Q: My course has ended, and I am calculating the final grades. I just noticed that we never set up assignment groups with their respective weights in Quercus. Is it still possible to do this now, or will it affect the existing marks?
A: Yes, it’s still possible to set up assignment weighting in Quercus after the course has ended by creating assignment groups and assigning weights to them. However, the best approach depends on how your assignment groups are structured and how each assignment contributes to the final grade. Below are our recommendations based on two common scenarios:
Assignments within an assignment group have the same point value:
If the assignments you plan to group together all have the same number of points, you can safely group them into an assignment group. Quercus will automatically distribute the group’s weight equally across the assignments.
For example, you have five lab assignments, each worth 10 points, and you want labs to count 25% of the final grade. You can do the following in this case:
- Create an assignment group called Labs
- Assign it a 25% weight
Quercus will automatically allocate 5% of the grade to each lab assignment (25% ÷ 5 = 5%) five lab assignments where each is worth 5% of the final grade.
This assignment weighting setup can be applied even after the student’s submissions and assignment grading have been completed. To do this, you will need to:
- Add the assignment groups to the course. If applicable, you can also create rules for the assignment groups (e.g., drop the lowest grades).
- Weight the final course grade based on assignment groups. The percentage weights you specify will determine how Quercus calculates the final grade for your course, and these weights will appear in the Gradebook.
Assignments within an assignment group have different point values:
Quercus does not allow assigning different weights to individual assignments within the same group unless their point values are adjusted accordingly. Since students have already seen the point values and submitted their work for each assignment, changing them now may lead to confusion.
In this case, we suggest two possible options:
Option 1: Create separate groups for each assignment (recommended if the course has a small number of major assessments)
This option is best for courses with a few major assessments. For instance, you have three major assignments: Essay (worth 30 points), Midterm (worth 50 points) and Final Exam (worth 100 points), and you want to weight them as: Essay = 20%, Midterm = 30%, Final = 50%.
In this case, you can create three separate assignment groups (e.g., “Essay,” “Midterm,” “Final Exam”). Assign the desired weight to each group —20%, 30%, and 50%, respectively— without changing the original point values.
By placing each assignment in its own group and assigning specific weights, Quercus will calculate the final course grade based on these weights. Once this setup is complete, the Gradebook will reflect the updated weightings.
Option 2: Do not use assignment groups and calculate final grades offline (recommended for courses with many small assessments)
This option works best for courses with many small assessments (e.g., weekly quizzes, reflections, etc.). Consider the following: you have 12 weekly quizzes with varying point values (5 to 10 points each). You want the entire set of quizzes to count for 30% of the final grade.
In cases like this, setting up a group for each one would be overly complex. Instead, we recommend keeping the current setup and calculating final grades manually offline in a spreadsheet. Since the point values are already visible to students, we do not recommend adjusting them at this stage.
Tips for future courses
For future courses, we recommend setting up assignment groups and weights before students start submitting work. This helps keep grade calculations accurate and avoids confusion.
For questions or assistance with setting up assignment groups and weighting in your course, please contact the EdTech Office or book a consultation.