Grade weighting

Populi accommodates two different grading models: points-based and percentage-based. These calculations are used to determine the student's course grade—both the in-progress grade and the final course grade.

• Points-based puts all assignment points on an equal footing. The ten points you assign a quiz count the same as the ten points you assign a reading. The 100 points you assign a test count the same as the 100 points you assign the final term paper. And so on.
• Percentage-based lets you weight some kinds of assignments more heavily than you do others through use of assignment groups. If "Quizzes" are worth 30% of the course grade and "Readings" are worth 10%, then a ten-point quiz will count towards the final grade three times as much as a ten-point reading.
• Extra credit assignments and assignment groups

Points-based grading

Points-based grading adds up the total number of points in all of your course's assignments and measures the student's Earned Assignment Points against the Total Assignment Points. The student's grade is then calculated using a simple ratio formula:

N is the student's final grade, which is then translated to a letter grade. This approach weights each assignment equally—for example, if you assigned 10 points to a quiz and 100 points to a term paper, the points for each assignment could count equally in the final grade calculation.

To use points-based weighting, leave the “Other” assignment group at 100% of the weight and simply add individual assignments as needed:

Percentage-based grading

Percentage-based grading calculates the final grade by the weights you give to your various assignment groups.

1. First, each individual assignment group is “graded” using the same ratio formula as in the points-based model:

EARNED AGP ÷ TOTAL AGP : N ÷ 100

2. Then each assignment group's N grade is multiplied by the group's percentage of the final grade. Those values are then added together and divided by 100 to get the student's grade:

(N1 x AG%) + (N2 x AG%) + (N3 x AG%) + etc. = X

X ÷ 100 = COURSE GRADE

To use percentage-based weighting, create as many assignment groups as you need and then divide the percentage weights among them as appropriate:

Assignment points

Assignments are graded using points. When you enter an assignment grade, Populi divides it by the assignment's point total to create a percentage. The percentage is then translated to a letter grade based on your school's grading scale.

Say you have a quiz with 22 short-answer questions, each worth 1 point, as well as four extra credit questions (each also worth 1 point).

1. When adding the assignment, you would enter “22” in the Points field.
2. A student gets 19 questions correct. Populi does the math (19 ÷ 22) and the student is graded 86.4%.
3. Another student gets 17 correct answers, partial credit (half a point) for another question, and correctly answers 1 extra credit question. The math runs thusly: (17 + 0.5 + 1) ÷ 22 = 84.1%.
4. Another student totally nailed the quiz: 22 correct answers and all four extra credit questions answered correctly. She earns 26 assignment points, and the math goes like 26 ÷ 22 = 118.2%. (The maximum extra credit allowed in the system is double the assignment's point value.)