This article is for faculty and staff who wish to learn how to use Grade Center Categories to organize and group course assessments and calculate grades using Categories.
Each Grade Center column has a “Category” field. When an assessment is created, its Grade Center column is automatically assigned to the Category that corresponds with the assessment type. For example, when an assignment is created, it is automatically assigned to the “Assignment” Category. Manually created columns that are not linked to assessments are assigned to “No Category.” Calculated Columns are assigned the Category of “Calculated Grade.”
You can create new categories with course specific names. You can also change the category of all columns except Calculated Columns.
Viewing Categories for Existing Columns
Under Control Panel in Course Management, click on Grade Center.
Select Full Grade Center.
Click the Manage drop down menu.
Click Categories.
This will display all of the Categories which exist in the course (on the left side) and all of the assessments or columns that are currently in each category (on the right side).
Creating New Categories
From the Full Grade Center, click the Manage drop down menu, then click Categories.
Click Create Category at the top left of the screen.
Enter a name for the category.
Click Submit.
Changing the Category for an Existing Column
From the Full Grade Center, click the Manage drop down menu, then click Column Organization.
In Column Organization, you can view the category of each Grade Center column.
To change the category, check the box(es) next to the column(s) that you want to edit.
Hover over the Change Category to… button, and then select the new category for that column.
Click Submit to save your changes.
Using Categories to Drop the Lowest Grade
Create a new calculated column or edit an existing calculated column.
From the Select Columns section, select a Category and move it to the right side.
Once the category is moved to the Selected Columns box, a set of options will appear. Enter the number of Lowest Grades to drop.
Click Submit.
For more information or assistance with HuskyCT, contact the Educational Technology Office at edtech@uconn.edu or (860) 486-5052.