How to Release Final Grades

By default, unless a grade item is hidden, learners are able to see individual grade items when accessing their Grades area, but do not see a final grade related to either "Final Calculated Grade" or "Adjusted Final Grade" items (calculated in the Brightspace grades area) unless the chosen final grade item has been released.* Release of the calculated grade item can be done for the whole class (release all) or for individual learners

Release the Final Calculated grade:

To release the "Final Calculated Grade" go into the course.

1. select the Grades link from the course navigation bar
2. select the "Manage Grades" tab if it is not already selected
3. select the "Action" menu next to the "Final Calculated Grade" item, then select "Enter Grades" from the contextual menu

When in the Final Grades area, if final grades are ready for release:

1. select the "Final Grades" contextual menu
2. select "Release All" which will release the Final Calculated Grade to all learners
3. select "Save and Close" (or "Save") to finish the job

When instructors wish to be more selective in releasing grades, the "Select all rows" function can be useful. Selecting the box at the upper left of the table display of the final grades acts to select or de-select all rows in the table to give instructor control over selectively releasing or un-releasing final grades to learners.

All rows can be selected or de-selected and then individual rows selected or de-selected to allow final grades to be released to some learners while other final grades are left unreleased.

Instructors can also select specific check boxes associated with learners to whom the instructor wishes to release the final grade.

Selecting the "Release/Unrelease" link applies the change to any row(s) displaying a check mark.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When releasing or un-releasing grades via the "Select all rows" method, instructors should be aware that any changes made will only apply to the users DISPLAYED ON THE PAGE. Instructors running courses with large numbers of users may wish to change the number of users viewed on the page via the "Results Per Page" drop menu located to the right below the table display of the final grade.

After releasing the final grades, when in the "Enter Grades" area, icons indicate whether a final grade has been released or remains unreleased.

After the final grade is released, learners view their final grade by selecting the Grades link accessible via the course navigation bar.

Also, note that instructors can Preview Learner Grades to verify that learners are seeing what instructors intend the learners to see regarding grades.

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*Visibility of Final Grades that have been calculated by Brightspace

Final Calculated and Final Adjusted grades that are available in the system do not appear to student-role users unless an instructor has chosen to release the final grades or has chosen to "Automatically release final grade" at the beginning of the course before grades have been posted.

To "Automatically release final grade," instructors:

1. select "Settings" from the Grades area
2. select "Calculation Options" tab to make it active
3. select the "Automatically release final grade" check box

Save the work when the check box selection has been made.

Note: In order for the automatic release of final grades in a course to function properly, the "Automatically release final grade" check box selection and save procedure MUST take place PRIOR to any grades being entered into the grades area. Selection of this variable usually occurs at the front of a semester or prior to course start date, typically before grading has taken place.

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NOTE: What dialogue box windows look like and how dialogue box windows and browsers interact is dependent upon the operating system and browser being used. The screenshots in this tutorial may differ from the screen that the user is viewing when performing the actions described in this tutorial.

Links will open in a new tab or window dependent on browser/OS configuration.

CD 201906