Check student scores, times, and difficulty

Select a tab to see score, time, or difficulty data. To see diagnostic charts with this data for a standard assignment, select its title.

Score: Student assignment grades and class average

• Compare student scores with the number of Assigned Points (if you're displaying grades as points) and the Class Average or group Average for that assignment.
• Red shading alerts you to low scores and can indicate performance patterns that need attention. If you don’t see this color coding, edit the color-code Gradebook setting.
• To adjust scores, grant extensions or exemptions, or reset an assignment for one or more students, see Adjust scores and settings per student.

Time: Assignment completion times

• Compare individual student times to the Class Average listed below. Consider following up with students who consistently spend an overly long amount of time on assignments.
• Deeper red shades indicate less time spent on the assignment, and could flag inappropriate student collaboration. (If you don’t see this color coding, you can edit your Gradebook display preferences.)
• How the time is calculated: Mastering calculates time finished minus time opened, and automatically takes into account the fact that students may have started and stopped working several times. Mastering doesn’t record the time that a student might look at questions and not submit an answer.
• Time tracked for timed assignments: The time data shows the time a student spent answering questions. It's NOT an indicator of the total time a student worked on or looked at a timed assignment. For details about the time a student worked on an assignment, contact Pearson Support to request a User Activity Report.

Difficulty: Assignment struggle, where 5 is the most difficult

• How the difficulty is calculated: Difficulty factors in the time taken, number of correct and wrong answers submitted, as well as the number of hints and answers requested, and then normalizes this to a 1–5 scale.
• If some students have consistent difficulty, the assigned material may be too advanced for them. Consider providing extra help or tutoring options.

Some exceptions for Adaptive Follow-Ups, Dynamic Study Modules, and Learning Catalytics data

• Adaptive Follow-Up assignments — The Time and Difficulty data is available only after the due date/time of the Follow-Up has passed.
• Dynamic Study Module assignments — Score and Time data is provided, but no Difficulty data is available. For difficulty info, see Dynamic Study Module reporting.
• Offline Activities and Learning Catalytics sessions are included in the Score tab, but not in the Time and Difficulty tabs. Learning Catalytics scores appear only for sessions for which you chose to transfer grades into the Mastering Gradebook.

Gradebook columns

• Point to an assignment name to see its full title, assignment category, due date, and point value. (You cannot resize these columns.)
  Select View Legend to understand the assignment category colors

  

  Homework example

  

  Follow-Up example

  Adaptive Follow-Up assignments are scored separately, and an Adaptive Follow-Up score never affects the student's score on the Parent assignment.

  

Total or Average column. Depending which tab is active and how you filter the data (see instructions about filtering below), this column shows aggregated data for the students and the assignments shown, as follows:

Score tab (Total column)

On the Score tab, the calculations in the Total column depend on whether grades are shown as Points or Percentages. (This selection is made in Additional Course Settings.)

Assigned Points row

• Points: Total points available for all assignments shown.
• Percentages: This row isn't shown.

Class Average / Average row (for the all students/subset of students):

• Points: Average of students' total points for assignments that are already due.
• Percentages: Average of students' % scores for assignments that are already due.

[Student name] row:

• Points: The student's total score for assignments that are already due.
• Percentages: The student's average score for assignments that are already due.

Averages are also affected by any weighting you apply to specific assignments or to assignment categories.

Time tab (Total column)

Class Average / Average row (for the all students/subset of students):

Sum of the values (in hours and minutes) in the row.

[Student name] row:

Total time (in hours and minutes) that the student has spent online working on the Mastering assignments that are shown. Offline Activities are never displayed on the Time tab.

Difficulty tab (Average column)

All rows:

Average of all the per-assignment difficulty values in the row, rounded down to the nearest integer, for the assignments shown. Offline Activities and Learning Catalytics sessions are never displayed on the Difficulty tab. For Dynamic Study Module assignments, use Dynamic Study Module reports to review module difficulty and other details.

Gradebook rows

• Assigned Points appear in a row below the column headings if you're displaying Gradebook grades as points, rather than as percentages. (To switch between points and percentages in your Gradebook, see edit course settings.) You can use these points and the number in the Total column, to align points for Mastering assignments with your syllabus.
• Class Average or Average appears above student data. If you filter the display to show a subset of students, the label becomes Average, and the row shows the average for only those students.
• Students are initially listed alphabetically, with either (depending on the tab you're viewing) their Score, Time, or Difficulty in each assignment column.

  To filter the list to show fewer students or a single student, see "Adjust your view of Gradebook data" below.

  Optionally, you can display more information about each student

  Set Gradebook preferences to display student IDs, usernames, color-coded cell backgrounds, and more.

• The Essays row appears if any assignment in the course contains an essay or free-form text answer. Such assignments are marked with the pencil icon below the assignment title because essay questions must be graded individually by an instructor or a section instructor.

See Gradebook preferences if you want to turn any of these options on or off.

