Dropping the Lowest Grade

Why Do This?

You might wish to drop the lowest grade out of a series of items for each student. For example, dropping the lowest quiz grade out of a set of 9 quizzes. You can set up your gradebook so that this is done automatically.

There are several of conditions that must be met:

• You must have your applicable items in a category.
• All items must have the same weight/max points.
• You cannot have any extra credit items in the category.

If you do drop the lowest grade(s) we recommend showing the Calculated Weight (Weightings) column in the User Report as this displays to students which items have been dropped. By default that column is visible, so as long as you haven't hidden the column students will see it.

Setting Up Dropping the Lowest Grade

1. On your course homepage, click on the gear in the upper right of the course to access the Course Administration, then select Gradebook setup.

2. You must have your grade items in a category first. Follow the category creation help guide to create the category and move grade items into the category.

3. Select the Edit dropdown to the right of the category name and then select Edit Settings from the list of options.

4. Select “Show more” under Aggregation.

5. Put the number of lowest items you want dropped (for example, 1) in the box “Drop the lowest.” You might consider leaving “Exclude empty grades” unchecked. If it is checked, empty grades will be ignored and the system will drop the lowest from the graded items only. If it is unchecked, empty grades will be considered zeros and the system will drop the lowest from all items in the category.

6. Select Save changes at the bottom of the page.

7. Once you have saved, just under the category total it will say “Drop [#] lowest values.”

Viewing Grades Dropped

The grade item that is dropped will be indicated in the Calculated Weight column in the User Report (visible by default) for both students and the instructor.

1. While in the gradebook, click on the View tab and then the User Report tab.

2. Select a student from the drop down or select “All Users.”

4. The Calculated Weight column shows the weight of the items in the gradebook. The item that is dropped will show “0.00% (Dropped)”

5. If you do not see the Calculated Weight column, go to the Setup tab and click on the Course Grade Settings tab.

6. Scroll down to the User Report section and for Show Weightings choose “Show.”

7. Save changes.