Create a Category in a Weighted System

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

In a weighted system, categories can be worth a certain weight, or contribute that percentage to the final grade. Items in the category contribute their weight to the category weight.


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.
    Grade tool, New button, click Category

  4. Set the appropriate General options.
    1. Give the category a Name and add a Description if desired.
      New Category add Name and Description
    2. Set Grading options.

      •  Weight: Enter the amount this category will contribute to the final grade.

      • Allow category to grade to exceed category weight: Select this option if you want to allow students’ grades for the category to exceed 100%- this option is necessary if you have a bonus item in the category that you want to apply to both the category and final grade.

      • Distribution: If you want to drop the highest or lowest scores, you will need to select “Distribute weight evenly across all items”, then input the number of highest and/or lowest items to drop for each student.
        Grading weight options.
    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.
        Display options.
  5. 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.
      Save and Close