Administer Categories

The Administer Categories page allows you to establish categories that describe the types of assignments you will use in the selected semester and course section. An initial set of categories, defined by the campus, will be set at the beginning of the year. If you have an assignment that falls under a category that is not included in the list, you can create a new category, if allowed by your campus. The category you create will be added to the master list and will be available for all teachers to use. The list of categories will continue to grow as you and the other teachers add categories. You must also specify the type of weighting to use for calculating averages (e.g., percent-based, point-based, or multiplier-based).

From this page, you can also copy categories from one course to other course sections.

To set up categories:

1. From the Settings menu, select Administer Categories.

The Administer Categories page is displayed allowing you to establish categories for a selected semester and course section.

2. In the Semester field, click to select the semester for which you wish to set up categories.

3. In the Course Section field, click to select the course section for which you wish to set up categories.

The available categories will be listed under Available Categories, and your current category list for the selected course section will be displayed under Selected Categories.

4. Under Weighting Type, click to select the weighting type you wish to use for the categories. You must use the same weighting type for all cycles in a semester.

• Percentage - If you select percent-based weighting, you will assign percentages to each category. The percentages must total 100%.

• Point - If you select point-based weighting, you will provide point values for each category. The point values must equal the total number of points for the cycle. When using point-based weighting, the categories are only used for grouping similar assignments. The calculation is based on the total points, not weighting.

• Multiplier - If you select multiplier-based weighting, you will provide a multiplier number (between 1-9) for each category. For multipliers greater than one, the individual assignment grades are counted multiple times. Multiplier-based weighting is often used in elementary schools.

See the Calculate Averages page for an explanation of calculating averages for each weighting type.

Notes:

5. If you change the weighting type after categories have been entered below, a pop-up window will appear to notify you that all entered values for the categories will be cleared if you change the weighting type. You may click OK to change the weighting type, or you may cancel the action.

6. You cannot change the weighting type if you have entered assignment grades for any category.

7. You cannot change the weighting type for the second semester of a two-semester course. The weighting type must be the same for all semesters of a course.

8. If you post an override cycle grade for a student even if there are no categories for the course, the weighting type will automatically be set to percentage.

5. Under Available Categories, the available categories are listed in alphabetical order.

6. To add a new category to the list of available categories, click Add new category type. The Add Category section will appear below the available categories. If the campus has disallowed teachers from adding categories, then the Add new category type button will be disabled, and you cannot add new categories; you must use the categories established by your campus.

• In the Category Name field, type the name of the new category. You may not type a name that is already included in the list of available categories. Please type carefully to avoid spelling errors.

Category names are not case-sensitive (e.g., if quiz already appears in the list, you cannot add Quiz).

• In the PIN field, type your four-digit PIN.

• Click Add. The new category will be displayed in the list of available categories in alphabetical order. You may then drag it to your category list.

If you typed your PIN incorrectly, the system will notify you that you provided an invalid PIN. You must provide the correct PIN before you can continue.

• To close the Add Category section without adding a new category, click Cancel.

• Once a category is added to the list of available categories, it cannot be deleted from the list. If you add a category by mistake, you must contact your campus administrator to have it removed at the campus level. The category cannot be removed if it has assignments associated with it.

6. Under Selected Categories, all categories for the selected course section are displayed for all valid cycles in the semester.

7. To add one of the available categories to your category list, click on the available category and drag it to your category list. The category will appear at the bottom of your category list.

8. To remove a category from your category list, click beside that category in the Delete column.

Note:  You may not delete a category that has assignments associated with it. The will not appear for those categories.

• If a cycle is closed, the column heading for the cycle says (closed), and the data may not be changed.

7. Under Selected Categories, the table will change according to your selection in the Weighting Type field. For each cycle, the column heading will be % Weight, Points, or Multiplier, according to your selection. For each category you add to your list, enter the appropriate values.

8. If you selected Percentage for weighting type, the percentages must total 100%.

9. If you selected a category created at the campus level, and if the campus entered a weight for that category, then the weight will appear in the % Weight field for that category. You may change the weight, unless the campus has locked the weight for the category. If the weight is locked, the weight will be displayed in the field and cannot be changed.

10. If you selected Point for weighting type, you may not enter the total point values in the Points field. This field will automatically display the sum of the total points entered for all assignments for the category. For example, on the Administer Assignments page, if you enter five quizzes in the Quiz category, each with total points set to 100, then this field will display 500.

11. If you selected Multiplier for weighting type, you must enter a value between 1-9 for the Multiplier field.

8. Under Selected Categories in the # Drop column for each cycle, enter the number of items to be dropped during a cycle. For example, you may wish to drop the student's three lowest grades from the homework category. The student's category average will always reflect the dropped grades.

Warning:  If all assignments in this category do not have the same total points value (as entered on the Administer Assignments page), then the calculations for dropping a specified number of assignments for the category may result in an average that is different than expected. If the total points value varies, then the grade with the lowest number of points may not necessarily be the lowest grade.

• Only non-excluded grades will be dropped. If you exclude an assignment for a student on the Assignment Grades page, that assignment will not be counted as one of the grades that will be dropped.

• If you do not wish to drop any grades from the category, type 0.

9. After you have entered the weighting type value and number of assignments to drop for cycle 1, you may click to copy the values to cycles 2 and 3.

To save your categories:

Before you leave the page, you must save your changes.

1. In the PIN field, type your four-digit PIN.

2. Click Save.

3. If your changes were saved successfully, the page will reload with a message indicating that the categories were saved successfully.

4. If you typed your PIN incorrectly, the system will notify you that you provided an invalid PIN. You must provide the correct PIN before you can continue.

5. If the cycle is closed, you may not save any changes. The button will be disabled; the button will say All Cycles Closed. If you attempted to make changes, a warning message will notify you that changes have not been saved.

3. If you have changed any data on this page and then attempt to leave this page without saving the changes, a warning message will appear. This includes attempting to change the Semester or Course Section fields before you save changes.

4. Click Continue to leave this page without saving your changes.

5. Click Cancel to return to the page and save your changes.

To copy categories to another course section:

Once you have saved the categories for a course, you may copy the categories to another course section.

1. Use the Semester and Course Section fields to select the course section from which you wish to copy categories.

2. Click Copy categories to other course sections. The Copy Categoriess page will be displayed. Review the Help for the Copy Categories page for additional instructions on copying categories.