Brightspace Frequently Asked Questions
Check out our newly updated Brightspace FAQs! This list runs through the most common questions the Brightspace Support Team gets throughout the year. If you have any questions not listed here, be sure to contact our Support team for assistance.
When you create an Assignment in Brightspace, you may want to link it to the Grades tool. This guide will explain how to link your assignment to a聽 grade item that has already been created, as well as provide other important information about聽associations.
Association or Link聽鈥� these words are used to describe when an activity in Brightspace (ex. Assignment, Quiz, Discussion response) is connected to a Grade item in the Grades tool. When the activity is assessed by the instructor, the grade will automatically transfer into the Brightspace gradebook.
Link an Assignment to a New Grade Item
Unlike Brightspace鈥檚 previous Assignment tool, creating a new assignment will聽automatically聽create a grade item unless you manually link it to an existing one.
To do this, give your assignment a point value but do not make a gradebook selection.
Link an Assignment to an existing Grade Item
1. In this example, the gradebook (Course Admin听-&驳迟;听Grades) already has a Homework聽Category聽and two Homework assignment聽Grade Items.
2. Now, you should go to the Assignments聽page. Begin a new assignment, or go to edit your already existing assignment. Give it the same title as your聽Grade Item, and give it a corresponding point value. These should match your gradebook. In this case, 鈥淎ssignment 1鈥� is worth 10 points.
3. Click on Not in Gradebook聽and select聽Edit or Link to Existing.
4. A small window will open asking you to either Create a new grade item or Link to an existing grade item. Choose the聽Link to an existing grade item聽option, then select the聽Grade Item聽you want to link with your assignment. Make your selections, click聽OK, and click聽Save and Close聽on the Edit Assignment screen. The assignment and Grade Item are now linked.
Change or Remove a Gradebook Association
You can change or remove a previous association with the same tool you used before.
- Choose a different Grade Item
- Remove the association, so the assignment is no longer linked to the gradebook at all.
What if I don鈥檛 want the assignment to affect the final grade?
If you want to grade an assignment, but don鈥檛 want it included in the final grade there are two options.
- Remove the association from the gradebook as described above. In this case, the student can see their grade in the Assignments area, but not in the gradebook.
- Keep the association, but select聽Exclude from Final Grade Calculation聽when editing the Grade Item. Students will see the grade in both the Assignments area and the gradebook.
- Make an ungraded assignment. Students will not receive a grade for their work, but can read any feedback you may have provided.