FAWeb Assignments
I promised I would return and write a follow-up to my last post
explaining categories, and here I am, true to my word! Well, maybe a
couple of days slower than I originally planned, but better late than
never, right? Last time we went over a few options in Categories; this time we'll take a look at Assignments.
Let's start with the different assignment dates. Most of
these are self-explanatory; Student Date Due is the last day the
assignment will be accepted, Show Assignment and Show Grade control
when the information appears in NetClassroom, and Grades Date Due reminds you to enter the assignment grade. After that date, the
gradebook icon turns red on your Home page. This ensures there's a grade showing when students check their grades in NetClassroom, so they won't bombard you with questions
about how they did on the last test...or it at least reduces the amount of
questions you get. I'm back in school now, and I'll admit
I want to know my grades ASAP and am probably guilty of asking that
question a time or two myself, I won't lie 
.
If you use
NetClassroom and don't want a particular assignment or
grade to show, then leave the Grades Date Due date blank. You may have reading assignments that don't have a graded assignment associated with them, but you would like the assignment to show up so students know what reading will be discussed in class. You can enter a Student Date Due so it will show in NetClassroom.
Of course, what shows in NetClassroom depends on your assignment feature setup in
Configuration. If
you have dates entered and the assignments aren't showing for your
students, you might want to check with your administrator to make sure
the assignment option is marked for students.
As I mentioned last time,
factors can be used to weight different elements in a group. You can also use factors to give weight to assignments in a
category. For instance, you have a midterm exam you want to count twice as much as a normal test. You can give the
midterm a factor of 2 and the other tests a factor of 1, and the
calculation includes this factor. Here's an example:
Tests A, B, and D are regular tests and Test C is a midterm counting twice as much. I'll assign the factors as follows:
Test A, B, D: 1
Test C: 2
Erica got a 75 on Test A, an 80 on Test B, an 85 on Test C, and an 81 on Test D.
Test
Average = ((Test A grade * factor of 1) + (Test B grade * factor of 1)
+ (Test C grade * factor of 2) + (Test D grade * a factor of 1))/(Sum
of factors)
Test Average = (75 + 80 + (85 *2) + 81)/5 = 81.2
Without weighting the midterm, her test average comes out to 80.25.
As
you can see, factors can come in handy if you need to put more emphasis
on one assignment in a category. But if they all should count the
same, just leave the factors set at 1.
Hope this made setting up your Gradebook a little easier this year and answered some questions you might have. If you found the information helpful, or even if you didn't, let me know by leaving a comment. If you have other suggestions about something you'd like me to write about, please feel free to post something back to me and I'll get to it. Till next time...