Introduction

Grades calculated using Simple Weighted Mean of Grades (SWMoG) are simply weighted by their point values, rather than by a weight you manually enter. The course total is 100 by default.

This article explains how SWMoG calculates a course or category total. A tutorial for how to change your gradebook's aggregation type to SWMoG is embedded at the end of this article. 

Using Simple Weighted Mean of Grades

Use SWMoG if all of the following are true:

  • You aren't using percentages in your course (e.g. Quizzes are worth 40% of the course total, Attendance is worth 10% of the course total, etc).
  • You want the course total to always calculate on a 100 point scale (e.g. students will see they have 85/100). 

SWMoG has the following characteristics:

Weights are determined by each activity's point value. 

A quiz worth 100 points has twice the weight of a quiz worth 50 points. 

The course total equals 100 by default, and all entered grades are collectively scaled to this total. 

Though the course total can be changed to any number you select, it will be set to 100 by default. All entered and earned grades are scaled to this total. 

A student's grade is the number of earned points out of the total number of available points, scaled to the course total. 

Because of these characteristics, course totals in courses using SWMoG often read as percentages rather than points.

Example 1a

A course with 10 quizzes, worth 100 points each, will have a default course total of 100 points. 

Example 1b

If grades for two of the quizzes are entered, each student's current course total is their percentage of earned points out of available points, scaled to the course total of 100. 

Example 2

In a course with two grades worth 50 points each, and one grade worth 100 points, the 100 point grade will be weighted at twice the value of either 50 point grade in the course total.

NameGrade 1Grade 2Course Total
First Student50/5085/100

90/100

Second Student45/50-90/100

Changing how your grades are calculated

Gradebook: Changing Grade Aggregation Types

1. In the settings bar along the top of your course, select the Grades link.
Selecting the grades link.

2. Open the dropdown menu in the top left part of the page, and select Gradebook setup.
Opening the gradebook setup.

3. Within Gradebook setup, click the first ••• icon at the top of the Actions column, then select Edit category. 
Selecting category by clicking on the three-dot icon and then clicking edit category.

4. Open the Aggregation menu and select your preferred aggregation.
Selecting your preferred aggregation.

5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the popover window.

Exclude Empty Grades

"Empty Grades" are grades that have not been entered in the gradebook yet. A grade may be empty because a student has not completed a course assessment yet, or because the instructor hasn't graded submitted work. 

Empty grades display as dashes in the gradebook, and are different than scores of zero. Zeros are calculated in the course total, but empty grades (dashes) do not count towards the course total by default.

By leaving Exclude Empty Grades enabled, you are directing AsULearn to display a course total that only includes the graded items in the course, while ignoring grades that have not yet been entered.

Exclude Empty Grades option


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