Ways to grade your class

When it comes to grading your student’s work, it isn’t always an easy task. Here are two of the more common ways to set up a grading system for your class. And remember, if your system seems too complicated, simplify it. It may require some changes, but in the long run, it will save you time, make your grading more consistent and be easier for students to understand the system.

Weighted Group System

In the weighted group system, you organize your assignments into categories and give each category a percentage equal to their worth in the overall course grade. The total of your category percentages should equal 100%.

Within these categories you will create your assignments. The number of points an assignment is worth will determine its weight within that category. Typically all assignments in a category will have the same maximum possible points. If an assignment within a category holds more value than the other assignments in that category, its maximum possible points should reflect that. For example, if in my Quiz Category (worth 10%) I had four quizzes each with 20 questions, but Quiz 3 was worth twice as much as the others, I might have them setup as follows:

Quizzes (10%)
Assignment Name	Maximum Possible Points
Quiz 1	100 pts
Quiz 2	100 pts
Quiz 3 – Worth twice as much	200 pts
Quiz 4	100 pts

The way this system works is that it calculates the category as the total number of points from all assignments within the category and then multiplies it by the category weight. Using our table above, our category has a total of 500 possible maximum points, but is only worth 10% of the overall course score. If a student received 388 points in the four quiz assignments (it doesn’t matter in which quizzes they earned the points), they would earn a 77.6% in the category (388 pts/500 pts) and a 7.8% towards the overall course grade.

Points System

The point system is used when your assignment’s maximum point value also determines its weight in the overall course grade. The overall course grade is calculated by adding all points received and dividing it by the sum of all assignments’ maximum point values.

The sum of all assignments’ maximum point values does not need to equal 100. You want to make sure the maximum point value for an assignment is correct for the weight it should have in the course.

For example, we have the following assignments:

Four quizzes for a total of 20% of the overall course grade (5% each)

Five journal entries for 25% of the overall course grade (5% each)

One midterm for 25% of the overall course grade

One final paper for 30% of the overall course grade

Each quiz is set to 25 pts ( 4 @ 25 pts = 100)

Each journal is set to 25 pts (5 @ 25 pts = 125)

The midterm is set to 125 pts

The final paper is set to 150 pts

Overall Course Maximum points is 500 pts

You could create this system starting with the assignment worth the least amount and make all other assignments multiples its maximum point value OR determine the Overall Course Maximum points and work backwards using division.

Which system is for me?

This is ultimately a personal choice and there are systems other than the two listed here.

If you place a priority of the value of a type of assessment, such as Quizzes should be worth 10% and we will have 3 to 6 quizzes, the weighted group system should work well for you. Benefits of a weighted group system is the flexibility you have in each category. The downside is, it isn’t always easy for a student to know how well they are doing without using additional math. Having an 88% in the 10% Quiz category doesn’t mean they are on track for B+.

If you have all of your assignments planned out and you know how much each one should count for (and you’re decent with multiplication and division), then a point system might be easier to implement. The point system can be easier to work with in this case and might be easier for students to understand how many points they have in the course overall.

For information on creating Assignments in Canvas to implement one of these systems, visit https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-2614