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The Grade Editor allows you to make changes to a specific student’s score on a specific activity
Accessing the Grade Editor
You will use the Grade Editor in many instances; the most common ways to access it include:
- Selecting an activity directly from the To-do List.
- Opening the Performance/Gradebook tool and clicking the cell where a specific student and activity meet.
- Opening the Performance/Gradebook tool, selecting a student name, clicking Grades, and clicking an assignment row.
Grading with the Grade Editor
The Grade Editor is made up of two panels:
- The student panel on the left.
- The grading panel on the right.
Student panel
The student panel displays information about an activity for the selected student:
- Click the activity title under the student's name to preview the activity without leaving the grader.
- Click the Print icon to print grade details.
- Feedback Messages are not printed with grade details.
- Content previews the completed activity if available. Where applicable, you can adjust scores on individual questions or grading rubric criteria or modify the due date for the selected student.
- Score/Activity History tracks all activity attempts, time spent, and scores beginning with the first attempt.
- Submission History displays the most recent grade submission and the date it was completed.
- Class Statistics summarizes how the student is performing in comparison to the rest of the class.
- Objectives (only appears for assessments) displays the objectives aligned with the assessment and the student's performance on each.
Grading panel
The grading panel allows you to:
- Enter a Score. When possible, this number is automatically calculated for you on assessments, but you can always change it.
- Use Full credit to assign full points, No credit to assign zero points, and Clear to remove all points.
- Use Revert to calculated if you made changes to an automatically calculated score and want to reset it.
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Save draft when you want to save the data you’ve entered, including any unsent feedback Messages, without submitting any of it, so you can return, edit, ans submit later.
- Save draft automatically navigates you to your next task.
- When you save scores and feedback Messages as a draft, they can be returned in bulk using Activity grader > Return all scores or automatically returned if a Score release date is set and the date passes.
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Submit Score saves the grade to the Gradebook where the student can see it. If you have feedback in the Messages editor, Submit sends the message.
- Submit score automatically navigates you to your next task.
- Click the dropdown arrow next to Submit to use Send message now, which sends the message without submitting the score.
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Excuse removes the Require a passing score for course credit on an activity activity; excusing a student from an activity saves an X to the Gradebook for that activity and doesn’t count it when calculating the student’s score. Once selected, Excuse reads Un-excuse; click it to undo the excuse.
- Excuse/un-excuse automatically save, send any unsent feedback Messages, and navigate you to your next task.
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Allow retry on the activity for a student. The student can see that a retry has been permitted, but you may want to send them a message to notify them. Once selected, Allow retry reads Un-allow retry; click it to undo the allowance. Allowing retries on activities with an expired due date prompts you to modify the due date for that student.
- Allow retry/Un-allow retry automatically save, send any unsent feedback Messages, and navigate you to your next task.
- Use Override Complete if you have used the Block access until student completes other activity setting to require completion before students can continue and you want to remove it for the student. Once selected, Override complete reads Un-complete; click it to undo the override.
- Override complete/Un-complete automatically save, send any unsent feedback Messages, and navigate you to your next task.
- Use Mark as missing to indicate that a student has not completed an activity. Once selected, Mark as missing reads Un-mark missing; click it to remove the note.
- Mark as missing/ Un-mark missing automatically save, send any unsent feedback Messages, and navigate you to your next task.
- Note: Mark as missing behaves differently from the rest of the scoring options.
- Create and send feedback Messages and attachements at any time.
- If Inbox is enabled in your domain, you may see messages from students here. When you receive a message, you get a notification for your Inbox.
- Use the Private Note field to create and save a note to yourself.
Using Missing and Allow retry together
The Missing option does not initiate Allow retry for the student. If you want to Allow retry and use the Missing flag for an activity:
- Provide a score and select Allow retry.
- Go back to the Grade editor for the activity and click the Missing option.
If you choose Allow retry after choosing Missing, the Missing flag is cleared. To use both, always Allow retry first.
The following items can be batch updated for multiple students in a single activity: Score, Mark as missing, Excuse, Allow retry, Clear.
Learn more: How do I Batch update an activity score for multiple students?
How to use "Mark as missing"
The Mark as missing scoring option is designed to give teachers a way to alert students to a missing activity (or a missing part of an activity), usually to encourage the student to take some action to address it (retry where allowed, talk to the teacher, etc).
When Mark as missing is used for an activity:
- Teachers can return a score without marking the activity as complete, so students know how the missing activity will be scored if they don't address it and activities that require completion for access are not made accessible.
- An icon (a clipboard with an exclamation point) appears with the activity in Grades screens to notify students and teachers.
- A Status: Missing message appears in the activities Grade details screens.
Using Mark as missing with other scoring actions
After Mark as missing has been assigned to an activity, any action taken by the student (like retrying the activity) or by the teacher (like submitting a score or using the other grading options in the Grade editor) automatically clears Mark as missing with an updated status.
This is because Mark as missing is intended to motivate a student to notice and address the problem of not completing work and a new action should indicate that this has happend. For example, if a teacher marks an activity as missing, and the student talks to the teacher and they decide together that the student will retry the activity. The teacher simply has to click Allow retry, and the missing status is removed.
Use the following rules when using Mark as missing.
- Any activity can be marked as missing, whether submitted or not.
- If you want to provide a score with the missing status, enter the score, then click Mark as missing. The status will be saved with the score.
- If you want use Mark as missing without a score, simply click it.
- If you want to use Allow retry or Override complete with Mark as missing, assign one of those first. Then, return to the Grade editor for the activity and use Mark as missing. The initially assigned option and Mark as missing are saved to the activity. If you do it in the reverse order, Mark as missing is cleared.
- Note: Assessment activities are an exception to this rule in relationship to the Allow retry option. For Assessments, clicking Mark as missing automatically provides a retry.
- The Mark as missing and Excuse options cannot be used together (as they have conflicting meanings), so assigning one when the other is selected always clears the first one. Excuse means the student is not required to complete the activity for one reason or another.
Use minimal mode for more content screen space
In minimal mode you can collapse the side grading panel of the Grade Editor to make reviewing content easier.
To use minimal mode:
- Click the collapse arrow in the top right corner.
- Manually enter the score in the top bar.
- Click the Score tools [wrench] icon to use the Full credit, No credit, Clear, and Revert to calculated shortcuts. Click Save or Submit after manually entering scores or using the Score tools.
- Use the side menu to Excuse, Allow retry, Override complete, and Mark as missing.
If Inbox is enabled for your domain, and you have a message from a student, a notification appears on the Expand score panel button.
Notes
- Buzz previews submissions under the Content tab in the formats listed here. Because the preview function depends on third party tools, support for the listed file types may change or vary depending upon changes made by the preview tool provider:
- Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, Slides)
- Microsoft Office (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx)
- PDFs (.pdf)
- Images (.gif, .jpg, .jpeg, ,png, .svg)
- And more (.3gpp, .avi, .bmp, .eps, .mov, .mpeg4, .mpegps, .mts, .ps, .py, .tiff, .txt, .xml)
Additional articles
- How do I use the Activity Grader?
- How do I create and use rubrics?
- How do I attach feedback to students' activities?
Tips
- Create feedback templates to save time grading while still providing thoughtful feedback.
- With the Activity Grader you are able to toggle between students without closing the window.
- When adding images with text editors in Buzz, you are able to resize the image to best fit your needs.
- When you give an activity a score and choose Save Draft, an orange pushpin appears next to it in various locations.
- This screen is optimized for mobile