Dropping the Lowest Grade from a Grade Category in Brightspace

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This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to configure a grade category in Brightspace to automatically drop the lowest grade. Dropping the lowest grade can help provide a more accurate reflection of student performance by allowing for the occasional poor performance on an assignment without significantly impacting a student’s overall grade.

Note that you can only drop grades from categories in which the items are weighted equally. If you are using a weighted final grade, you’ll have to distribute weights evenly within the category to drop a grade. If you are using a total points final grade, you will have to assign equal points to all the items in the category to drop a grade. For this reason, it is not recommended to have items with very divergent values in the same category, for example, an assignment worth 50 points and another worth 10 points.

Pedagogical note: If you set a category to drop the lowest grade from the beginning of the semester, be aware that this will be reflected immediately in the estimated final grade displayed to students, and in the midterm grades that you enter into the EAB Navigate midterm report. If you prefer, you may take the steps below at the end of the semester, right before submitting your final grades.

Steps to Drop the Lowest Grade

  1. In your course, select Grades in the navigation bar.
  2. On the next page, select the Manage Grades tab.
  3. Click New to create a new category, 

OR locate the grade category you want to adjust. Click the chevron icon beside its title and select Edit.

  1. On the next page, scroll down to Distribution. 
  2. If your final grade is set up as Weighted, select Distribute weight evenly across all items and enter the number of lowest non-bonus items to drop for each user.

If you are using Points for the final grade calculation, select Distribute points across all items, set the points per item, and enter the number of lowest non-bonus items to drop for each user. (To set the points per item in a category of items with different values, you may select an approximate average of the point values. This step is equivalent to distributing weight evenly across all items in a weighted final grade calculation.)

  1. Click Save before you exit the page.

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