Scholaric offers two group-weighted grade formulas:
Group-point weighted - a grade is calculated from a set of weighted lesson groups, which themselves will be graded by a point-weighted formula.
Group-equal weighted - a grade is calculated from a set of weighted lesson groups, which themselves will be graded by an equal-weighted formula.
In short, each group is scored, and the grade is a weighted average of the groups. The difference between the two is how the score for the group is calculated.
For example, for Astronomy, you may specify these groups:
- lessons: 30%
- tests: 50%
- observations 20%.
Group-Weighted Grading Terms
Below, the following terms are used:
Group-weighted Grade Type is a grade type which uses group-weighted grading.
Lesson Group is a name given to a group of lessons which will be graded as a whole and assigned a weight.
Weight is the value that a group is given, determining how much of an impact a group has on the final score.
Setup of Groups and Weights
These group-weighted grade types require an extra step of setup - defining the lesson groups for a course and their respective weights. This can be done for any course using either group-point weighted or group-equal weighted grade types. First, you must make the course use that grade type:
Note that a menu to change grade type now appears on the course menu in the planning grid. Once the course uses a group-weighted grade type, the menu changes, allowing you to edit the group weights:
The report card has this capability as well, but in either case, the course must have a group-weighted grade type.
Clicking on this brings up a new dialog:
The dialog shows all
of the groups you have created, and creates one named Lessons
if you have not created any. For each group, you must supply a name, a weight, and indicate if it is the default group.
The weights must add up to 100%, or the displayed total will turn red and updates will be disallowed. The picture also has a red weight for the default group, because the default group cannot have a zero weight.
To set the weight of existing groups, just enter the weight. To add a new group, like Observations in the example, click the Add Group button.
With all groups weighted correctly, the last thing to do is select a proper default group. With all this done, click the Update button.
Deleting a weight
When editing existing weights, the Delete button is enabled. Clicking this resets the group's weight value to zero. The weight will be deleted on the next update.
If there are no other courses using that group, and no lessons referencing the group, the group is deleted as well.
Assigning a Group to a Lesson
With the group weights set up, you can assign lessons to their groups. For a group weighted course only, the lesson dialog shows a group field:
The selection control displays only the groups which have a weight for the course in the current period. Scholaric automatically selects the group you labeled as default for this course.