Grade Categories are useful to help organize related grade items into sections. For example, you may choose to group all of your assignments together under a category labeled “Assignments” and all of your quizzes together under a different category labeled "Quizzes".

Click on Grades in the navigation bar. Under Manage Grades, click New Category

1. Under General
   • Name the category, (Short Name is for the gradebook table, if you do not list a Short Name the Name will be listed in the gradebook
   • Enter a description, if necessary. Check the box to allow users to view description
2. Under Grading
   1. If using a Weighted grading system, enter in the what % this category contributes towards the final grade next to Weight
      • Note: if using the Points system, the Weight text box does not appear
   2. Check the box next to any feature you wish to use
      • Can exceed will allow you to enter in a higher grade than the total allotted for this category
      • Distribute points across all items is used if you want to drop the lowest or highest grade in a category or if you are using the Weighted system and want all grade items in the category to contribute equally towards the category grade.
        • Note: for more information on dropping a grade  Click Here
3. Under Display Options
   • (Optional) Display class average to users: Select this option if you want users to be able to see the class average on the item.
   • (Optional) Display grade distribution to users: Select this option if you want users to be able to see a graph showing how grades were distributed between different percentiles.
4. Click Save

When you create a New Grade Item (Create Child Item), there will be a Parent Category drop down listing all categories you have created