If you have used two assessment submission points for the same assessment, e.g., one for assessments submitted on time, and a separate one for late submissions, you can easily map both of these into the same grades transfer column.
In order to do this, follow the process outlined in the 'Mapping a single assessment point to a SITS grades journey column' section on the previous page, adding your 'on time' column as the first variable, then choose 'Add (+)' from the Operators menu, and finally add your 'lates' column as a second variable.
If you have more than two assessment points for the same assessment, and each student has a grade in only one of the columns, simply repeat the process and add the additional columns as additional variables in the calculation, ensuring that the variables are separated by an addition.
If you have an assessment with multiple sub-components, you can map the sub-components to the grades journey column which will calculate the overall grade for the assessment.
In the above example, I have followed the process outlined in the 'Mapping separate 'on time' and 'lates' columns to a SITS grades journey column' section above, adding each of my sub-component assessments as a variable, and the grades journey column has given me the overall score for the assessment.
In the screenshot above, the first student in the list, Beverley Crusher, who has scored 70/100, 60/100, and 80/100, is given an overall score of 210/300, or 70%, and so on. Adding together variables in the way described above simply adds the total number of points scored by each student, the total maximum number of points possible, and expresses the result as a percentage. So, a student would also score 210/300 (or 70%) on an assessment if there were two sub-components, and they scored 150/200 and 60/100, and so on and so forth.
If you want to apply different weightings to your sub-components, you can use the multiply and value operators to do this.
In the example below, the calculation is 'AS1 Part 1 x 0.25 + AS1 Part 2 x 0.25 + AS1 Part 3 x 0.5'. Therefore, parts 1 and 2 are worth 25% of the overall mark, while part 3 is worth 50% of the total mark.
The effect this has on the students' grades is shown below. For example, the second student in the list, Geordi La Forge, who scored 90/100 + 90/100 + 50/100 and received an overall score of 230/300 (76.67%) in the first example when no weightings were applied, now receives a score of 22.5/25 + 22.5/25 + 25/50, or 70/100 (70%).
The range of operators available in the calculation allows for a wide range of options. More information about gradebook calculations is available at: Blackboard Help - Calculate Grades
The grades journey column provisioned in the gradebook by SITS is a type of 'Calculation' column, and can accommodate a wide range of calculation types. However, other calculations are possible (e.g., drop highest, drop lowest) by adding a 'Total Calculation' column, and mapping the output of this column into the SITS grades journey column as a variable.
In the example below, I have given my students five tests to complete, but have allowed them to drop their lowest score. For the sake of simplicity in this example, points rather than percentages are displayed, each test is out of 25 points, and each student has scored 20/25 on four of the tests, and 10/25 on one of them.
Drop highest is also available as an option, and can be used in conjunction with drop lowest. As with any type of gradebook calculation, how the calculation is done is a matter for academic staff to decide, and it remains the responsibility of the member of academic staff submitting the grades to verify that the calculation has been set up as desired and that the overall grades awarded are correct
More information about using the 'Add Total Calculation' column is available at: Blackboard Help - Calculate Grades
It is not possible to enter grades directly into a SITS grades journey column. However, if your students do not submit work electronically and you do not have an assessment submission point in your NILE course, you can still submit grades from NILE to SITS by following the 'Ultra Workflow 5: Performance, Presentation (in person), Viva, Artefact' guidance and using an offline submission to record your grades and feedback. You will then be able to map your offline submission assessment grades to the SITS grades journey column via the process outlined above.
Alternatively, you can quickly add grades manually by creating a new item in the gradebook and mapping this item across to your grades journey column. As with the other methods of mapping, ensure that your grades are posted before you map them.
You can also use this process if you have assessments with multiple sub-components and want to calculate the final assessment grade outside of NILE, e.g., using a formula in Excel and entering the final assessment grades in NILE manually.