About Grade Schemes

About Grade Schemes 

Grade Schemes help to organize learners performance on Grade Items into levels of achievement. Grade schemes are organizational arrangements that make grading understandable for the instructor and students on Brightspace. Since Brightspace calculates using percentages, a 10 points scale or letter value needs to be allocated to these percentages. This can be done through setting a Grade Scheme.  

Essentially, Grade schemes make it possible to have a say in how grades are registered. You can decide if the grades should be changed to a symbol, text, or rounded up to a certain percentage. 

• Each achievement level is a set range, with an associated symbol such as: 

• a numeric value 

• letter or 

• text description  

• By default, Brightspace uses a percentage scheme to represent Grade Items.  

• You may choose to set up your own Grade Scheme, or use one set up by you’re the university. For example, you could choose to represent a Grade Item range of 0-50% as F, Fail, or Below Expectations.  

Why would I use Grade Schemes? 

• Add additional context: Include an alternate representation to points for your Grade Items. 

• Add flexibility to your grading: Use points for your Grade Items and display an alternative scale to learners to they can understand their progress better. 

Example 

• You can create your own grade schemes or use schemes set up by University of Limerick. For example here is the grading scheme used in Kemmy Business School: https://www.ul.ie/sites/default/files/business/KBS%20Grade%20Descriptors%20and%20Indicative%20Grading%20Bands%20updated%20August%202014%20for%20KBS%20website.pdf 

• Important: Check with your faculty before creating a grading scheme  

• Below is a typical grading scheme that could be used: