Gradelink does not recommend assigning an Alternative Grade as a method of “overriding” a final grade, except in the case of withdrawals, incompletes, etc. If a student’s grade average needs to be changed in a class (i.e., changing a B to an A), or an Administrator would like to override a final grade entered by a Teacher, the following options are available:
- Bonus Points: Assignments can be graded with up to 200% their max possible worth (i.e., you can give a score of up to 20 points on an assignment worth 10 points).
- Extra Credit: Configure an Extra Credit Assignment Type, and offer students Extra Credit assignments to boost their grades.
Extra credit assignments are a benefit to the student if they score anything at all. Extra credit never harms the student’s grade. Extra Credit Assignment Types count over and above the 100% that makes up the class. In the example below, an assignment type called “Bonus work” has extra credit enabled and is weighted at 5%. 105% is possible in the class. If one extra credit assignment is offered, and a student received 40% on that assignment, that student would get 2 percentage points (or 40% of 5 %) added to his or her final grade. If he or she were originally averaging 80% in the class, the extra credit would raise the final grade to 82%.
- Adjust Curves: Teachers can edit an assignment’s curve to boost the class percentage uniformly, or can add an overall class curve for a large-scale effect.
If neither of the above options are suitable, or if you would like to add another mark, such as “Incomplete” or “Withdrawal”, a student’s grade may be manually overridden using Alternative Grades:
- As a Teacher, navigate to the GradeSheet tab on the left side of the page.
- Under the “Class Grade” column, click on the student's grade.
- Select an option under the “Alternative Grade” drop-down menu.
- Click Submit. This new Alternative Grade will now display on Report Cards and Transcripts in place of the original letter/percentage grade.
