Dropped and Excused Assignments

Most users of Grade Nudge can use the spreadsheet directly from their Learning Management System. Grade Nudge can detect gradebook files from Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle. However, sometimes the instructor will want to make modifications to the file for special grading situations.

Dropping Assignments

The software looks for a column named 'replacement' for when the assignment in question could replace an existing score already in the gradebook. For instance, suppose you give three midterm exams and drop the lowest score. Currently, you are sending a grade nudge to your students for the third exam. In this case, the points column includes the performance of the students on the first two midterms; this exam will replace the lowest score if it is higher. In this scenario, to properly nudge the students, one should include a column named 'replacement' with the lowest midterm exam score for each student. Google Sheets and Excel includes a function (MIN) to easily find the lowest score amongst a set of columns (e.g. exams). If you drop more than one assignment, you can use the function SMALL. For instance, suppose you have five assignments, but only the best three are included in the grade. For the fourth assignment, you could use the MIN function to determine the value of the 'replacement' column. However, the fifth assignment would replace the second-best score. So, you would use a formula such as "=SMALL([RANGE], 2)", which would select the second-lowest score in the range.

When Students are Excused from Assignments

The column 'possible' (or 'possible points') is used when the number of possible points (total points in the class) varies from student to student. This is rare in a university setting. However, in K-12, it is possible for a student to have entered the course mid-semester and thus be excused from a number of assignments. If a number is specified in the 'possible points' column, this value will override the value in the 'total points in the class' field for that one student. If a negative number is placed in the possible 'possible points' column, Grade Nudge will assume the student was excused from this number of points and calculate that students personalized total (e.g. Class X has 600 total points, but student Y missed an assignment worth 200 points. Entering "-200" in the possible points column for student Y would calculate the current total for student Y as: -200+600=400.). The advantage of specifying points in negative (relative) terms is the column need not be updated throughout the semester.