D2L Brightspace: Release Grades

FACULTY: D2L does not release the grades to students without faculty action. The Final Calculated or Final Adjusted grades are only visible to students inside D2L Brightspace when the faculty has released the grades. This article walks faculty through releasing final grades within the D2L Brightspace platform.

Article Type: How to

Question:

• How can I allow my students to see their cumulative grade for the course on an ongoing basis (even from semester start)?
• How can I, at the end of the semester, allow my students to see their cumulative grade in my course?

D2L Brightspace Video

Quick Release Method

For a quick release of all grades to all students, use the context menu next to your final calculated grades and select Enter Grades.

Within the Final Grades window, use the context menu next to Final Grades and select Release All. This will release your final grades to all students.

You will know you have been successful when you look at your release final grade and see an open eye icon next to students grades in the final grade column.

(Please note that your gradebook could be setup to release final calculated grades OR adjusted final grades. (Switching between the two is covered below in Step One.))

D2L allows faculty to release one of two final grades: either the Final Calculated Grade or the Final Adjusted Grade.

• The Final Calculated grade simply is the sum of the grade items in the gradebook that are not excluded (for a class) or exempted (for a student).
• The Final Adjusted Grade allows the faculty to adjust the points. An example: faculty doesn’t place participation in the gradebook as a grade item but rather adjusts the grade based on semester participation.

To ensure you are releasing the grade you wish to, within D2L Brightspace, within the gradebook, toward the upper right side you will find the link to Settings.

Within Settings you will find 3 tabs running across the top of the screen, we want Calculation Options.

Within Calculations Options, below Grading System, there is a heading Final Grade Released. You can select with the radio buttons which you would like to use, Calculated Final Grade or Adjusted Final Grade. 

If you choose to release Calculated Final Grade, Return to the gradebook, Enter Grades screen. Use the dropdown menu next to the Final Calculated Grade item in the first column of the gradebook and select Grade All.

Enter Adjusted Grades

If you had selected Final Adjusted Grade to release, the adjustment screen will be available to you. You will need to fill in the grades before releasing the grades.

Include Everyone

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and ensure that the dropdown menu for per page has a greater number than students in your class. (This will allow this next process to be done in one sweep.)

Select Everyone

Scrolling back up to the top, use the select all rows feature by clicking the box in the table header to the left of the names.

OR Single selection

You can go through and release individual grades, simply scroll through your gradebook and place a check box in the Released column to the far-right. (Make sure you Save or Save and Close after doing so.)

Release the Grades

After you select all, click on the Release/Unrelease button and you should be able to see check marks populate in the far-right column, under Released.

Click Save and Close. You have released the grades to the students. You can verify this by returning to the gradebook and you will find an open eye icon.

Additional Resources

System Office has a knowledge base article on Setting up your D2L course to import final grades into ISRS. (This link will require you to log into SharePoint with your Single Sign-On username.) You may need to set up your grade scheme according to your syllabus.