Manage Learner Grades

Tags: educator how-to

You can review information about how grading is configured for your course, and access learner grades, at any time after you create the course. You can also make adjustments to learner grading for a problem, for a single learner or all learners. For information about the grading data that you can access and the changes you can make, see the following topics.

To review learner answers to course problems, you can check the answer submissions for a specific problem, either for a selected learner or for all learners. You can also review answer distribution data for all of the problems. See View Answer Data.

For open response assessments, you can generate an ORA data report that provides details of each learner’s response and of assessments that were performed on each response. For details, see Generate a Report for ORA Assignments.

For information about how you establish a grading policy and work with the Problem components in your course, see Set the Grade Range or Working with Problem Components.

Review How Grading Is Configured for Your Course

You can review the assignment types that are graded and their respective weights in the LMS by selecting Instructor to access the instructor dashboard.

You establish a grading policy for your course when you create it in Studio. While the course is running, you can view an XML representation of the assignment types in your course and how they are weighted to determine learners’ grades.

1. View the live version of your course.

2. Select Instructor, and then select Data Download > Grading Configuration.

   A list of the assignment types in your course displays. In this example, Homework is weighted as 0.3 (30%) of the grade.

   

   In Studio, you define this information by selecting Settings and then Grading. For more information, see Gradebook Assignment Types.

   

Important

Any changes that you make to the course grading policy, to graded subsections, or to graded components after the course begins will affect learners’ grades and their experience in the course as well as analysis of course data.

Best practice is that you announce any unavoidable grading related changes to learners by using, for example, updates on the Course page. You should also carefully track such changes for researchers.

Override Learner Subsection Scores in Bulk

Note

Master’s-only feature

This feature is available in courses with a Master’s track, to support bulk grade adjustments or curving. It allows you to override subsection (i.e. assignment or exam) grades for in bulk by uploading a file.

Note

Grade overrides apply to all learners enrolled in supported courses. There is a size limit of 4MB (~10k learners) for uploaded files. If your Master’s track course is bigger than this, you’ll have to upload grading files in chunks.

To override grades in bulk, follow these steps.

1. View the live version of your course.

2. Select Instructor, and then select Student Admin.

3. Select View Gradebook.

4. Set up the filters to identify the segment of learners you want to grade.

5. Click the Download Grades button to download a CSV of subsection assignment grades for learners matching the currently specified filters.

   The CSV contains one row per learner, and the following columns:

   • username: The user’s username

   • student_key: The user’s external university ID, if configured

   • course_id: The course ID

   • track: The user’s enrollment track (e.g. audit, verified, etc.)

   • cohort: The user’s assigned cohort, if any

   In addition, there are five columns per graded subsection. <id> is a unique internal identifier for each graded subsection.

   • name-<id>: The name of the subsection

   • grade-<id>: The “effective” grade for the subsection. This is equal to the override grade if there is an override, otherwise it is equal to the “original grade”

   • original_grade-<id>: The grade that the user earned through answering problems and being scored through the LMS

   • previous_override-<id>: The overridden grade (if any) that the learner has received through gradebook grade overrides

   • new_override-<id>: This column will always be blank. This is where you will enter the user’s new grade for the subsection

6. Fill in the points to award in the new_override column for the assignment(s) you want to override grades for and save the file.

7. Return to the Gradebook and click the Import Grades button.

8. Select your updated grades file and click Open.

9. The Gradebook will process your file, update learner grades, and provide a summary of grades updated and any errors.

It can take several minutes for the file upload to complete and grades to be fully updated.

You can find a history of files uploaded and summary of results by clicking the View Bulk Management History link at the top of the page.

Grant Due Date Extensions for a Specific Learner

We’re providing a way to allow extending subsection due dates per individual learner.

This could be used to support special circumstances, personal emergencies, and disabilities accommodations.

Note: This feature currently only extends assignment due dates - it does not cover other due dates - e.g. for Open Response Assessments

Instructions

To extend a deadline for a learner, visit the Extensions tab on the Instructor Dashboard

1. Look up learner by email address or username

2. Choose the graded subsection from the dropdown

3. Enter new due date

4. Specify the reason for the extension

5. Click Change due date for student

You can also use this tab to view all deadlines or reset a deadline.

