Using the Gradebook

On This Page

Related Resources

Overview

The Gradebook is used by instructors to keep track of and distribute grades to students it is accessed from the Grades link located in your course navigation menu. Gradebook columns reflect the assignments and quizzes found in the Assignments and Quizzes sections of your course.  Each graded assignment and quiz has its own column in the Gradebook. Gradebook columns are not directly created from the gradebook, you must create assignments or quizzes from their respective sections to add them to the gradebook.

Gradebook Elements

The Gradebook Menu

The gradebook menu (1) allows switching between three modes of viewing grades: the traditional view 'spreadsheet' depicted above, a per-student individual gradebook view, and a gradebook history which is a record of all grade entries and modifications made in your course. All three are described in more detail below.

Accessibility

The keyboard icon (2) will display the keyboard shortcuts Links to an external site. available on the gradebook page. Grade entry and navigation can be sped up using these shortcuts. The export function generates a CSV file of the entire gradebook, or the currently visible view as limited by any applied filters (4).

Student Search and Filtering by Assignment

You can limit the gradebook display to individual students or assignments (3) using these two text entry/drop-down menus.

Gradebook Filters

In addition to filtering by student or assignment, the 'apply filters' (4) button offers granular subsetting of the gradebook by:

• modules
• assignment groups
• student groups
• status (submitted, late, missing or excused),
• submissions (has/does not have submissions, ungraded, missing, has unposted grades)
• start & end date

You can create and save filter presets, for example to show grades for a particular individual assignment based on membership in a student group.

Student Name and Identifying Information Column

The student name column (5) displays the first and last name of each student by default.

Moving your mouse over the column header reveals a number of additional sorting and display options. The most useful of these are found under secondary info. Here you can toggle the display of:

• student numbers (referred to as 'Integration ID')
• UTorID (referred to as SIS ID and Login ID)

Note that both fields are present in the gradebook export, whether they are enabled in the secondary info menu or not.

Calculated and Total Columns

To the right of the columns corresponding to your grades (A, B and D) there are columns corresponding to your assignment groups ('Weekly Quizzes' is the only group depicted here for example) as well as a running total of posted, graded work  (6). By default at U of T this running total is never shown to students. These columns cannot be changed and calculated based on the weighting of groups specified on the Assignments page. Find out more about assignment groups and weighting.

Navigating the Traditional Gradebook View

The image above depicts the common gradebook features and indicators  you will encounter when creating assignments, quizzes and discussions.

Understanding Gradebook Column Indicators

A typical gradebook column with grades entered and manually posted

(A) This column ("Assignment 1") is an example of a manually released gradebook column as per the default grade posting policy for U of T courses. The MANUAL indicator in the column header is a reminder that grades entered here (or via SpeedGrader) will not be visible to students until they are posted. The release, or posting, of grades also controls the visibility of any comments made on the assignment and is found in the '...' menu in each column (C).

A gradebook column with grades entered and automatically posted

(B) This column lacks the MANUAL indicator, and has been configured to release grades automatically to students. For a quiz comprised entirely of automatically graded questions (such as multiple choice of true-false) this means students can see their results immediately after writing. In the case of a manually graded quiz or assignment, grades would be released as graders enter them. You can control the grade posting behaviour of individual columns using the '...' menu in any gradebook column (C).

A gradebook column with no grades entered and an assignment pending marking

The "Weekly Quiz #2" gradebook column (D) has the default manual posting policy applied to it. The header for the column also contains the crossed out eye icon , indicating that the grades entered in the column, or in this case the status of "Excused" has not been released or posted to students. Any marks entered here will have to be manually posted using the '...' menu. Additionally, the notification icon for the "Test Student" (H) indicates that an assignment has been submitted and pending marking.

Entering grades and accessing SpeedGrader

Grades can be entered directly into the gradebook by clicking any individual cell in the spreadsheet (H). The icon to right of the grade entry input field will open a sidebar for that student and assignment combination in to allow commenting, status changes (Late/Missing/Excused) (as in (G)) and access to SpeedGrader.

