D2L Brightspace Tips: Change Assignment Points to Fix Grades
If you need to change the maximum points on an assignment that you have already graded in D2L, there are different instructions to follow depending on if you have already changed maximum points on the grade item (before or after entering grades) and if you would like to create a new grade item or use a CSV upload file. Changing assignment points is different from changing quiz points and it can be quite easy to accidentally change scores without meaning to. These instructions will also work to fix discussion topic grades.
Only percentages are sent back and forth between the assignment and the associated grade item. It is very important to understand that if you change the maximum points on an assignment, the maximum points on the grade item WILL change to match the assignment. However, the opposite is not true. If you change maximum points on the grade item, the maximum points on the assignment will NOT change, yet the students' earned points on the assignment will be updated based on the new percentages from the grade book. This is usually the cause of incorrect grades on assignments, but luckily you can revert back to the original scores or find them in the logs.
When changing points, there may be a pop-up message advising you to unpublish (i.e. retract) feedback, change points, and then re-publish the grades. Unlike quizzes and discussions, there is currently no bulk retract feedback option for assignments in D2L. It will be faster to follow the steps below rather than clicking retract on each submission. Additionally, retracting and re-publishing grades will only ensure that percentages match between the assignment and grade book, whereas the steps below will ensure that both points AND percentages match.
Go directly to a section:
- How to Change Maximum Points (Percentages are currently correct)
- How to Fix Incorrectly Changed Points (Percentages are currently incorrect)
- Add Extra Credit Points to an Assignment
Or watch the video:
Direct link to video, with transcript widget
How to Change Maximum Points (Percentages are currently correct)
Scenario: I want to change the maximum points on an assignment and the associated grade item that I already graded from 20 points to 10 points in order to match what is on my course syllabus. Both the assignment and the grade item are currently set to 20 maximum points (or the assignment is set to 20 but I had changed the grade item to 10 BEFORE entering grades). Students' percentages are currently correct in both the assignment and the grade book.
Option 1: Instructions using D2L only that requires a new grade item:
- Go to Assessments -> Grades -> Enter Grades and click the Export button. Download a backup of all the grades in your grade book (just in case!).
- After downloading the backup, click Cancel on the Export Grades screen and go to the Manage Grades tab. Edit the associated grade item and check the Can Exceed box so that the grades will transfer properly in the following steps.
- Go to Assessments -> Assignments and edit the assignment. Change the points in the Grade Out Of box to the new maximum points (in this example, from 20 to 10) and click Save. Click yes on the pop-up message. This also changes the maximum points in the grade item (to 10) as well as the percentages, but all students' earned points will remain the same. Students' grades will be temporarily wrong at this point.
- Return to Assessments -> Grades and edit the associated grade item again. Change the newly updated maximum points (10) back to the original maximum points (20). This will send correct percentages back to the assignment, which will be applied to the new maximum points of 10.
- Return to Assessments -> Assignments and edit the assignment again. Click In Grade Book and Edit or Link to Existing. Choose Create and link to a new grade item, which will indicate the new maximum points of 10. Click OK and then Save and the students' correct grades will be sent to the new grade item in the grade book.
- Return to Assessments -> Grades and delete the old grade item worth 20 points that is no longer associated with the assignment. If needed, move the new grade item into a category or re-order it.
Option 2: Instructions using CSV file upload that does not require a new grade item:
- Go to Assessments -> Grades -> Enter Grades and click the Export button. Download a backup of all the grades in your grade book as a CSV file.
- Make a copy of the exported CSV file and only include the grade item that you want to correct.
- Use formulas in Excel to adjust the scores as needed (such as divide by 2) and save the file.
- Go to Assessments -> Assignments and edit the assignment. Change the points in the Grade Out Of box to the new maximum points (in this example, from 20 to 10) and click Save. Click yes on the pop-up message. This ensures that both the assignment and the grade item are now both worth 10 points. Students' grades will be temporarily wrong in D2L at this point.