This feature is supported in courses published after June 1, 2019. To enable for an older course, first Publish the course from Studio.

Adjust Grades for One or All Learners

If you modify a problem or its settings after learners have attempted to answer it, we recommend that you rescore the changed problem so that learners’ grades are updated.

You can adjust an individual learner’s score for a problem using either the Staff Debug Info option in the course, the gradebook that you can access from the Student Admin tab of the instructor dashboard in the LMS, or on the Student Admin tab of the instructor dashboard in the LMS. To adjust the scores for all enrolled learners at once, you use the options on the Student Admin tab of the instructor dashboard in the LMS. If you use the options in the instructor dashboard Student Admin tab, you need to obtain the unique location identifier of the problem.

The following sections describe the various ways in which you can adjust learners’ scores when you cannot avoid making a correction or other change to a problem.

Override a Learner’s Score for a Problem

In some cases, you might want to change, or override, the score that Studio has given a learner for a specific problem. For example, you might receive an email message that explains extenuating circumstances for a learner. You can change an individual learner’s score for a problem using either the instructor dashboard Gradebook, the instructor dashboard Student Admin page, or the Staff Debug viewer for the problem.

Override a Learner’s Subsection Score Using the Instructor Dashboard Gradebook

To override a learner’s score for a specific subsection by using the instructor dashboard Gradebook, follow these steps.

1. View the live version of your course in the LMS.

2. Select Instructor, and then select Student Admin.

3. Select View Gradebook.

4. Enter the learner’s user name in the Search field.

5. Click the score for the assignment that you want to modify. The Edit Grades dialog opens, displaying the assignment name, the learner’s user name, and the current grade for the assignment.

   

6. In the Adjusted grade field, enter the new grade for the learner on this assignment and select Save Grade.

Override a Learner’s Score Using the Instructor Dashboard Student Admin

To override a learner’s score for a specific problem by using the instructor dashboard Student Admin page, follow these steps.

1. Obtain the location identifier for the problem that you want to rescore. For more information, see Find the Unique Location Identifier for a Problem.

2. View the live version of your course in the LMS.

3. Select Instructor, and then select Student Admin.

4. Under Adjust a learner’s grade for a specific problem, enter the learner’s email address or username, and then enter the location of the problem in the course. For more information, see Find the Unique Location Identifier for a Problem.

5. Under Score Override, enter the new score for the problem, and then select Override Learner’s Score.

   Note

   Make sure that the new score is out of the weighted total points for the problem.

6. In the confirmation dialog box, select OK for each of the confirmation and status messages.

7. To view the results of the rescore process, select Show Task Status.

   A table displays the status of the override process.

Override a Learner’s Score Using the Staff Debug Viewer

To override a learner’s score for a specific problem by using the Staff Debug viewer, follow these steps.

1. Obtain the username or email address of the learner whose score you want to change.

2. View the live version of your course.

3. Select Course and navigate to the component that contains the problem you want.

4. Display the problem, and then select Staff Debug Info. The Staff Debug viewer opens.

5. In the Username field, enter the learner’s email address or username.

6. In the Score (for override only) field, enter the correct score for the learner, and then select Override Score. A message indicates a successful adjustment.

7. To close the Staff Debug viewer, click on the browser page outside of the viewer.

Rescore Learner Submissions for a Problem

Each problem that you create for your course includes the definition of a correct answer, and might also include a tolerance or acceptable alternatives. If you make a change to the accepted answers for a problem, you can rescore any learner responses that were already submitted.

Note

You can only rescore problems that have a correct answer defined in Open edX Studio, including CAPA problems and drag and drop problems. This procedure cannot be used to rescore open response assessment (ORA) problems or problems that are scored by an external grader. For ORA problems, you can override a learner assessment grade in Studio.

Additionally, errors might occur if you rescore a problem that has multiple response fields and you have completed any of the following actions.

• You removed a response field.

• You added a response field.

• You reordered any of the response fields.

Rescore an Individual Learner’s Submission Only if the Score Improves

This method of rescoring updates a learner’s score only if it improves with the rescoring. If the score is unchanged or might be lower after the rescoring, the learner’s score is not updated.

