Non-Graded Assignments: How They are Seen by Students and Faculty

kblack · ‎08-02-2016

The newly-introduced feature of Final Grade Exclusion in the August 6, 2016 Release Notes prompted me to create a table that illustrates what faculty and students will see not only with the new feature, but with the existing features of creating various non-graded assignments. With a bit of prompting from the great stefaniesanders to create this document in a group after my comments in the Release Notes, the table below shows the differences between making an assignment worth 0 points, making an assignment not graded, and (last but not least!) the new ability of not counting towards the final grade.

I have also added a Word document as an attachment at the end, which you are welcome to use within your own documentation for faculty. It (barely) fits onto one page. Corrections/suggested changes are always welcome! In fact, it was thanks to the (also great!) erinhallmark for guiding me to the correct information in the last column (the To Do list), as originally suggested by @aimee

Update - November 1, 2016

Courtesy of the Production Release on October 29, 2016, ALL assignments with a due date will now appear on the student's To Do list. The table below has been updated accordingly. (Not the attached document--yet!)

Update - November 26, 2018

Minor updates made to comments, and I finally created a new version of the document, below.

Type of Assignment and other Details	Does it appear as a Gradebook column (for instructor)?	Does it appear on the Syllabus page (for students)?	Is it listed on the Assignments page (for students)?	Will it appear on student's To Do list for the class?
Worth 0 points with Display Grade as set to points	Yes, but any score other than 0 would essentially count as extra credit towards the student's final grade. Comments can be added.	Yes	Yes, with points listed as -/0 pts	Yes; all assignments with a due date will appear on the To Do list.
Worth 0 points with Display Grade as set to Not Graded	No; therefore, any comments will not be easily seen since it will not be listed in the student's view of Grades, either. (Interestingly, assignment is still accessible via the SpeedGrader on the Assignments page, so a Comment could conceivably be left that is sent to student's Inbox IF the student looks under the "Submission Comments" drop-down menu rather than the default Inbox drop-down. This is not recommended, however!)	Yes	Yes, with nothing listed in the points area on the Assignments landing page. If student clicks on the assignment itself from the Assignments page, they will see Points: None.	Yes; all assignments with a due date will appear on the To Do list.
Worth xx points with Display Grade as set to points, but with checkbox for Do not count this assignment towards the final grade enabled	Yes, but any score entered would not count. Student will see any point value, but with a "warning" icon next to it. Clicking on the warning icon in Grades will show the message "This assignment does not count toward the final grade," but they must click on that icon to see that message. Any comments left by instructor CAN be viewed by the student, including rubric comments, if any.	Yes	Yes, and if points were given it will be listed at full value: -/15 pts, for example. Student must click on assignment to see the message that it is not counted towards the final grade.	Yes; all assignments with a due date will appear on the To Do list. (File upload or not.)