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for faculty, instructors and staff using educational technologies.
Because Illinois Compass grade book works like a spreadsheet program, instructors must enter a formula in a calculated grade column to generate a grade.
Add a calculated column to the grade book. (If you need help adding a column, see Setting Up Illinois Compass Grade Book).
Note: The default columns Midterm and Final are set as calculated columns. You can use either of these columns to calculate grades without adding a new column.
To access the Grade Book tool, select the Teach tab, and under Instructor Tools select Grade Book.
Here's how the Grade Book main screen looks:
Click on the gray arrow next to the name of the calculated column that you want to set up. From the dropdown menu that appears, select Edit Column Formula.
Alternatively, from the grade book view, click on the gray arrow next to Grade Book Options and select Column Settings.
Here's how the Column Settings screen looks:
From here, click on the gray arrow next to the name of the calculated column and select Edit Column Formula. Once you have accessed the edit formula page for the calculated column that you would like to set up, you can create the formula by clicking the number buttons, the operations buttons, or the function buttons. Once you click any button, its value is transferred into the large text box. You can only enter characters by clicking on the buttons on the screen. You cannot use your keyboard.
To insert a function, click any of the function buttons. Functions can only be inserted following a mathematical operator or left parenthesis. Each function is entered in this syntax: FUNCTION{argument1,argument2,etc.}. For examples of formulas please see the following section Formulas for Basic Grading Schemes.
The following table explains the utility of some of the buttons in the formula screen. The number buttons and the regular mathematical operational buttons work the same as those on a calculator.
| Button | Description |
| Clear All | Clear the formula and start over. |
| Undo | Clear the last entry. |
| Select a column to add to your formula | Insert a column from the dropdown menu to add to the formula. |
SUM, MIN, MAX, AVG, Enter Another Value, End Function |
These functions are used together to find the minimum or maximum from several columns, to sum the values in those columns, or to find the average of the values in the columns. 1) Choose whether you want to find the minimum, maximum, average, or sum from the function buttons. 2) The formula will be started by displaying AVG{ or SUM{ or MAX{ or MIN{ depending on the function that you chose in the previous step. 3) From the dropdown menu, click on the column that you want to add to the formula. 4) Click Enter Another Value. A comma will appear in the display. 5) Again, click on the name of the column that you want to add to the list. 6) Repeat the previous two steps to include more columns to the list. 7) After the inclusion of the last column, click End Function. An Example: SUM{[Quiz1],[Paper1],[Paper2]} will sum up all of the grades from Quiz1, Paper1, and Paper2.
|
| Save | Accept the formula and use it. |
| Cancel | Abort the formula creation. |
first Weighting scenario:
In this scheme, the instructor has given four grades based on a hundred point scale and assigned each graded item a percentage of the overall grade.
The four graded assignments in this course are:
Project 20%
Paper 20%
Midterm 20%
Final Exam 40%
Calculating the final grade for this scheme uses the following formula:
(project grade x 0.2) + (paper grade x 0.2) + (midterm grade x 0.2) + (final exam grade x 0.4) = Final Grade
Assuming that the column names are the same as the graded assignments, this would be written in grade book as:
SUM{([Project]*0.2),([Paper]*0.2),([Midterm ]*0.2),([Final Exam]*0.4)}
In the grade book this appears as:
second Weighting Scenario:
In this scenario, the above instructor has added five homework assignments equal to 10% of the grade.
Homework (5 separate assignments) 10%
Midterm 20%
Project 15%
Paper 15%
Final Exam 40%
There are two solutions to this problem. In one, the instructor can add all of
the homework calculations to one equation.
((homework 1 grade +homework 2 grade +homework 3 grade +homework 4 grade +homework 5 grade)/5 x 0.1)+ (project grade x 0.15) + (midterm grade x 0.2) + (paper grade x 0.15) + (final exam grade x 0.4) = Final Grade
This would be written in grade book as:
SUM{(([Homework 1]+[Homework 2]+[Homework 3]+[Homework 4]+[Homework 5])/5*0.1),([Project]*0.15),([Paper]*0.15),([Midterm]*0.2),([Final Exam]*0.4)}
Alternatively, an instructor can add a calculated column that averages the homework. This calculated column would then be incorporated into the calculation for the final grade.
Here, the new calculated column has been named "Homework Calculated."
The formulas would be written in grade book as:
In the Homework Calculated column:
Avg{[Homework 1], [Homework 2],[Homework 3],[Homework 4],[Homework 5]}
In the Final column:
Sum{([Homework Calculated]*0.1),([Project]*0.15),([Midterm]*0.2),([Paper]*0.15),([Final Exam]*0.4)}
Third Weighting Scenario:
This last scenario deals with grades that have point values that are not 100. In this example, the project grade will be based on a 30 point scale.
Project 30 pts. 20%
Midterm 100 pts. 20%
Paper 100 pts. 20%
Final Exam 100 pts. 40%
The mathematical formula for this scenario is:
(project grade/0.3 x 0.2) + (midterm grade x 0.2) + (paper grade x 0.2) + (final exam grade x 0.4) = Final Grade
This would be written in grade book as:
Sum{([Project]/0.3*0.2),([Paper]*0.2),([Midterm]*0.2),([Final Exam]*0.4)}
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