University of South Alabama
Innovation in Learning Center
USAILC.ORG
How to Create and Work with Gradebook in
USAonline
Updated 02/05/15
The Gradebook tool in USAonline allows instructors to calculate, store, and distribute grade
information to students online. The purpose of the guide is to show you how to set up your
gradebook, how to edit gradebook items, and to help you understand how to “read” your
gradebook.
1. Creating a gradebook involves three steps: setting up the Gradebook, adding categories, and
adding items. When you access the Gradebook for the first time, the screen immediately
following will be the Set Up Gradebook screen.
Figure 1. Set Up Gradebook screen
2. In case you do not want to set up your gradebook immediately, you can get to the Set Up
Gradebook screen later by clicking Edit, then Gradebook settings.
Figure 2. Gradebook Settings selection
3. In the Set Up Gradebook screen, you can organize your gradebook with no categories, with
categories, or with weighted categories. Categories are sets of similar items (e.g., if you grade
homework every week, you would want to group all the homework assignments into one
category). Use weighted categories if you want to assign a group of items a certain
percentage of the course value (e.g. all the homework assignments are worth 20% of the
course grade). However, caution is advised in using weighted categories.
4. From the Grade Using section, select how you want the assignments graded – using points,
percentages, or letter grades. Points is generally preferred.
5. From the Display to Students section, select what you want your students to see in their
gradebooks and click Save/Close. Your gradebook is now set up and now it’s time to add
categories and items.
6. There are two ways to add categories and items to your gradebook:
 Select categories from the dropdown list located under the heading Organize
Gradebook using Category Style. Click Save.
Figure 3. Add new category menu
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How to Create and Work with Gradebook in USAonline

The second way is to click File and select New Category (or New Item, respectively).
You will need to already have selected categories or weighted categories from the
Organize Gradebook using Category Style in the Gradebook set up panel.
Figure 4. File menu
NOTE: If you add an item before you have created categories, the item will automatically be
put into an Unassigned category. You are not able to rename or delete the Unassigned
category until you create your own categories. Once you have created a category and moved
the unassigned item to it, the Unassigned category disappears.
7. You may move items from one category to another by simply dragging and dropping them.
8. To edit the settings of an item (e.g., assign point values to the items, include the items in the
grade and to release the scores to the students), either right click the name of an item then
select edit this grade item
Figure 5. Edit gradebook item
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How to Create and Work with Gradebook in USAonline
or double click the name of an item and adjust items settings in the Edit item panel, which
appears on the right side of your gradebook after double clicking a grade item. After you are
done with the settings, click Save/Close.
Figure 6. Edit Item screen
9. You will notice that depending on the settings, the items in the gradebook will have different
colors. Refer to Figure 7 to distinguish the items by the font type and font color.
Title Effect
Italicized
Gray
Red
Explanation
The item has not been included in grade.
The item has not been included in the grade.
The weighted categories value does not total 100%.
Example
Exam 1
Class Participation
Quiz 3
Blue
Green
The item has been released to the students.
The item is an extra credit.
Final Exam
Research Paper
Figure 7. Item types table
10. Tests and Quizzes: To have the tests and quizzes appear in the Gradebook, you have to set
the settings of the tests to send the grades to the Gradebook. For more information on Tests
& Quizzes settings, please refer to the appropriate how-to guide.
11. Assignments: When creating an assignment, you have an option to add the assignment to the
Gradebook.
*For further assistance, contact the Innovation in Learning Center at (251) 461 – 1888 or visit
http://usailc.org
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How to Create and Work with Gradebook in USAonline