Instructional Technology Spotlight – Finalizing Grades in Brightspace
This time of year, many people on campus are counting down the days to the end of the semester. Before we get to that end point, however, there are plenty of things instructors have to do. One of the most popular topics of questions we get this time of year is about how grades and grading works in Brightspace. Given the timeliness of this topic, we wanted to take the chance to spotlight some resources that can be useful to instructors across campus.
One of the most common questions we get about the Brightspace gradebook this time of year is how to finalize grades and release those grades to students. While we have many different on-demand resources and guides about grades, there are a few specific resources that we want to spotlight.
- First, it is important for instructors and students to know how students primarily see their grades. While most people understand that activities like Assignments and Quizzes have their own sections for feedback and scores, the main place students can see all their grades is on the Class Progress page. For more information on where students can see their grades, you can view our guide on this topic here.
- If you want to know how to exclude a specific grade category or individual grade item from the final grade calculation in your course, we have a guide linked here that explains just that.
- If you feel limited by the Brightspace grade book and would prefer an Excel spreadsheet where you can make more granular adjustments and formulas, you can do that by exporting your gradebook to a CSV or Excel spreadsheet. We have a guide you can find here about how to export your gradebook to a spreadsheet.
- When you are done with your grades and ready for students to see their final grades, instructors do have to manually release those final grades to students. We have a guide you can find here about how to release final grades to students.
- It is important to note that even if you release final grades to students in Brightspace, instructors still are required to enter final grades into YES for official grade reporting. The Brightspace grade book is not linked to YES for a number of reasons, but if you have questions about YES and how to use it, the Registrar’s Office has a number of helpful resources and guides online that can be found here.
- It is important to note that even if you release final grades to students in Brightspace, instructors still are required to enter final grades into YES for official grade reporting. The Brightspace grade book is not linked to YES for a number of reasons, but if you have questions about YES and how to use it, the Registrar’s Office has a number of helpful resources and guides online that can be found here.
Hopefully through this post you have found some helpful resources about grades in Brightspace and how you can make it work best for you. If you have any questions about Brightspace at Vanderbilt, or any other instructional technology questions, please feel free to reach out to our team using our contact information here.
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