Create and Grade a Negative Grade Item

Why Do This?

There might be a scenario where you would want to take away points from a student’s cumulative total in the Gradebook. For example, you may want a student to lose 5 points for every class session that they miss. Creating a negative grade item allows you to do this.

 

Creating a Negative Grade Item

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

 

2. Scroll to the bottom and select Add grade item.

 

3. Enter the Item name. Keep these names short to minimize the gradebook column width.

 

4. The value in the Maximum grade box must be greater than 0 in order to calculate properly. If you only want the grade item to take away points and not contribute points to the course total, you should put 1 in the box and then later we will make the item Extra Credit (steps 7-9).

5. The value in the Minimum grade box should include a minus sign and then the maximum number of points you want to be able to deduct.

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

 

7. To make the item Extra Credit, click Edit and then Edit Settings for the grade item you just created.

 

8. Check the box for Extra credit at the bottom of the page.

 

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

 

Grading a Negative Grade Item

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

 

2. Select the negative grade item from the “Select grade item…” drop down.

 

3. Enter a minus sign followed the number of points the student should lose in the Grade box for each student.

4. Click Save in either the upper or lower right.