Interpret gradebook data

Updated 19 Feb 2024

Using the gradebook, you can display student scores and any custom columns that you create to calculate grade totals or averages. You can also use the Gradebook > Custom View page to display this same information (MyLab IT only).

This topic answers these questions:

Which assets are included?

Only folders, activities, readiness checks, and study plans appear in the gradebook. Folders contain assets, such as activities, readiness checks and study plans. If a folder does not contain any gradable assets, it does not in the gradebook.

The gradebook includes columns for:

  • All assigned and gradable activities, including:
    • Exams
    • Grader projects (MyLab IT only)
    • Dropbox assignments
  • Study plan pre-tests, post-tests, and study materials; these appear in separate columns when you click View Grades to open the study plan from the gradebook. (MyLab IT only)
  • Readiness checks, and practice tests with study plans; these appear in separate columns when you click View Grades to open the study plan from the gradebook. (MyLab Languages only)
  • Assigned activities set for anonymous submission; these display "Anon" in the grade column. (MyLab Languages only)
  • Assigned activities that contain questions that require manual grading; these display "Pending" until you grade all questions in the activity or until you edit the grade. If you select Edit Grade from the context menu, the pop-up displays the score for all auto-graded questions. The activity is not included in report calculations until all questions in the activity that require manual grading are scored.
  • Assigned but not yet submitted activities; these display "---" until the student submits them.
  • Past due assignments; these receive a score of zero until the student submits them and you accept the submission, you edit the student's grade, or you extend the assignment due date to a future date.
  • Assignments that are set to randomly select questions (activities for which randomization is turned on); these display a raw score of 0/1 if the student has not yet submitted the activity or if the activity is past due. The zero score appears initially because each student sees a different set of questions and each question can have a different point value. The total possible point value for an individual student submission is calculated after the student submits the activity.
  • Assignments chosen for incentive badging; when a student achieves the threshold grade required to see a badge, which is typically higher than the threshold for passing, a badge icon appears next to that score in both the student and the instructor gradebook. This option is currently available only for selected courses.

Click the Legend menu in the top-right corner for a list of available icons and their meaning.

What are the rounding rules?

In the gradebook, decimal values round to one decimal place (the nearest tenth).

  • If the number to the right of the first decimal is less than 5, the decimal value is unchanged (rounded down).

    x.x0 – x.x4 appears as x.(x)

    For example:

    3.147 displays as 3.1

    2.449 displays as 2.4

  • If the number to the right of the first decimal is 5 or more, the decimal value is increased by 1 (rounded up).

    x.x5 – x.x9 appears as x.(x+1)

    For example:

    3.362 rounds to 3.4

    2.489 round to 2.5

You can view raw scores to two decimal places (the nearest hundredth) in the View Submissions window.

How is the passing threshold determined?

You can assign a threshold score, expressed as a percentage, for each activity, study plan or readiness check pre-test, or study plan or readiness check post-test. The threshold score is the score students must obtain to "pass" the activity or test.

You set global threshold scores on the Preferences > Activities or the Preferences > Activity page for activities and on the Preferences > Study Plan page for study plan or readiness checks. Alternatively, you can set a threshold score on the Preferences page when creating or editing an individual activity on the Course Materials > Manage Course Materials page or in the My Course list on the Course Materials > Add from Library page.

  • If a student scores below the threshold score, the score appears in red with the not passed icon .
  • If a student scores at or above the threshold score, the score appears in black.

Alternately, you can disable the threshold score option. In this case, "not passed" icons do not appear in the gradebook or the summary results page after the student submits the asset. All scores appear in black.

Which scores can I see?

The gradebook can show three types of scores:

  • Submission score: The performance-based score a student receives for a submission. Submission scores may be the result of auto-grading, manual instructor grading, or a combination of the two.
  • Edited score: Scores that override the submission score. Edited scores may be the result of manual instructor edits or edits applied automatically based on an asset being past due. All manually edited scores appear with an edited grade icon .
  • Gradebook score: The score displayed in the gradebook.

There can only be one "grade of record" for a submission. The "grade of record" appears in the gradebook and in all reports. The "grade of record" is either the submission score or the edited score.

Which submission or score appears in the gradebook?

Your course may allow students to submit assets more than once. The only asset types that cannot allow more than one attempt are activities of type "Test" and pre-tests.

By default, the highest grade for a submission appears in the gradebook. However, you can globally change which activity submission—highest, lowest, first, last, or average—appears in the gradebook on the Preferences > Activities page, and which post-test submission appears in the gradebook on the Preferences > Study Plan page.

What if I manually edit grades?

If you manually edit a grade, the edited grade is used as the score for the submission.

If you edit a grade before any student makes a submission, the edited grade is used as the score for the submission until the student makes a submission. After a student makes a submission, the submission score is used. You can still edit the submission score after a student makes a submission.

The gradebook score is updated based on the grading preferences that you set either for an individual activity or for all activities in the course. Newly edited scores and new submission scores are automatically compared against the gradebook score to determine whether any gradebook updates are needed. If you edit the grading preference, the update applies to new scores only.

If you edit a score, either in the gradebook or on the View Submissions page, the edited grade may not appear in the gradebook. For example, assume the grading preference is set to display the "highest" score in the gradebook. If the student has three submission scores: 85%, 83%, and 75%, the gradebook will show 85%. If you edit that submission score to 80%, the gradebook would show 83%, which is then the "highest" score.

How are past due activities considered?

The gradebook automatically displays a score of zero if:

  • The activity, pre-test, or post-test is past due and the student has not submitted it. In this case, a submitted late icon appears.
  • The activity is past due and you have not yet accepted the submission.
  • The activity, pre-test, or post-test is assigned without a due date and the course has ended.

For readiness checks or study plans, you can assign or set a due date for the entire item. Therefore, the pre- and post-tests have the same due date. After the due date passes, students who have not submitted it receive a score of zero.

Zero scores on an activity are maintained even if you:

  • Unassign an activity that is past due.
  • Remove the due date.

However, zero scores are removed if you move the activity due date to a date in the future.

What if the same asset exists in multiple course folders?

If an activity is assigned and the student submits the activity once, the following behavior applies:

  • The score the student receives is recorded in the gradebook for all the instances of the activity.
  • If an activity is past due and the student did not submit it but the student submitted the same activity in another folder, the score for the submitted activity is applied to the past due activity. That is, the past due activity does not receive an automatic grade of zero.
  • If an activity is part of readiness check or study plan materials, and course/folder calculations are enabled to display the average or sum of unassigned activities, the version in the readiness check or study plan is counted in the course/folder calculation even if the activity is assigned outside of the readiness check or study plan.
  • If a readiness check or study plan exists multiple times, the pre-test and post-test in all copies of the readiness check or study plan are updated by the last scheduling action taken on any instance of the readiness check or study plan. For example, assume there are two copies of the same readiness check or study plan in a course: Copy 1 and Copy 2. If you set Copy 1 to be due on October 16, and then set Copy 2 to be due on October 20, the pre-tests and post-tests in Copy 1 will become due on October 20.