The Gradebook Overview Page

The Gradebook overview page displays the names of all students enrolled in a course and their individual assignment scores. CNOWv2 allows you to control how assignments and grades are displayed, how the total score is calculated, and query student data. If you create your own custom Grading Categories, a color-coded bar appears at the top of the assignment column indicating each assignments' category.

Clicking the Preferences "arrow" icon reveals settings for controlling the appearance and display options on the Gradebook page. These settings include a gradebook shading feature that color-codes student assignments by score percentile. See Gradebook Preferences for more details.

The Gradebook page also offers several tools to help you manage your Gradebook. An array of icons in the header organizes these options in dropdown menus of handy links.

Gradebook Options — When students are enrolled, the following options are displayed:

Select a Course or Section

When necessary, you can use this dropdown menu to select a course or section. Without a selection in this menu, many Gradebook features are disabled.

Create

Open the Create menu (pencil icon) to select one of the following management tools:

° Click Create Assignment to open the assignment creation wizard. See Assignment Creation Overview for detailed instructions.

° Click External Gradebook Column to create a "place holder" in your Gradebook you can use to manually record grades for offline assignments or labs done outside of CengageNOWv2. See Using an External Gradebook Column for more details.

Click the Search menu (magnifying lens icon) to display an input field you can use to find information on a specific student. Enter the student's name, a few letters of their name, or part of their Student ID to automatically limit the Gradebook display to your criteria. To return to the full list of students, simply delete your entry in the Search field.

Reports

Open the Reports menu (graph icon) to select one of the following management tools:

° Select Custom Report from the Select a report to create... menu to create a custom summary of score and take information for select students. You can also select from formatting options and file formats for printing, viewed onscreen, or exported to other software (for example, a spreadsheet application) for further editing. See Using Custom Reports for more details.

° Use the Gradebook Analytics link as a quick way to generate and view summaries of score information, response statistics, and review the content in individual questions. Global data is provided so you can make a comparison between national averages and your class' performance. For instructions and descriptions of the report types, see Using Gradebook Analytics Reports.

° Use the Export Course Gradebook link to export your entire CengageNOWv2 Gradebook as a file saved to your computer. Select from file formats you can later view and edit in spreadsheets or import into other systems. For more information, see Exporting a Course Gradebook.

Student

Open the Student menu (mortarboard menu) dropdown menu to select one of the following management tools:

° Adjust Multiple Scores. This link opens the Adjust Multiple Scores page, where you can edit the scores for multiple assignments in a course. You can adjust scores for individual students up or down by a designated amount (percent or points) or reset scores to a specific value. See Adjusting Multiple Scores for details.

° Send Email to Users. This link opens the Send Email dialog box, where you can compose an email to one or all of your students.

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Gradebook

° Query Student Data. This link opens the Gradebook Search page, where you can use different search criteria to track student grades and performance for a course or an assignment. This feature provides a quick reference for finding specific data and the ability to email students who may need assistance. See Querying Student Data for more information.

° Customize Assignment Options for Specific Students. This link opens the Select Assignment and Students for Custom Options and Dates page, where you can modify assignment availability, dates, and other options for individual students. Use this feature to accommodate special circumstances for specific students without having to adjust options for the entire class. See Customizing Assignment Options for Specific Students for more details.

Columns

You use the Columns menu (gear icon) to show or hide gradebook columns, manage any hidden assignments, or filter to display only specific assignment types. See Filtering Assignments for more details on the filtering feature.

Deselecting or selecting a check box causes the listed column to be hidden or displayed. You can also quickly hide columns and assignments by clicking the "X" icon in the column heading.

The columns for Student name, Student ID, the Student Email, Total Score, and Total Time Spent are initially displayed by default.

° Student Name. Lists the students' names, which are also a link to the Student Grade Details page. See The Student Grade Details Page for more details.

° Student ID. An ID assigned to individual students you can create or edit, or have your students create themselves. The Student ID is useful when exporting the Gradebook or generating reports for large classes where students may have similar names. There are several options available for managing Student IDs:

° You can create and/or edit Student IDs on your Gradebook page.

° You can enable Require students to provide a student ID on login when creating or editing a course, which forces students to submit an ID when logging in for the first time.

° You can request that your students set up Student IDs from an option in CengageNOWv2's Global Actions Menu.

° Student Email. Displays the student's email address and is also a link that opens the CengageNOWv2 Send Email page.

° Total Score. Displays the possible score for the course (in parenthesis the column heading) and each student's score for all assignments. The course total score includes any hidden assignments.

° Total Time Spent. Displays the amount of time the student has spent on all assignments, including hidden assignments.

° View Hidden Assignments. Clicking this link opens the Hidden Assignment popup window. From this window you can select to reveal assignments previously selected to be hidden. After you make your selections, click the Show Hidden Assignments button.

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View Hidden Assignments

Gradebook

° The Edit Assignment Filters link opens a page where you can set up criteria for filtering the assignments to appear on your Gradebook page. These selections also allow you to customize the contents of gradebook exports when using Excel or Text Editor file formats. See Filtering Assignments for more details.

° The Edit Grading Categories feature lets you create custom Grading Categories, so assignments can be grouped and weighted collectively in final grade calculations done automatically by CengageNOWv2. See Creating and Editing Custom Grading Categories for more details.

Preferences

Click the Preferences "arrow" icon to display or hide the Gradebook Preferences. From this pane, you can determine how assignments, grades, and scores are displayed. Keeping these advanced controls hidden simplifies the appearance of your Gradebook overview page.

Gradebook Sorting Options

By clicking the active column headings for Student name, Student ID, Student Email, Total Score, and Total Time Spent, you can organize the Gradebook table in ascending or descending order. These headings also have an "X" button that when clicked allows you to hide individual columns. You can choose to display these columns again by selecting the appropriate check box in the Columns menu.

A pane at the top of the page displays how many rows in the current page are in view. You can determine the number of rows per page by entering a value for the Table Length option on the Preferences page. When multiple pages are available, navigation links will appear.

Note: Also see Gradebook Preferences and Filtering Assignments for additional options for sorting Gradebook data.

Status Icons

At the bottom of the page is an icon key providing a legend for the status icons that might appear for assignments or students with special conditions