Options for individual gradebook columns

(C) The three dot menu '...' appears when hovering the mouse over any gradebook column. The menu allows the following actions for any quiz or assignment:

(1) Sort by: Allows sorting the records by grade achieved and filtering out missing assignments, or late submissions.

(2) Speedgrader: View, annotate, and grade individual student submissions.

(3) Message Students Who: send an Inbox message to a subset of students. Subsets include: students who scored less than/greater than a given value or students with ungraded submissions.

(4) Curve Grades: curve assignment grades by setting an average score. Please be aware that curving grades is an irreversible process and is not recommended as a way of managing grades.

(5) Set Default Grade: Be aware that setting a default grade is an irreversible process. Option to give ALL students the same grade on the assignment. By default, this change will only apply to students with ungraded submissions, but selecting the "Overwrite already-submitted grades" will apply the change to all students. This is a powerful feature, and you should export your gradebook prior to setting default grades for columns with existing marks.

(6) Post/Hide Grades: These options may change depending on whether grades have been entered, previously posted or hidden. Post grades for students to view them releasing them manually if the Grade Posting Policy has been set to Manual. Hides the assignment grades from student view until you choose to release them. See the Grade Posting Policy guide for more details.

(7) Enter Grade as: Option to enter score as points or percentage regardless of how you had set the assignment up initially. It does change the display for the person entering the score but retains the settings to show students the grades as originally set up in the assignment.

(8) Download Submissions: This option only appears if there are submissions to download.

(9) Grade Posting Policy: Individual column settings for the release of Grades to students; opens a menu to post grades automatically or manually for that item and overrides the global Grade Posting Policy set for the entire Gradebook. See the Grade Posting Policy guide for more details.

Releasing or 'posting' Grades and the Grade Posting Policy

Changing the Grade Posting Policy

Manual grade posting is the default setting and appropriate for most course work. However, you may wish to have assessments where marks are released on a rolling basis or an automatically graded quiz wherein you want students to immediately see their mark. If so you may wish to change the manual grade posting policy to 'automatic'.

The grade posting policy can be changed on a per-assignment basis using the '...' (C) that appears when hovering over any column header in the Gradebook.

The grade posting policy can also be changed for the entire course and all subsequently created assignments and quizzes using the gear icon found in top left of the interface (2).

Gradebook Columns with Unposted Grades

The icon (D) indicates that at least one grade in this column has not been posted to students. By default, all columns which have grades entered will appear this way until grades are posted. Note that it is possible to mark an assignment or quiz, post the grades and later have an assignment graded following mark posting to cause the icon to reappear. The late submission will have to be posted manually. Read more about the Gradebook Posting Policy.

Plagiarism Detection Tool Indicators

The colour coded indicators adjacent to grades (E) indicate the status of reports from the plagiarism detection tool. The colour coding can be blue, green, yellow or red in ascending order of similarity score. Clicking on the indicators will take you to the report for review.

Back to top

The 'Gradebook' menu found in the top left of the gradebook allows switching from the 'traditional gradebook' view (depicted above) to the 'individual gradebook' view where grades can be viewed for a single student at a time. 

The Traditional Gradebook View

The default and most versatile view in Quercus' gradebook, this spreadsheet-like display has columns for all quizzes and assignments and rows representing each student in the course. Colour coding is used to depict grading status, column headers indicate whether the grades in a particular column are visible to students and grades can be entered directly into the cells. Speedgrader can also be launched for any submission directly from traditional view.

The Individual Gradebook View

The individual gradebook view can be useful when reviewing all assignments for a particular student or grading on a per-student, rather than per-assignment basis. This plain-text interface offers an alternative navigation style that may work better when grading on mobile devices.

Gradebook History

A report on all grade updates and changes in your course. The report can be filtered based on student, assignment, grader and the date. The report will indicate the current grade and the timestamp of any changes made to the grade, with an indication of the 'before' and 'after' value of the mark - this can be useful for investigating any grade changes made by your grading team.