To rescore a problem for a single learner and update the score only if it improves, follow these steps.

1. Obtain the username or email address of the learner whose submission you are rescoring.

2. View the live version of your course.

3. Select Course and navigate to the component that contains the problem you want to rescore.

4. Display the problem, and then select Staff Debug Info. The Staff Debug viewer opens.

5. In the Username field, enter the learner’s email address or username, and then select Rescore Only If Score Improves. A message indicates a successful adjustment.

6. To close the Staff Debug viewer, click on the browser page outside of the viewer.

Note

You can also rescore an individual’s submission in the Adjust a learner’s grade for a specific problem section on the Student Admin tab of the instructor dashboard. To do this, you need to obtain the location ID of the problem as well as the learner’s username or email address.

Rescore an Individual Learner’s Submission

Note

Depending on the type of change you made to the problem, this method of rescoring might decrease the learner’s score. To avoid negatively affecting learner scores, you can instead rescore a learner’s submission only if the score improves.

To rescore an individual learner’s submission, follow these steps.

1. Obtain the username or email address of the learner whose submission you are rescoring.

2. View the live version of your course.

3. Select Course and navigate to the component that contains the problem you want to rescore.

4. Display the problem, and then select Staff Debug Info. The Staff Debug viewer opens.

5. In the Username field, enter the learner’s email address or username, and then select Rescore Learner’s Submission. A message indicates a successful adjustment.

6. To close the Staff Debug viewer, click on the browser page outside of the viewer.

Note

You can also rescore an individual’s submission in the Adjust a learner’s grade for a specific problem section on the Student Admin tab of the instructor dashboard. To do this, you need to obtain the location ID of the problem as well as the learner’s username or email address.

Rescore Submissions for All Learners Only if Scores Improve

This method of rescoring updates learners’ scores only if they improve with the rescoring. Learners’ scores that are unchanged or lower after the rescoring are not updated.

To rescore a problem for all enrolled learners in your course, and update scores only if they improve, follow these steps.

1. Obtain the location identifier for the problem that you want to rescore. For information, see Find the Unique Location Identifier for a Problem.

2. View the live version of your course.

3. Select Instructor, and then select Student Admin.

4. In the Adjust all enrolled learners’ grades for a specific problem section of the page, enter the location of the problem, and then select Rescore Only If Scores Improve.

5. In the confirmation dialog box, select OK for each of the confirmation and status messages.

   The rescoring process can take some time to complete for all enrolled learners. You can navigate away from this page and do other work while the process runs in the background.

6. To view the results of the rescore process, select Show Task Status.

   A table displays the status of the rescore process.

Rescore Submissions for All Learners

Note

Depending on the type of change you made to the problem, this method of rescoring might decrease learners’ scores. To avoid negatively affecting learners’ scores, you can instead rescore learners’ submissions only if scores improve.

To rescore a problem for all enrolled learners in your course, follow these steps.

1. Obtain the location identifier for the problem that you want to rescore. For information, see Find the Unique Location Identifier for a Problem.

2. View the live version of your course.

3. Select Instructor, and then select Student Admin.

4. In the Adjust all enrolled learners’ grades for a specific problem section of the page, enter the location of the problem, and then select Rescore All Learners’ Submissions.

5. In the confirmation dialog box, select OK for each of the confirmation and status messages.

   The rescoring process can take some time to complete for all enrolled learners. You can navigate away from this page and do other work while the process runs in the background.

6. To view the results of the rescore process, select Show Task Status.

   A table displays the status of the rescore process.

Reset Learner Attempts for a Problem

When you create a problem, you can limit the number of times that a learner can try to answer that problem correctly. If unexpected issues occur for a problem, you can reset the value for one particular learner’s attempts back to zero so that the learner can begin work over again. If the unexpected behavior affects all of the learners in your course, you can reset the number of attempts for all learners to zero.

Note

You cannot use this method with open response assessment (ORA) problems. To allow a learner to start an ORA problem again and resubmit responses, you must delete the learner’s state.

Reset Attempts for an Individual Learner

To reset the number of attempts for a single learner, follow these steps.

