The first time you access the Grades tool in your course, you will be taken to the Setup Wizard. The Set-up Wizard will walk you through seven fundamental settings for your gradebook. These settings include specifying whether you use a weighted system vs. a point-based system and how you would like grades to be displayed to students.
To access Grades, first go to brightspace.nyu.edu and then to the course that you want to work in.
Using the Set-up Wizard
- Once in the course site, click on the Grades tool.
- If you are not automatically directed to the Setup Wizard, you can click on the Set-up Wizard tab
- As you navigate your way through the seven fundamental questions, please refer to this resource that provides in-depth guidance on what each of these various settings mean.
Selecting the Grading Scheme
The second step to setting up your gradebook builds off of the work you completed in the Setup Wizard. Step 4 in the Setup Wizard asks you to select the default grade scheme for the entirety of your gradebook. Grade schemes include letter grades, letter grade with +/- options, and more. To access Schemes, go to Grades → Schemes
The scheme that you selected in the Setup Wizard will have a check-mark in the default scheme column. In the image below, you’ll see that Letter Grades with +/- was selected.
If you previewed the scheme you selected in the Setup Wizard, (strongly recommended) approve of all of the grade cut-offs, and don’t anticipate using any additional schemes on course assignments (such as ✓, ✓+, ✓- | Meets Expectations, Exceeds Expectations, Does Not Meet Expectations, etc) you can skip ahead to Manage Grades.
If you would like to create one or more new grade Schemes, please refer to this in-depth resource.
Managing Grades
With overall gradebook settings established through the Setup Wizard and any additional scheme(s) you may need created on the Schemes page, Manage Grades is the next and final stop to readying your course gradebook.
Manage Grades is the area of the Grades tool where you can create and modify grade items and categories. If you have a weighted gradebook, this is the page where you can see how much each item/category is contributing to the overall grade. If you have a points-based gradebook, this is the page where you can see the total number of points the course gradebook is worth.
Odds are good that your course syllabi already lists what assignments/projects will be evaluated in the course and how each of these deliverables contribute to students’ final grades. As such, we advise referring to your syllabus as you review this in-depth resource on finishing the process of setting up your gradebook through the Manage Grades page.