About: Students who have numerical grades sitting just below the line to the next letter grade may or may not have been rounded up by instructors possibly thinking that Brightspace rounds up half decimals to the next whole number. NIC’s previous grade scales (as loaded into Brightspace) worked on an integer (not decimals) threshold. Therefore this was incorrect –> 67.66 would be manually rounded up to 68 and be a B-.
Previous Grade Scale with Integers
Why: To ensure students are awarded the accurate letter grade including “rounded up” values (from .500 upwards) – we have adjusted Brightspace’s grade scales to do this automatically adding decimals. All XX.500 or higher numerical values (e.g., XX.66 or XX.78) will be counted as the next letter grade without instructors having to round up manually.
This is now how that same grade will be accurately displayed with the adjusted grade scale 1.
What: Brightspace never rounds up decimal values (e.g., 67.66 to 68) because it has to compute numerical values in raw format for a variety of mathematical tasks from quiz results to assignments. If you use the gradebook to compute grades then it is up to you (the instructor) to round up or check the alignment of “grades on the line between one letter and another”. Hence why there is the “adjusted grades” column for you to do this before submitting grades. “Old” grade scale now says “NOT IN USE” – we can’t delete it because it is attached to existing courses.
What to do? Choose NIC Grade Scale 1 or 2 as they have the new decimal values inserted. DO NOT choose “NOT IN USE” scale from 2025 onwards.
Impact: Technically this creates no significant impact on grades. It is still the responsibility of the instructor to adjust grades for the “Adjusted Grades Column” before exporting /sending to Colleague for submission. An instructor can adjust the grades according to any requirement for the course final grade. If the instructor doesn’t use the Brightspace submission method or doesn’t catch the rounding up requirement, this still provides students and instructors with an accurate alignment between the grade and the letter for that grade level when submitting through self-serve.
UPDATED DECIMAL-BASED GRADE SCALE –> NIC Grade Scale 1 with updated values to half decimal prior to cut off level. This edit allows for instructors to know that half values will be included in the grade scale for each letter grade.
