Teaching Online at UTAS

These instructions will show you how to set up the default for how students will see their Grades inside your unit. If you’re not sure whether to select a Grading Scheme (or what that scheme might look like), you will find this post helpful.

You can easily change how students see their Grades, especially if you do this before you start setting up your Grade Items.

You can choose to allow students to see one or all of the views seen in the image below: these instructions will show you how. We wouldn’t recommend showing all of these, as it can be quite confusing! To demonstrate, however, we have chosen to show all the views in the image below. The image shows what a student would see.

• Points grade (shown as Points to students)This shows students their raw score out of the total possible points associated with the task. In the image below, Assessment 3 is an example of two items that are marked out of 100 points, but weighted to their true value. Generally, this view is not displayed to students.
• Weighted grade (shown as Weight Achieved to students)This shows the student what they have received out of the total value of the assessment task. In the image below, Assessment 3 is worth 35% of the unit. Two tasks (Grade Items) combine to provide the student with 28 out of 35 possible marks. This view only works when a ‘weighted’ grading system is in use. Note that it is the only view that will show an overall score for a Category to the student.
• Grade scheme symbol (shown as Grade to students) What the students see will depend on what you choose as the Grade Scheme for each Grade Item. You can choose the Percentage grade scheme (so students see their score represented as a percentage) OR the UTAS Grades scheme, which shows students their grade (e.g. NN, PP, CR, DN or HD). To save time, you may wish to change the default Grade Scheme for your unit (see instructions on p. 6). In the image below, the UTAS Grades scheme was used for all Grade Items, except Assessment 4, which uses the Percentage grading scheme.

MyLO has a series of Grade Schemes. These control how a score is interpreted to students. The two main Grade Schemes in use at UTAS are:

• UTAS Grades: students see their score represented as a NN, PP, CR, DN or HD.
• Percentage: students see their score represented as a percentage.

By default, MyLO uses the Percentage Grade Scheme. If you would prefer to use the UTAS Grade Scheme for most Grade Items, save yourself some time by setting it as the default for your Grades tool. Do this before you create your Grade Items for maximum efficiency. These instructions explain how to set your default Grade Scheme.

This table outlines common grading scenarios. Each scenario is linked to a solution that can be implemented in the Grades tool, to help you collect, mark and distribute grades in the most efficient manner possible. Full instructions are provided for each solution (click on the name of a solution to link to the instructions). If you do not see a scenario that applies to you, please contact the TSBE Flexible Education Team for further advice.

Choose a scenario from the left column, then refer to the solution shown in the right column.

Depending on the way you have set up your Grades tool, and the structure of your assessment tasks, you may need to grade un-submitted student work with a value of 0. If you don’t record ANY value against a Grade Item, MyLO will ‘drop’ that Grade Item from a Category or from the Final Calculated Grade for a student. This can be problematic if you do not want these Grade Items dropped from the student’s overall grade for the unit.

These instructions explain how you can quickly record 0 as the score for students who have failed to submit assessment tasks, using the Grades tool.

It is possible to export MyLO Grades to an Excel Spreadsheet as a backup or for future reference.

These instructions explain how to export all your entire Grades record for a unit, or even just a single Grade Item, to an Excel spreadsheet.

UTAS requires that academics do not release students’ final assessment task marks on MyLO until after the exam period and release of formal grades by the University. You can still mark students’ final assessment piece online and publish the marks to the Grades tool, but you will need to ensure that students cannot see the marks or feedback associated with their final assessment. This is achieved by:

• hiding the Assignment Submission Folder/Quiz Submission View and associated Grade Item from students; and
• ensuring that students cannot see Grades or Assignment Submission Folders in the My/User Progress tool.

These items must be hidden from students before you publish and grades or feedback. The instructions from page 3 of this [PDF] will show you how.

If you have scheduled an examination as the final assessment piece for your unit, you may wish to release students’ internal grade; that is, the grade that they have achieved to date. You can do this using the Final Calculated Grade tool, a feature of the Grades tool.

These step-by-step instructions will show you how to release the Final Calculated Grade to students.

What does it do?

The Grades tool is used to track student participation and grades over time. You can also use the Grades tool to provide students with a summary of their overall Grade grades. This snapshot of the Standard View of the Grades tool points out some of the key features of the tool.

Useful terminology

Grade Item
A column of the Grades tool dedicated to tracking the grades associated with a particular task. It may be associated with a MyLO assessment tool like a Dropbox or Quiz, or it could be a standalone item used to track classroom participation or presentations.

Standalone Grade Item
A Grade Item that is not linked to any type of MyLO activity. Generally used to track attendance and participation, or the scores associated with an in-class performance (like a presentation).

