Special Marks Index  

The screen is where teachers customize Special Marks to use as scores, such as Excused (ex), Missing (/), Absent (abs), Incomplete (inc), ✓+, etc. (System admins may define defaults on the screen.)

The first eight Special Marks can be used for anything. The last three are for Missing Assignments (explained below).

If your grade scale is based on percents, each mark may be worth a percent, or "-" for excused. For rubric grading systems these eight marks are always excused, so they do not affect the grade.

Only you see the mark or abbreviation, like "/" or "ex". Students and parents see only the full description, like "missing" or "excused", so you don't need to explain your marks to them. The same marks are used for all your classes/subjects.

Checkmarks

Checkmarks are supported, like ✓, ✓+, ✓-. Just type \ (the backslash above the return key) and it automatically changes to a checkmark when you leave the text box.

Note: If you see a little box instead of a checkmark, go to your browser's View menu and change the character Encoding to "Unicode (UTF-8)". If that doesn't work, sometimes Windows cannot find certain fonts after software is uninstalled (please send us a solution if you find one). Note that students and parents will not have this problem because they see only the description of the special mark, like "good", not the checkmark itself.

Missing Assignments

The last three Special Marks are what you use to mark an assignment as "missing" if a student does not turn it in. This lets you generate reports and send alerts for missing work. Note that blank scores are considered ungraded, not missing.

If you are using a percent-based grade scale, you may also check "0 also means Missing" so that when you give a student a score of 0, the assignment will be reported as missing. If you are using a rubric grading system, you may check "Penalize grade if missing" so that these marks are calculated as equivalent to the lowest rubric in your grade scale (e.g., same as "1" if your grade scale is from "1" to "4"). Otherwise leave that unchecked if you want missing assignments excused so they don't affect the grade. (Rubrics are typically used for assessment, so you cannot assess something that has not be turned in.)

Note, the first of the three Missing marks is the default used for the "Fill" button on the screen. If this row is empty, it fills with zeros instead.


Video: Grading Options
Also on :
Grade Scale, Categories, Cumulative Grades, Grade Reporting Options