Create a Category in a Points System

Categories in Grades help you organize and group related items into sections. For example, you can create separate categories for Assignments, Quizzes, Case Studies, Participation, Discussions, etc.

TIP: If you want to drop the highest or lowest scores on a group of items, setting up a category will allow BOLT to do this automatically as students earn grades on the items.

To create a Category,

1. In Grades, click Manage Grades.
2. Click New.
3. Select Category.
   
   
   
4. Set the appropriate options.
   1. Give the category a Name and add a Description if desired.
      
   2. Choose Grading Options:
      • Can Exceed: Select this box if you want students to be able to earn “extra credit” points in the category.
        
        
      • Exclude from Final Grade Calculation: Select this box if you do not want the category to count towards the final grade calculation.
        
        
      • Distribution: If you want to drop the highest or lowest scores, you will need to select “Distribute points across all items”, input the number of points per item, then input the number of highest and/or lowest items to drop for each student.
        
        
        
   3. Choose Display Options:
      • Display class average to users: Select this option if you want to allow students to see the class average on the item.
      • Display grade distribution to users: Select this option if you want to allow students to see a graph showing how grades were distributed between different percentiles.
      • Override display options for this item: Select this option if you want graded students to view grade information for this item differently from other items in the grade book.
        
        
        

Save your category by

1. Clicking Save and Close to return to the Grades tool.
2. Clicking Save and New to create another Category.
3. Clicking Save to save your work and continue working on the Category.
4. Or else if you don’t want to save, click Cancel.