Category
Used to organise Grade Items into clusters. It can convert the sum total of all the Grade Items in the Category in accordance with specified weightings. The outcome of this calculation is seen as a Subtotal. Categories can also be set up to drop a specified number of items with the lowest or highest grades, or to drop ungraded items.

Settings
Used to control elements of the Grades tool, such as whether a points or weightings system is used, the way students see their Grades (by default) and the way you see Grades.

Release Conditions
Control student access to Grade objects, based on date, or on Group membership (including whether students are enrolled in Internal or External study modes).

Helpful resources and instructions

• How to set up your Grades tool
  This comprehensive guide contains all you need to know to set up your Grades tool to suit the structure of your unit assessment, and your preferred method of viewing Grades.
• How to hide or un-hide Grade Items for students
• How to create a Standalone Grade Item
  This is a useful method of tracking Grades for items that will not be completed in, or submitted to, MyLO, for example, participation or in class presentations.
• How to associate a Grade Item with a Dropbox, Discussion or Quiz
• How to release internal grades to students
  This post explains how you can use the Final Calculated Grade tool to release an internal grade to students, prior to them sitting a final examination.
• Publish final assessment marks to the Grades tool without releasing the marks and feedback to students
• Export Grades to an Excel Spreadsheet
• Quickly grade unsubmitted work as 0
  The Grades tool will ‘drop’ Grade Items from a Category subtotal or the Final Calculated Grade if no numerical score is recorded. If you don’t want a student’s grade for an item to be dropped, you will need to record a score. 0 should be recorded to represent non-submission/no-show.

Short, narrated lectures and videos can be used to introduce students to important theories and concepts in a discipline. They often feature examples or stories to help illustrate what a concept means, or to demonstrate how a theory might apply to different situations.  They can be used to add meaning to another piece of content. For example, you might get your students to read a short chapter or article about a particular concept. You might then provide them with a video telling a short story to illustrate how that concept was applied in a real-life setting. We strongly recommend keeping these videos to 15 minutes or less in length. Removing references to particular semesters, course codes, weeks, modules and assessment tasks helps make these videos reusable in the long term. Furthermore, addressing a single idea, theory or case in a video will avoid the need to edit videos in future. When a range of concepts, cases or ideas are combined in a video, editing is often required in the future to remove outdated sections, or items that are no longer relevant.

Videos are sometimes used to welcome students to a unit or topic, to provide feedback or encouragement to a class, or to demonstrate the use of software or MyLO. These videos often feature a talking head or activity on a computer screen. They are generally produced for single use, however, well-planned and executed videos may be reusable in future.

When considering the use of narrated lectures and videos, ask yourself these questions:

• Can I share this message, idea or story in a different way (e.g. through a reading)?
• Is video the best way to share this message, idea or story?
  While video can be engaging, over-reliance on video can have the opposite impact!
• Are there existing resources (e.g. on YouTube) that I can use to share this message, idea or story in a similarly engaging way?
• Is video worth the opportunity cost?
  Consider production time, resources and effort versus re-usability and engagement.
• Is video accessible to all my students?
  Students in China cannot access YouTube due to enforced internet restrictions. Students in remote areas may not be able to view streamed videos, or will have to wait a significant time to download video files. Some video formats do not work on mobile devices. Students with visual or hearing impediments may not be able to interpret your video if a transcript or closed captioning is not provided.

So you want to create a video?

You will need to consider:

• Optimising learning potential
  Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Principles help us design videos and narrated PowerPoints that enhance learning and reduce cognitive load.
  • This well structured video from Michael Kennedy explains each of Mayer’s 12 principles, and provides examples of the principles in action.
  • This PDF from Harvard University summarises Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Principles.
  • If you’re keen to know more, you may wish to view this collection of snippets from a guest lecture delivered by Richard Mayer at Harvard University.
• Copyright and Consent
  Do you intend to use images, video or text that may be subject to copyright? If your video features people other than you, you will need to gain their consent to be filmed. You can use the form provided on this page to obtain consent.
• Production method
  This is the method used to create the video. This can range from simply filming yourself using a webcam, to engaging a full production crew and actors.
• Hosting method
  This is the method used to make a video available to viewers online. The most common hosting method at UTAS is MyMedia, which is also used to host recordings of face to face lectures. The videos hosted in this system can be view online (streamed) or download for offline viewing.

This table compares production and hosting combinations, to help you identify a method that will suit you, your time frame, your purpose and your learners. For further information, please contact the TSBE Flexible Education Team. If you prefer, you can download a printable version here.