If you would like to excuse a particular student from an activity, you can exclude the grade for that activity in the grade book. This will remove the value of that activity from calculating into their final grade.
Adding Exclusion
1. Go to the administration block > grades.
2.Choose the “grader report” view.
3. Click the Turn editing on button.
4. Click the Edit icon for that student’s grade.
Hint: You may want to also click the hidden box to hide this score from this student – If you do not click the hidden box, there is no indication to the student that this grade has been excused/removed. Alternately, enter a comment in the feedback textbox with the reason for the exclusion.
Student perspective with no intervention:
Student perspective when hidden:
Student perspective with comment in feedback:
6. Click the Save changes button.
7. Click the Turn editing off button. The word “Excluded” is displayed in the grade book cell.
Calculation
Natural Aggregation Method (Sum)
In the case illustrated above, the grade items are all an even weight. In this case, the total score is determined by removing grade item 3 from the numerator and denominator.
So, rather than (10+10+0)/3 the calculation is (10+10)/2.
Weighted Aggregation Method
In a weighted grade book, this works a little differently.
In this grade book grade item 1 is worth 20% of the course total, grade item 2 is worth 30% of the course total, and grade item 3 is worth 50% of the course total. By excluding grade item 3, this will rescale those weights so that grade item 1 is worth 40%, grade item 2 is worth 60%, and grade item 3 is worth 0%. This is not well expressed in the grade book, but this is what is being calculated.
If you would like to schedule a grade book consultation, please contact us at atlas-tlt@illinois.edu.