Toddle provides you with an intuitive interface to configure the academic setup for your curriculum, such as setting up grading periods, grading methods, grade boundaries and more.
After setting up grading periods and opting to calculate scores for each grading period and assessment category, it’s time to now configure the method of calculation for these scores. Read this article to learn all about it.
Configuring the Assessment setup
In the admin portal, scroll to the ‘Programme level configurations’ section and click on ‘Academic setup’ for your curriculum.
From the navigation menu on the left, select ‘Grading setup’.
Once you enter the ‘Grading setup’, navigate to the ‘Assessments’ in the ‘Grading setup workflow’ section. Alternatively, you can click on ‘Assessments’ in the left pane.
Let’s understand the different configurations you can do on this page.
Setting up calculation method for assessment categories
This setting lets you configure the score calculation method for assessment categories and grading periods, based on how you assign weights to each assessment.
You can select from one of the three options available. The illustration on the right explains how the score for an assessment category if defined, would be calculated in each case:
1. Equal weights
If you select this option, each assessment is given the same weight or importance. The percentage average of all assessments multiplied by the total number of assessments within a category is used to arrive at the overall score for that category. An example of this calculation is included in the image below.
2. Weights proportional to maximum score
Through this method weights are assigned to assessments in a manner that gives greater importance to assessments with higher maximum scores, consequently having a higher impact on the final score. Marks scored in each assessment within a category are added and divided by the sum of the maximum number of marks available for each assessment to arrive at the overall category score. An example of this calculation is included in the image below.
3. Custom weights
With this option, you can manually assign custom weights to assessments, which can be different from their maximum score. The assessment weights are then applied to each assessment to arrive at the overall score. An example of this calculation is included in the image below.
Once you have chosen your desired settings, click on ‘Save’ to finalise your preferences.
Setting up calculation method for grading periods
If you have defined assessment categories in your curriculum, this setup allows you to determine how the scores for each category contribute to calculating the overall score for the grading period. To learn how to create new assessment categories or edit existing ones, refer to this article.
Here you can choose from two calculation methods. The illustration on the right explains how the grading period and assessment category scores would be calculated in each case.
1. Weighted categories
The first one is ‘Weighted categories’ wherein category weights are taken into account while calculating the final score for the grading period. The calculation takes place in two steps; first overall scores for each category are calculated using the assessment weights option selected by you in the previous section. And, then these overall category scores are weighted as per their category weights and, finally added together to arrive at the final score for a grading period. An example of this calculation is included in the image below.
2. Unweighted categories
If you select the ‘Unweighted categories’ option, then the final score for the grading period is calculated solely based on the assessments tagged to that grading period without taking into account the categories they are associated with. Thus, the overall score is directly calculated using the assessment weights option selected by you in the previous step. An example of this calculation is included in the image below.
Choosing the display format for category scores
Once you have configured a calculation method for assessment categories and grading periods, use the ‘Display category scores as’ setting to choose whether the category scores will reflect as absolute weights or percentages in the gradebook and progress reports.
💡Please note that if you have selected the unweighted categories option then the ‘Weight’ option will be disabled as the scores will only reflect as percentages in the gradebook and progress reports.
Here’s how the scores will be displayed if you select the ‘Total percentage’ option:
If you select the ‘Weight’ option the scores will reflect as highlighted below.
Please note that if you have disabled the ‘Overall score calculation’ option under the Grading setup then consequently the options for setting up assessment weights and calculating assessment category scores will also be disabled.
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