- Go to Assessments -> Grades -> Enter Grades and click the Import button. Choose the CSV file you saved and upload it. This will overwrite the incorrect scores in the existing grade item with the correct scores from the file.
How to Fix Incorrectly Changed Points (Percentages are currently incorrect)
Scenario: I want to change the maximum points on an assignment and the associated grade item that I already graded from 20 points to 10 points in order to match what is on my course syllabus. The assignment is currently set to 20 maximum points but I changed the grade item to 10 maximum points AFTER entering grades. Students' percentages are currently incorrect in both the assignment and the grade book.
Instructions to fix incorrect assignment grades:
If you changed maximum points on the grade item AFTER entering grades, either decreasing points with Can Exceed checked or increasing points, change the maximum points back to the original value (20 in this example) so that students' percentages are correct and then follow instructions for either option above.
Otherwise, if you decreased the maximum points on the grade item AFTER entering grades WITHOUT Can Exceed checked, just changing the maximum points back to the original value will not be enough. You will need to view the Event Log of the grade item in order to find the students' original scores.
For small classes:- From Assessments -> Grades, click the down arrow next to the grade item and choose Enter Grades.
- Click the down arrow at the top next to the title and choose View Event Log. Keep this log open in a different tab or window.
- Click the down arrow next to the grade item, choose Edit, and change the maximum points back to the original value (20 in this example). Click Save and Close.
- Switch back to the previous tab and manually enter the original scores for each student by copying/pasting or re-typing scores from the Event Log. Beware that the grade book only shows first and last names, whereas the Event Log only shows usernames, so be sure to enter the correct points for each student.
- Now that scores have been restored, follow instructions for option 1 above to change the maximum points in the correct way.
- From Assessments -> Grades, click the down arrow next to the grade item and choose Enter Grades.
- Click the down arrow at the top next to the title and choose View Event Log. Copy the original scores for all of the students.
- Return to the previous Grade Item screen and click Cancel.
- Click the down arrow next to the grade item, choose Edit, and change the maximum points back to the original value (20 in this example). Click Save and Close.
- Click the Export button on the Enter Grades tab and download a CSV file for the grade item.
- Open the CSV file and create a new temporary sheet.
- Select columns A through E and change the cell format to Text BEFORE using Paste Special and Text to paste in the Event Log or the scores will be formatted as dates in Excel. Delete the other columns leaving only the usernames and scores.
- To extract just the numerator from the Grade column, type the score for the first few rows in the next column, then click Data and Flash Fill in the ribbon to fill in the rest of the rows.
- Use formulas to adjust the scores as needed (such as divide by 2), ensuring to use Paste Special and Values when pasting into a different column.
- Copy the usernames and scores from the temporary sheet to the correct columns on the first sheet and save the CSV file. [CSV files do not retain individual Excel sheets, so any data on the temporary sheet will not be saved.]
- Go back to edit the assignment. Change the points in the Grade Out Of box to the new maximum points (in this example, from 20 to 10) and click Save. Click yes on the pop-up message. This ensures that both the assignment and the grade item are now both worth 10 points.
- Return to the Enter Grades tab in the grade book and click the Import button. Choose the CSV file you saved and upload it. This will overwrite the incorrect scores in the existing grade item with the correct scores from the file.
Add Extra Credit Points to an Assignment
Scenario: I want to change the maximum points on an assignment that I already graded from 20 points to 15 points so that students can get up to 5 extra credit points.
Instructions to add extra credit to an assignment:
- Go to Assessments -> Grades and edit the associated grade item. Check the Can Exceed box if you want students to be able to receive more than 100% for this grade item. Click yes on the pop-up message after clicking Save.
- Check Can Exceed on the category (if the grade item belongs to a category) and Final Calculated Grade if you want students to be able to receive more than 100% for the category and final grade.
- Return to Assessments -> Assignments and edit the assignment. Change the points in the Grade Out Of box to the new maximum points and click Save.
Note: This is also a workaround for not being able to add bonus points to a rubric.