Most (if not all) students reflect and focus on their grades in each of their courses. There are a number of ways that instructors can keep students informed about the progress they’re making in a class. Here are 5 reasons to use the Brightspace Grades tool to keep students informed about their grades.
- Transparency
- First and foremost, using the Grades tool offers transparency to students. By using the grades tool, students can track their own progress through the course. This can reduce confusion and offer students a sense of agency in their own learning.
- Record Keeping
- Using the Grades tool in Brightspace offers a secure place to record students’ grades. Using an external tool (such as an Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet) is not necessarily secure. In the event of grade disputes, for example, grades stored in such a way can be trickier to access.
- Time Efficiency
- While the initial set-up of a gradebook can be a little time intensive, the Grades tool will automatically calculate students scores and keep their final grade up to date. This can save instructors time as they won’t need to manually calculate anything.
- Immediate Feedback
- For learning exercises such as knowledge checks that can be automatically graded, the Grades tool can provide immediate feedback to students. The timely return of grades like this can help students more easily take agency over their own learning and make any appropriate changes if they need to.
- Data Analysis & Learning Analytics
- The Grades tool can aggregate and generate reports on student performance. These types of reports can allow instructors to take an analytical look at students’ scores to see what recurring themes exist. For example, if most of the class scores poorly on a specific assignment, the instructor might review the instructions of that assignment to see if additional clarity is needed.
As mentioned above, setting up your course gradebook can be a little time intensive. When using the grades tool, it’s important to have most, if not all, of the gradebook set up before the start of a semester. You can refer to our office resources on the Grades tool and for a one-on-one consult, feel free to reach out to your office liaison to set up some time.