I know that many of you are reviewing your grades and looking ahead to the final exam. You may be wondering just where you stand in the course. With that in mind, I just looked at the "Weighted Total" column in the Blackboard gradebook. I spot checked about 5 entries, and they agree with the averages I have computed in my spreadsheet. They all matched up, so I am concluding that Blackboard is calculating grades the same way I am. I am pleased by this, since Blackboard is the most cumbersome and non-intuitive application I have used in a long time. I would hate to have to change anything.
In order to see where you stand in the course, you can look at your Weighted Total and compare it to the grade cutoffs in the "Cumulative Average" section of the Statistics page.
One word of warning. If you have turned in late homeworks, the Weighted Total will be off by some amount. If you've only turned in one late assignment the Weighted Total will be high by .01% or so. If you've turned in more than that it will be off by a greater amount. Any grade that is not an integer has been recorded as a late grade.
3 comments:
Thanks for this info. Since there is no penalty for one late homework, why would the weighted total be .01% higher if one homework was late and no grade has been recorded for it yet (which you say has been counted as late)?
anonymous,
The problem is related to the way I have the TA's record late homework. If 18/23 was the grade for a students first late homework, then it would be recorded as 18.1. If it were the third late homework, it would be recorded as 18.3.
My spreadsheet knows how to assign the proper grade for these assignments, but the Blackboard site does not.
I guess I didn't make that clear in the original post. I thought I had mentioned this grade recording convention.
Hi,
Are the letter grade distributions subject to change (for the worse), after the last homework and final exam? Or can we assume that the cutoffs will not get any higher? -Thanks
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