Gradebook - What do great gradebooks look like?

When creating your gradebook there are three elements you need to keep in mind:

  1. Size of column widths 
    • It's important to make your assignment titles as short as possible. The gradebook will make your columns wide enough to accommodate the entire assignment title. If, for example, you have an assignment called "Weekly Check Up Review Assignment #1" then the gradebook will create a column wide enough for the whole title ... and that just isn't pretty.  Instead, try naming the assignment WCUR1 or ChkUp1.
    • You can put the full title in the assignment details but make the actual title of the assignment itself as short as possible.
  2. Assignment groups
    • A good gradebook starts with well-organized assignments. If your course is going to have more than a few assignments, you should consider using assignment groups Links to an external site.. You can categorize every assignment into a series of groups (for example: quizzes, essays, discussions, projects, etc.). This way all the quizzes will appear in the gradebook in one group, essays in another group, etc. 
    • At the far right-end of the gradebook, there will also be sub-totals for each assignment group. This will allow your students to see their average quiz score, average discussion score, etc.
  3. Due dates
    • If you have assignment groups, each item in the group will appear according to their due dates. So, if you have a quiz group then all the quizzes will be arranged by their respective due dates.
    • If you do not use assignment groups then every assignment will be listed by due date without any regard to the type of assignment. 
    • Here's the important part: this means every assignment needs to be given a due date. Even if you're just creating a column to manually enter grades Links to an external site., you must make sure to include a due date otherwise the items in the gradebook will be out of order.