In GauchoSpace, student work in an activity (e.g. Assignment, Quiz, Forum, etc.) is typically graded inside of the respective activity module. After grading, each activity module pushes the assigned student grades to a central gradebook. While entering grades directly to the gradebook is possible, grading in the activity modules is considered best practice because each activity has a specialized grading interface designed to improve the efficiency, reliability and transparency of giving grades and feedback. Learning how to use these interfaces is highly recommended!
There are situations, however, when an instructor may choose to bypass entering grades through the activity module. This action is called a grade override.
Here are a few of the most common situations for overriding a grade:
1. Adjusting a student’s grade while still maintaining a clear record of the initial grade
Sometimes an instructor may want to adjust a student's initial activity grade later in the quarter. While the instructor could alter that student's grade in the activity's grader interface, there would be no easily visible record of the change. On the other hand, overriding the grade directly in the gradebook maintains the initial grade in the activity module. Also, in the grader report view, grades with overrides are conveniently highlighted in orange to show that the particular grade has been overridden.
2. Assigning a zero to an unattempted activity.
Regardless of whether empty grades are excluded from the final course grade calculation, it is considered a best practice to assign zeros for unattempted work that is past due. This reduces the risk that unattempted work will be omitted from the final grade calculation. While for most activities, zero grades can be entered directly in the grading interface, quiz activities that use automatically-graded question types can only be assigned a zero by applying a grade override.
3. Importing student activity grades from an external spreadsheet
Occasionally, instructors may grade the first assignments of the quarter offline in a spreadsheet while building their GauchoSpace pages. When uploading grades from a spreadsheet into the GauchoSpace gradebook, these imported grades will automatically override any corresponding grades already assigned in GauchoSpace.
To override grades in the gradebook, follow these steps:
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On your course page, in the Administration block, under Course administration, click Grades.
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Go to the Single View tab:
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In the Select grade item drop-down menu, choose the assignment in which grades you wish to change.
- In the Overrides column, check the box next to the student/s in question or select all:
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You will now be able to enter grades for the student/s:
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Click Save changes. A message summarizing the changes will appear. Click Continue to return to your Grader report. When you have edited grades linked to an activity within the course, GauchoSpace will highlight the cells in orange to show that the grade has been overridden.
Here are some common issues that arise from improperly, or unknowingly, applying grade overrides:
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When a grade override is on, it prevents future attempts to adjust the value of the grade by any other means -- this includes editing of corresponding feedback, as well.
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Manual grade items (see definitions) cannot be overriden.
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Assigning grades via override to GauchoSpace activities with automatic grade items (see definitions) will not update the "needs grading" count in the respective activities.
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Category totals in the Grader Report view of the gradebook cannot be overriden. Overrides only apply to individual grade items.