When you are setting up your Weighted Total column you can choose to have Grade Center calculate final grades as a running total. If this option is selected, only items that have grades or attempts will factor into the final grade. This means that any blank cells will be ignored; blank cells are not treated as zeros.
If you would like the Grade Center to treat blank cells as ‘zeros’ do not enable Running Total.
Enable Running Total
- Navigate to the Grade Center. Click on the contextual menu button next to the Weighted Total column, then select Edit Column Information.
- On the next page, scroll down to Calculate as Running Total. Select Yes to enable running total; select No to disable running total.
- Click Submit.
Examples
Imagine a course with two grade items, Essay 1 and Essay 2, each constituting 50% of the final mark. Both essays are graded out of 100 points, and grades have been entered for the column "Essay 1":
- With running total enabled, note the difference in the Weighted Total columns when zeros are entered into the Essay 2 column;
- With running total disabled, blank cells are treated as ‘zeros.’
Running Total Enabled
When running total is enabled only grades explictly entered into Grade Center columns contribute to the weighted total. In this scenario, when the column "Essay 2" is left blank, the weighted total mark relies wholly on the marks entered in the column "Essay 1". When grades are entered into the "Essay 2" column, the weighted total recacluates to reflect the new total.
Running Total Disabled
When weighted total is disabled there is no difference between blank cells and those graded as ‘zero.' Click image to view larger.