Back to top

You can access the SpeedGrader from the Gradebook by finding the column of the assignment column you wish to grade, hover over the header, and click the '...' menu (C) to launch the SpeedGrader. You can also access the SpeedGrader from the mark entry sidebar which appears when clicking the icon to the right of the grade entry text field (F).

If you prefer to use an Excel spreadsheet when recording grades, Quercus offers the option to download a copy of the Gradebook. If changes are made, this copy can then be re-uploaded to the course at a later date. The Quercus gradebook is exported as a CSV file, a format that can be opened in Microsoft Excel or any other office suite (such as Google Docs or LibreOffice).

Exporting Grades

1. Select the Export option from the the upper left part of the interface (2). You can choose to export the entire, unfiltered gradebook or the currently visible filtered view. You can also see a view of past exports, which can be useful if you have made errors in entry after the last export.
2. The CSV file will download. If you have previously exported a copy of the grades and no changes have been made, you can access the previous export or generate a new one if changes have been made since the last export.
3. Open the file. The spreadsheet will contain the same columns as the Gradebook and will also include student numbers and UTorIDs, along with any grades that had been entered prior to the export. Note that any of the 'calculated' grade columns (5) cannot be edited and reuploaded to Quercus.

Importing Grades

If you intend to re-upload a gradebook file, be sure to save the spreadsheet as a comma-delimited CSV file (do not use UTF-8 encoding when saving). You must also use the same existing column headings. Once you are ready to re-upload the spreadsheet, select the Import option from top right of the interface (2). See the vendor's documentation for more information: How do I import grades in the Gradebook? Links to an external site.

New Columns in Gradebook Imports

New assignment columns can be added to the downloaded spreadsheet. You will be prompted to review/confirm these new assignments during the upload process. It may take some time for the entire Gradebook to update - do not try to re-upload the file. You can check back in a few minutes to see if the records are updated. An "Oops" message may appear when uploading new columns. Generally, the content will upload successfully regardless of this, it is recommended to double-check the grade entries just in case.

You will be given the option to review any grade changes before uploading the file. Make sure you save your changes using the Save Changes button to complete the upload process. If necessary, changes can be made to any cell in the "To" column by clicking on the cell.

Back to top

Apply Filters

Quercus allows you to filter students in your Gradebook by (1) Sections, (2) Modules, (3) Assignment Groups, (4) Student Groups (5) Submissions and (6) Start & End Dates. You can apply these filters that are available to you or create your own filter presets based on your needs.

 

Filter Presets

Creating Filter Presets

To create a Filter Preset, click Apply Filters button in your gradebook and select the Create & Manage Filter Presets option from the dropdown list. This will deploy a panel in the right side of the page where you can create a filter with the following parameters: Sections, Modules, Assignment Groups, Student Groups, Submissions as well as a range of dates. Once you create the Filter you wish to save, click the Save Filter Preset button.

Using Saved Presets

When you create a Filter Preset, it is saved for future use; this is a useful tool if you want to filter your students by sections (LEC, PRA or TUT), all saved presets will be located under Saved Filter Presets and you can select the preset to use to filter your gradebook view. Keep in mind all presets are created at the individual level, if your TAs want to filter by their tutorial sections, they need to create their filters.

 

Back to top

---

The gear icon () in the top right of the gradebook interface allows changing of the following global gradebook options:

Late Policies

• Allow applying of an automatic late penalty for assignments submitted beyond the due date
• We generally do not recommend using this feature as it can cause unintended mark reductions

Grade Posting Policy

Changing the default grade posting policy to 'Automatically Post Grades' will affect only subsequently submitted assignments. Read more about the Gradebook Posting Policy.

View Options

• Change the default sort order for the gradebook view
• Show notes, an additional column allowing for free text input
• Changing the status indicator colours (such as the 'Excused' status marker (G))
• Hiding of unpublished assignments, or the total and assignment group columns (5)