• Shades of red background color indicates scores below 100%, or the equivalent in points. The deeper the red, the lower the score.
• Shades of gray background color indicates scores that don't contribute to the student's current total score. These include scores on assignments that:
  • The student is exempt from
  • Aren't due yet, whether for the entire class or for this student with an extension
  • Are for practice (no points) or have zero weight
    
• Item completion thermometers show the percentage of for-credit or for-practice items students complete. You can also compare thermometers for an individual student with the class average. Thermometers apply to standard Mastering assignments, not Adaptive Follow-Up or Dynamic Study Module assignments.
  • To see the number of items completed: Point to a thermometer.

    

  • If two thermometers appear for an assignment: The for-credit thermometer is on the left (dark blue-green), the for-practice is on the right (light blue-green).

When you open the Gradebook, any previous filter you used is applied, and its description appears above the Score, Time, or Difficulty data.

Filter by score range, student groups, or assignment categories

The same filter criteria apply to the data in any tab you display, whether Score, Time, or Difficulty.

1. Open the Gradebook, as described at the top of this page.
2. Select Clear All Filters to remove all filters that currently apply to the data shown in the Score, Time, and Difficulty tabs.

   

3. Select Filter (top left).
4. Select one or more filter options, depending on the data you want to filter for.
   • To show data for students whose total score falls within a range:
     Enter a range of scores under Find Students with Total Scores to focus on high or low scorers.
   • To show data for one or more student groups:
     Select one or more group names under Limit to groups, if students in the course have been assigned to groups. You can use Shift+click or Ctrl+click to select multiple groups, or you can choose Select All.
   • To limit Gradebook data to one or more categories:
     Select a category name under Limit to categories. To select multiple categories, you can use Shift+click or Ctr+click. To deselect one or more categories, you can choose Select All and use those keystrokes.
5. Select Save.

Show data for an individual student

From the Score, Time, or Difficulty tab, enter the student’s name or ID and then select .

Any inactive students aren’t listed in the Gradebook’s Score, Time, or Difficulty views unless you choose to show them. Students with this status can’t submit any work.

1. Open the Gradebook, as described at the top of this page.
2. Select Filter.
3. Select Show inactive/suspended students? and choose Save.
   • How inactive/suspended students appear in the Gradebook:
     Inactive students appear with an asterisk before their name. Also, “(suspended)” appears if you point to the student’s name.
   • If you export the Gradebook: The Enrollment Status column shows whether a student is Enrolled or Suspended.

To hide inactive students from the Gradebook: Repeat the steps above to turn off “Show inactive/suspended students?”

You can change the sequence of student rows by selecting any of the following column headings on the Score, Time, or Difficulty tab: Name, Student ID (if displayed), Login Name (if displayed), and Total or Average.

You can't sort by a specific assignment column, but if you need rows sorted that way, you can export the Mastering Gradebook and sort by any column when you open the exported .csv file in a spreadsheet application.

When you open the Gradebook, it recalculates all student scores beginning with the first page.

• Limit the student scores per page for faster score loading. Select a value for Students per page (top left), whether 10, 25, 50, or 100. The default is 25.

  

  (The “Students per page” setting appears once the Gradebook contains student scores.)

• Select a page number to view it, provided the Gradebook has multiple pages.
• Point to a page number to see the range of last names on the page.

  

Select or point to almost any element of the Gradebook to see more information.

• See all scores for an individual student: Select a student's name to see all the student's grades on the Scores for Student_name page.
  

  You can also quickly access this page by searching on a student name from the Course Home (Mastering Performance area) or by selecting Instructor Tools, Student IDs & Groups, then the student's name.

  • Details for an assignment score: From the Scores for Student_name page, you can select any linked score to see the Assignment Grade page, which provides links to the Item Work page.
  • Step-by-step work by student on an assignment: On the Item Work page, you can see the student's step-by-step work for each Mastering assignment item (including time spent, wrong answers, hints requested, and hints worked).
  • Adjust assignment score, due date, and more for one or more students: On the Assignment Grade page for a standard assignment, you can also reset the assignment for the student or adjust the student's score, due date, or exemption. If the assignment is a Parent with a related Adaptive Follow-Up, be sure to heed the information provided when you select the icon that accompanies this message.

  

  

• Make adjustments for students and see step-by-step work: Select a student's assignment score to go directly to the Assignment Grade page, where you can make adjustments, as described above, or link to the student's step-by-step work for each item in a Mastering assignment, or each question in a Learning Catalytics session.

  Point to any student score to see the full name of the assignment.

  

• See more assignment info (Overview page, and more): Select an assignment column heading for more info, depending on the kind of assignment:

  For this assignment type	Select the column heading to see
  Standard Mastering Assignment	Diagnostic charts for the assignment
  Adaptive Follow-Up	Overview page for the Follow-Up assignment
  Dynamic Study Module	Overview page for the assignment
  Learning Catalytics Session	Review page for the module session
  Offline Activity	Edit Scores page for the activity

See Adjust an assignment for a student.

See Make a student active or inactive in a course.

For information about the essay scoring process, see How essay answers are graded.