A Video version of this is also available:  How to Set Up a Points-Based Gradebook in CampusNet
For a playlist of all CampusNet videos for Instructors:  CampusNet Course Tutorials for Instructors


This article will help if you want your class syllabus and grading system to be set up as points-based and not weighted.  In a weighted system, grades for items are set up as a percentage of the total, thus the maximum grade is 100%.  In a points-based system, each item gets a number of points, and the final grade is the sum of all the points earned (not necessarily 100).  It is important for the method you use to agree with the grading method explained in your course syllabus. 


As this is the lesser-used method, compared to the Weighted Mean of Grades, this article gives a quicker explanation of the gradebook setup details than does the article How to Set Up a Weighted Gradebook in CampusNet.  You may wish to view that article and related video to see explanations for other things like setting up new grade categories, moving items and viewing the grader report.


  NOTE: When editing your course, click the question mark bubbles for more detailed information for the various settings 


Setting up a Points-Based Gradebook:

1. Log in to CampusNet, click the Menu pull-down and select My Courses and go to the course page you want to edit.

2. Click the Settings gear icon on the right and click Gradebook setup.

3. Under the Actions column, click the Edit pull-down that is on the right side of the top-level (course name) row and click Edit settings.

4. In the Grade category section, set the Aggregation pull-down to Natural.

5. Scroll down and click Save changes.

6. With the setting at Natural, the maximum course grade will be the sum of the grade points in the Max Grade column.  So if all the max grades for all the items add up to 500, then 500 becomes the top point grade that can be earned.  (As mentioned before, this should be reflected in your course syllabus).

  Note:  With this points-based (Natural) setting, the Weights column is for information only. Its numbers cannot be changed, but they reflect each item's maximum percentage of the course total.


Changing the Max Grade for an item:

7. If you need to change a Max grade for an item, that cannot be edited while in the Gradebook setup screen.  Here's how to get to the right place:

  1. For automatically-graded items (quizzes for example), from the Gradebook setup screen, click the name of the item at the left side of its row.
  2. In the Grades screen that comes up, click the Edit button (ex. Edit quiz). [This will only appear prior to any attempt being made for the quiz].
  3. On the Editing page that comes up, you can change the Maximum grade field on the right side and click the Save button to apply it.
  4. If you want to adjust the max grades of other items from this Editing page, use the controls at the bottom of the screen to go to other items in the gradebook and change and save them in the same way.
  5. When done, return to the Gradebook setup page to see your change is applied the way you expected.

8. Items that were added manually to your gradebook (threaded discussion forums, for example) ARE changed from the gradebook, as follows:

  1. Click the Edit pull-down on the right side of the item's row, and click Edit settings.
  2. Fill in the Maximum grade field with the value you want and click Save changes.
  3. You will be returned to the Gradebook settings screen, where you can check to see your update in the Max grade column.