This document discusses common mistakes instructors make when using online grade books for courses with a learning management system. It provides tips to avoid miscalculating grades due to issues with weighted categories, duplicate schemas, special characters, and other problems. The key recommendations are to carefully plan the grade book structure, understand how the grade book software calculates weights and totals, and verify grades with an external spreadsheet if needed.

1. 16th Sloan-C Conference on Online Learning
Jinsong Zhang, Ed. D.
Stevenson University

2.  Why grade book?
 Common mistakes in using a web grade
book
 About weighted total
 Alternative grading system
 To avoid miscalculation
 Comments
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3.  Important Role of a CMS
 By 2002, over ¾ of colleges had adopted a
CMS
 By 2008, over half of college courses make
use of a CMS tool
 Blackboard has 3700 clients in 70 countries
 Student learning assessment matters
 System bugs with online grade books
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4.  Confusing and counter-intuitive
interface
 Poor performance speed and efficiency
 System reliability
 Endless Upgrades and fixes
 Grade calculation becomes a variable
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5.  Weight or total points?
 Look at your grading policy
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6.  Identical Total and Weighted Total columns
 What can I do?
 Remove
 Not to “Show this Column to Students”
 Hide
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7. Grading Policy Actual Grade Book
Wrong function!
Assignment Point Percent Assignment Point Percent
Assign 1 100 10 Assign 1 100 7.69
Assign 2 100 10 Assign 2 100 7.69
Assign 3 100 10 Assign 3 100 7.69
Assign 4 100 10 Assign 4 100 7.69
Project 100 10 Project 100 7.69
Blog 100 15 Blog 100 7.69
Quizzes (6) 100x6 15 Quizzes (6) 100x6 46.15
Final Exam 100 20 Final Exam 100 7.69
TOTAL 1300 100 TOTAL 1300 100
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8. Grading Policy Quiz Points Equal Prprtion
Item Weight Weight
Assignment Point Percent
Quiz 1 4.375 6.125
Assign (8) 800 30
Quiz 2 4.375 7.875
Quizzes (8) 200 35
Quiz 3 4.375 7.000
Discussion (10) 150 20
Quiz 4 4.375 1.750
Exam 150 15
Quiz 5 4.375 2.625
TOTAL 1300 100
Quiz 6 4.375 2.625
Quiz 7 4.375 3.500
Quiz 8 4.375 3.500
TOTAL 200 35 35
Actual Quizzes in Grade Center
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9.  When a grade book
is copied, the
weighted total
column can be
different from the its
source.
 A weight given to an
empty category
Total Weight: 95 %  Check the weight
calculation
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10. $ dollar : colon < less than | pipe
& ampersand ; semi-colon > greater than ^ caret
+ plus = equals # pound ~ tilde
, common ? question % percent [ Left bracket
/ slash @ at { left curly brace ] right bracket
backslash " quotation } right curly brace ‘ grave accent
 Alphabetic and numeric characters ONLY for
column name
 Follow the same rule for gradable activities
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11.  Grading schemas get duplicated in Blackboard when a
course is copied
 Remove all the useless schemas
 Verify your letter grade against your grading policy
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12. BB default category
Instructor defined category
 Two terms are used for a single category
 Use default category first
 Always check to make sure all category
members are included
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13. No Category
Columns should be properly categorized unless they are
weighed individually
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14.  Score is added to
TOTAL only as
extra credit (BB
9.1)
 Score with 0 point
possible is ignored
in all calculations
(BB 8.0 )
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15.  Calculation can be complicated
 Different weighing methods
 How to deal with un-attempted columns?
 How extra credits are handled?
 How does your CMS support the
weighted calculation?
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16.  Extra applied to course total
 Course Weighted Total (100%)+ Extra credit (5%)
 Extra applied to a category
Writing 40%
Journal 1-5 (500 pts)
Short Essay 1-5 (500 pts)
Bonus Essay (100 pts)
 Extra added to an individual quiz or
assignment
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17. Grade Item Points Weight Range Grade
Short Paper 1 100 10 950-1000 A
Short Paper 2 100 10 900-949 A-
Pair Discussion 100 10 870-899 B+
Panel Discussion 100 10 840-869 B
Midterm 100 10 800-839 B-
Final 200 20 770-799 C+
Term Project 200 20 700-769 C
Attendance 100 10 670-699 C-
Total 1000 100 600-669 D
Extra Credit 50 5 0-599 F
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18.  Download your grade book from your CMS
 Use any spreadsheet program to verify the
weighted total or the total column
=100*(SUM(D4:F4)/300*0.5+SUM(G4:I4)/30*0.25+SUM(J4:L4)/60*0.25)
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19.  Prepare a detailed plan for the course grade
book
 Understand the grade book in your CMS
 Verify course grades with a spreadsheet
program
 Consider using a flat total point system if
weight does not work for your class
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