An instructional video is included for this subject. This instructional video will provide a step-by-step explanation about how you can create a grade item. Below the video you will find the written manual.

Grade items represent all of the course components you want to assess. You can find them in the grade book. Grade items will help you to:

• assess course components fast and easily.
• calculate results automatically and with precision.
• keep an overview of students' results.
• communicate results to students in a controlled fashion.

You can use the grade items while assessing assignments, quizzes and discussions. You can only assess an activity (assign a grade) if you have linked a grade item to the activity. It is recommended to first create a grade item and then link it to an activity.

You can create grade items in two different ways:

• Using Grades under the Manage Grades tab (this is the most practical way).
• While you are creating an Activity (for example an assignment submission folder, quiz or discussion topic) via the Assessment tab. Here you have to take the same steps as you would when creating a grade item using Grades.

• Navigate to Administration in the navbar of your course.
• Click Grades. You will navigate to Manage Grades.
• Click New.
• Click Item.

• Choose the option Numeric (the amount of points out of the maximum amount of points achievable, for example a 8/10). This is the most common type of grade item).

1. Name the grade item (for example: Assignment 1). To maintain a clear overview for yourself, it can be useful to give the grade item a name that allows you to recognize the linked course component.
2. Use the field Short Name to enter an abbreviation (for example A1).
3. If necessary, link the grade item to a category:
   • Select a Category from the drop-down menu if you want to link the grade item to an existing category.
   • Click New Category if you want to create a new category for this grade item. 
4. Click Show Description to add a short description for the grade item. At the bottom, select the html-editor  Allow users to view grade item description if you want students to see this description.

Below Grading you can determine how the grade item is assessed: 

1. Below Maximum Points you can enter the maximum number of points students can obtain for this grade item.
2. Weight lets you determine how much this item will contribute to the total score of the category. Note that if you have not linked the grade item to a category, it will be admitted as a single loose item in the grade book. This means the weight entered will count towards the final grade for the course! That is why it is important to check whether you have or have not linked the grade item to a category.
3. Select Can Exceed if students can get more points for this item than the maximum amount of points you entered under Max Points.
4. Select Bonus if you want to allow bonus points. Bonus items will not be a part of the maximum points a student can acquire for a category or final course grade, but will be added to the calculated (final) grade. Note that students are not able to get a score higher than the maximum because of the bonus points, unless you have selected Can Exceed.
5. The Percentage Grade scheme is linked to grade items by default. Below Grade Scheme you are able to select a different grade scheme (provided you have created a scheme before).

1. Click Show Display Options to adjust the settings for the display of the grade item.
2. Below Student View you can select whether:
   • students will see the class average (Display class average to users).
   • students will see a visual display (graph) of how the grades are distributed among the students of the class (Display grade distribution to users).
   • you want to let the display options for this item deviate from what you have set up in the Grades Setup Wizard for the remainder of the grade book (Override display options for this item). You can then use Show to select which parts of the item you wish to show to students (Weighted Grade, Points Grade, Grade Scheme Symbol en Grade Scheme Colour).
3. Below managing View you can again select Override display options for this item to make the display options for this item deviate from the default grade book settings. This concerns the display of your grade book. Then use Show to select what you do and do not want to display from this item.
4. Check your submission and click:
   • Save and Close to save the grade item and return to the grade book.
   • Save and New to save the grade item and create a new one
   • Save or Cancel to save or delete the grade item.