Grade Exemptions

Relevant to: faculty and staff

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

Introduction

You can use exemptions to provide an implicit reason why a learner does not have a score for a grade item or an activity. A blank grade or a zero (0) grade can mean that the learner hasn't submitted the item, that the item has not been graded, or that the learner has failed the item. Having an exemption setting supports the differentiation for a legitimate exemption.

Instructors can exempt content items such as web pages, graded items including assignments, discussions and quizzes, as well as surveys, checklists and self-assessments. However, you cannot exempt a learner from a final calculated grade or final adjusted grade.

What's Affected When There's an Exemption

When you exempt a learner from an activity from within the grade book or the Content tool, the following pages are affected:

  • Table of Contents Page - the exempted topic title appears with an exempted flag, the due date is not shown, the completion method indicator is removed, and the count of required topics and module completion percentage excludes exempted topics.
  • Topic Details Page - When a learner clicks on a topic they are exempt from, a message displays stating that the learner is exempt from the topic and that the activity can be viewed but does not need to be completed. The updated count of required topics in the Table of Contents now excludes the exempted grade items. The completion method, being essentially not required, is removed from the Details page.
  • Course Schedule - Exempted activities are not due, therefore not overdue, and do not appear on the Overdue items list. The Full Schedule and Upcoming sections of Course Schedule do not show exempted items.
  • Calendar - the Calendar web pages and Calendar widgets do not show exempted items.
  • Updates Widget - Exempted quizzes are not required to be submitted, and are excluded from the count of unattempted quizzes that appear in the Updates widget.
  • In the Grade Book, instructor view pages: Enter Grades, Grade User, Grade Category, Grade Items, Import Review.
  • Learner view Pages - My Grades.
  • User Progress Pages - Summary and Grades tabs; however, exempted grade items do not appear in the bar graph of received grades. The Summary and Content tabs display exempted activities.

The process that exports and imports grade data includes exemptions. Post-processing during the import of grade data can differentiate between a learner with a grade, without a grade, and with an exemption. If you change the value that identifies an exemption to the import process after instructors have set export file values to depend on a particular value, such as the word Exempt, there may be unexpected results in the imported grade exemptions.

Set Exemptions From the Grade Book

You can set one or multiple exemptions for a learner from the grade book as follows:

  1. From the course homepage, click on Course Menu in the navbar and select Grades.
  2. Select the Enter Grades tab.
  3. Click the chevron next to the name of the student you want to grant exemptions to and select Bulk edit exemptions from the drop-down list.
  4. Click the checkbox for each item you want to exempt.
  5. Click Save and Close.

Remove an Exemption

  1. From the course homepage, click on Course Menu in the navbar and select Grades.
  2. Select the Enter Grades tab.
  3. Click the chevron next to the name of the student you want to remove exemptions for and select Bulk edit exemptions from the drop-down list.
  4. Deselect the checkbox for each item whose exemption you want to remove.
  5. Click Save and Close.
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