1. Obtain the learner’s username or email address.

2. View the live version of your course.

3. Select Course and navigate to the component that contains the problem you want to reset.

4. Display the problem, and then select Staff Debug Info. The Staff Debug viewer opens.

5. In the Username field, enter the learner’s email address or username, and then select Reset Learner’s Attempts to Zero. A message indicates a successful adjustment.

6. To close the Staff Debug viewer, click on the browser page outside of the viewer.

Reset Attempts for All Learners

To reset the number of attempts that all enrolled learners have for a problem, follow these steps.

1. Obtain the location identifier for the problem whose attempts you are resetting. For more information, see Find the Unique Location Identifier for a Problem.

2. View the live version of your course.

3. Select Instructor, and then select Student Admin.

4. To reset the number of attempts for all enrolled learners, you work in the Adjust all enrolled learners’ grades for a specific problem section of the page. Enter the unique problem location, and then select Reset Attempts to Zero.

5. A dialog opens to indicate that the reset process is in progress. Select OK.

   This process can take some time to complete. The process runs in the background, so you can navigate away from this page and do other work while it runs.

6. To view the results of the reset process, select Show Task Status.

   A table displays the status of the reset process for each learner or problem.

Note

You can use a similar procedure to reset problem attempts for a single learner. You work in the Student-Specific Grade Adjustment section of the page to enter both the learner’s email address or username and the unique problem identifier, and then select Reset Student Attempts.

Delete a Learner’s State for a Problem

You can completely delete a learner’s database history, or “state”, for a problem. You can only delete learner state for one learner at a time.

For example, you realize that a problem needs to be rewritten after only a few of your learners have answered it. To resolve this situation, you rewrite the problem and then delete learner state only for the affected learners so that they can try again.

To delete a learner’s entire history for a problem from the database, you need that learner’s username or email address.

Important

Learner state is deleted permanently by this process. This action cannot be undone.

When you delete a learner’s state for an open response assessment (ORA) problem, the learner will have to start the assignment from the beginning, including submitting responses and going through the required assessment steps.

You can use either the Staff Debug Info option or the instructor dashboard to delete learner state.

To use the Staff Debug Info option, follow these steps.

1. View the live version of your course.

2. Select Course and navigate to the component that contains the problem.

3. Display the problem, and then select Staff Debug Info. The Staff Debug viewer opens.

4. In the Username field, enter the learner’s email address or username, and then select Delete Learner’s State. A message indicates a successful adjustment.

5. To close the Staff Debug viewer, click on the browser page outside of the viewer.

To use the instructor dashboard, you must first obtain the unique identifier of the problem. See Find the Unique Location Identifier for a Problem.

1. Select Instructor, and then select Student Admin.

2. In the Adjust a learner’s grade for a specific problem section of the page, enter both the learner’s email address or username and the unique problem identifier, and then select Delete Learner’s State.

Find the Unique Location Identifier for a Problem

When you create each of the problems for a course, the platform assigns a unique location to it. To make grading adjustments for a problem, or to view data about it, you need to specify the problem location.

Location identifiers for problems can be in one of these formats.

• location = block-v1:{org}+{course}+{run}+type@problem+block@{id}, for example, location = block-v1:edX+BlendedX+1T2015+type@problem+block@72e0f73cdf5c4d648ebec0022854f18b

• location = i4x://{org}/{course}/problem/{id}, for example, location = i4x://edX/edX101/problem/680cc746e8ee473490841334f0235635

Courses created since Fall 2014 typically have usage IDs in the first format, while older courses have usage IDs in the second format.

To find the unique location identifier for a problem, follow these steps.

1. View the live version of your course.

2. Select Course, and then navigate to the unit that contains the problem.

3. Display the problem, and find the Submission History and Staff Debug Info options that appear below it.

4. Select Staff Debug Info. Information about the problem appears, including its location.

5. To copy the location of the problem, select the entire value after location =, right click, and then select Copy.

To close the Staff Debug viewer, click on the browser page outside of the viewer.

See also

View Learner Grades (how-to)

Guide to the Progress Page (reference)

Guide to the Grade Report (reference)

Guide to the Problem Grade Report (reference)

Maintenance chart

Review Date	Working Group Reviewer	Release	Test situation

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