How Grade Exemptions Affect Calculations

Relevant to: faculty and staff

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, and/or policies and procedures may affect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Introduction

Grade exemptions impact how Brightspace calculates category scores, calculated grade items, and formula grade items. When a learner is exempted from a grade item, that item is treated as if it does not exist in the grade structure.

This behavior affects not only the individual grade but also how categories and formulas are evaluated, especially when drop rules or custom calculations are applied.

Category Scores that Include Exemptions

For category scores, grade exemptions affect the scores as follows:

  • Exempted grade items are excluded from the calculation of category scores. The grade item is treated as though it does not exist within the category.
  • In a category with drop rules, exempted items are removed before the specified number of grade items are dropped. Then, the category is calculated with the remaining items.
  • If all the items in a category are exempted, there are not grade item scores to use in calculating a category score. In this case, the category does not have a score.
  • In a weighted grade book, the exemption of a category item results in the remaining item weights not reaching 100%. Brightspace automatically scales the weights of the remaining items proportionally to each other.

Calculated Grade Items that Include Exemptions

For calculated grade item scores, grade exemptions affect the scores as follows:

  • Exempted items are excluded from the calculated score.
  • If all items in a calculated grade item are exempted, the item does not have a calculated score.

Formula Grade Items that Include Exemptions

For formula grade items, grade exemptions affect the scores as follows:

  • Formulas treat exemptions as empty (null) grades; however, the Treat ungraded as 0 setting is ignored. If a learner is exempted from a grade, then the exemption and its cascading results are treated as null.
  • If a formula grade item used in another formula and the former is empty (null), then it is treated as though it were exempted during the formula calculation.
Print Article