Prerequisites

Before instructors and students can use the self-service Gradebook, a power user must:

  • Understand the way that the system calculates grades in the Gradebook.

  • Create assignment categories on the Gradebook Category page.

    Assignment categories are high-level groups of assignments that an instructor might track (for example, homework, extra credit, quizzes, tests, midterms, finals, and so on). Instructors cannot set up assignment categories through the self-service application, although they can access the page through PeopleSoft Campus Portal or through regular database access if you grant them security. Traditionally, administrators, not instructors, set up assignment categories.

  • Ensure that each instructor has appropriate grade roster access for the Gradebook classes.

    This table explains the three levels of access:

    Grade Roster Access Add and Delete Class Assignments Modify Class Assignments Enter Grades Update Grades to Grade Roster Set Grade Roster To

    Grade

    No

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Ready for Review

    Approve

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Approved

    Post

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Approved

    See Student Records: Defining Class Meeting Patterns.

  • Ensure that each instructor and student who needs to use Gradebook has the appropriate security access.

    See Campus Solutions Application Fundamentals: Defining Session Time Periods.

  • Ensure that the instructors have activated the Gradebook information for their classes (by accessing the Class Assignments component and saving it) so that students who are enrolled in a class can access the Gradebook data.

  • (Optional) Define your institution's Gradebook File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server and URL address so that if an instructor wants to export grades to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, the system has a temporary place for the file.

  • (Optional) Set up class assignment defaults at the course catalog level on the Course Assignments - Assignments page, the Course Assignments - Category Weight page, and the Course Assignments - Grading Scale page.

    Course assignment defaults are especially advantageous for classes that are always taught with the same curriculum because you set up the assignments once at the catalog level, and the system supplies the values to the class level when an instructor first accesses the Gradebook for his or her class. You can also use this component to specify assignments, such as a final examination, that are required by the institution.