Weighting grading type to specify how to calculate the average for each of your categories.  
  • With this option set to Total Points, the Category averages are based on the earned and attempted points.   The "Max Possible Score" for each Assignment in the Marking Period 2for the Category is added up into the "Points Attempted" for that Category.  Then each student's grades (i.e. points given) for those same Assignments are summed up into their "points earned".  The Category average for the student is their "points earned" divided by the Category's "points attempted".
  • With this option set to Assignment Count, then the category average is based on the sum of all assignment scores for a category divided by the number of Assignments.  In this case the student's "score" for each assignment in the Category is summed up into a 'total score' and then the 'total score' is divided by the number of Assignments in the Category for the Marking Period ("the assignment count" or "counts of assignments for the MP") to give the MP average.   The student's "score" is the percentage of points they earned for the assignment:  For example, if the 'max possible score' is 50 points, and the student earns 45 points, their score is 90% (or just 90).
  • This field will also affect the Total Points grading type:  
    • With this option set to Total Points, the marking period grade is determined by the earned points of all assignments divided by the earned points.   Total Points is a "points average".
    • If it set to Assignment Count, then the MP grade is determined by the sum of all assignment scores divided by the number of assignments.   Assignment count is a "score average".
• Unit Averaging by Assignment Count is the same theory as the Category Averaging by Assignment Count.  
  • The only difference is that this field does not affect grading in any way. This is purely for the averaging of units in your Gradebook.   Unit averages are "for your information only".  
• The "Value for Incomplete" and "Value for Missing" fields tell the Gradebook what grade to give to a student if they are graded with a Missing or Incomplete on an assignment.
• The "Use Weighting on Assignments" field dictates whether you want to allow yourself to give extra - or less - emphasis to an assignment by changing its "weight" to something other than '1'. This option will be discussed at more length under the Assignments chapter.  The "weight" of an Assignment is a multiplier:  the default Assignment weight is 1:  it "counts" once.  But the weight can be less than 1 (0.1 to 0.9) or greater than 1.  For example, if the "weight" is 1.5, the Assignment's points - both earned and attempted - are multiplied by 1.5.   It counts "1.5 times".  If the "weight" is 2, the Assignment "counts twice".  
• The final field for Grading Preferences is "Use Gradebook Alpha Grade on Post Grades screen" 
  • This field tells Genesis whether to translate your Gradebooks numeric grade to the school's alpha grade scale, or to use the alpha grade scale in your Gradebook.  
  • The Post Grades screen "Update All Scores" feature will use the alpha grade that you have specified in this option.

The mathematical formulas are as follows:

Category Weighting Formulas:

• Category Scores: Category Average * (MP Weight / 100) = Category Score.
• Marking Period Final Grade: ((Sum of Category Scores) * 100) / (Sum of Category Weights)).

Total Points Formula - With Assignment Count set to Yes:

• (Earned Points / Attempted Points) * 100

Total Points Formula - With Assignment Count set to No:

• (Sum of all assignments / Number of assignments)

Display Preferences

These fields dictate the look and feel of your Gradebook.

• The Round Numbers To option allows you to dictate how your grades are rounded. 
• The next set of options affects the Gradebook spreadsheet screen. 
• The field Display Letter Grade allows you the option of showing a letter grade next to a student's current marking period average.
• Display Point Totals will optionally show you the student earned and attempted points for the marking period. 
• The fields for Abbreviations of Incomplete, Missing, Absent and Exempt dictate how those grades are displayed on your spreadsheet screen while the Sort Assignments By field is your default sort for assignments. 
• The Display IEP, Medical and 504 icons dictate whether a small icon is displayed next to the student name for any of those needs.
• There is a couple of fields in here that dictate behavior and display in the Gradebook.  
  • One such field is Default Value for Parents Module. This field defaults whether an assignment should be automatically shown in the Parents Module on assignment creation. 
  • Another field is Generate Sequence Number when creating assignments. If you would like a sequence number for your assignments, Genesis can automatically create one for you when you are creating assignments. This value ups the top sequence in the database for your class by ten each time you enter the Add Assignment screen. 
  • The next option dictates the display of a particular screen print. The screen in question is the Student Assignments screen, where you are looking at each assignment for a given student. If this screen print is used, then this field will tell the print out whether to show a class average for each assignment.
• The "Hide MPs where course subsection does not meet" option will hide any MP where a course does not meet during its course length. For instance, if you have a FY Gym course that only meets MP1, MP3 and MP4, the MP2 tab will not appear if this field is set to Yes.
• Show Student Average in Parents: If NO, will shut off the student's average for assignments. Will display as 20/20 instead of 20/20 80%
• Show Class Avg on Student Assignment: Will display class average for each assignment when assignment printout is created by the teacher via Gradebook>Student>Assignments screen. Does not impact the parent portal.

There are also fields which control the display of the icons next to the student names.  The fields are:

Assignments factored into MP Grades

The table below allows you to redefine the assignments that are factored into each Marking Period Grade.

The column on the left is the MP Grade and all checked boxes in the same row are the assignments that will be factored into that MP grade.

By default, the MP grade will only use assignments in the same MP to calculate itself.

Do not change this setting unless you need to include assignments from a previous MP into a future MP.