ANSWER: 

Discussions: Grade Topic

If the course contains a discussion topic that is gradable, you can evaluate each Student's activity in that topic and assign a grade. You can assess the quality of messages posted by each Student. You can also compare the Student's level of participation in the topic to the rest of the class. Grades assigned to Students in Discussions are automatically entered in a corresponding column in Grade Book.

NOTE:  Depending on administrator settings, this feature may not be available to Teaching Assistants.

Role(s) Needed: These instructions apply to Section-Level Instructors. 

Step 1: From the Teach tab, click the Discussions tool.

Step 2: Click the down arrow  icon next to the topic name and select Grade Topic.

Step 3: On the Grade Discussions for screen,

• To compare a Student's participation in the topic to other Students in the course before you enter a grade, compare the values under Class Averages to the corresponding values for the Student under Activity Overview.

NOTE: The value for Total Messages Read corresponds to the number of messages marked as read by the Student. Therefore, if a Student reads the same message several times, the message is considered to have been read only once.

• To view the messages posted by a Student before you enter a grade:
  1. Click the down arrow  icon next to the Student's name. A menu appears.
  2. Click View Student Posts.
  3. From the Discussion Student Post screen,
      
  • To print all messages posted by the Student:
    1. Click Print. Your browser's print dialog box appears.
    2. Make your selections to print the compiled messages.
        
  • To download all messages posted by the Student:
    1. Click Save as File. Your browser's save file dialog box appears.
    2. Make your selections to save the compiled messages to the desired location on your local computer.
        
• To return to the overview screen, click the Discussion Activity Overview link at the top.

Step 4: Enter a grade for each student and when you are finished, click Save Grades.

The value displayed next to Grading Criteria indicates whether you can enter a numeric grade or an alphanumeric (letter) grade.

TIPS:

• Grades entered here are transferred to the Grade Book. Students will see their scores in their My Grades area, as long as you have checked the option Released grade to Students in My Grades in the topic properties. You can also release grade columns from within the Gradebook. For more information on releasing grades, refer to the Grade Book folder in this knowledge base.
   
• If you do not see an item, click the Paging Preferences icon in the bottom right. The default number of items shown per page is 10. In the Edit Paging window, enter a larger value (the maximum is 999 items per page):

This allows you to see all items in a single view so you can scroll up and down to find what you need. If you have more than 999 items, you will need to navigate from one page to another using the Page controls.

If you have any further questions, please contact us for support.  Thank you.

-WebCampus Support