Using Sections

Sections can be used in several ways in GradeCraft.  At the most basic level, sections can be used for  organization, for example, by allowing instructors and teaching assistants to limit their view of assignment submissions and grades to a particular subset of students.  

In addition:

  • Sections can also be used to create point-earning team challenges that span the entirety of the course time.

  • Sections are also used to set up Leaderboards. 

Note:  Sections are currently not synced with the student information system. While sections can be turned on early in class, we generally recommend not adding students into sections until after the add/drop date.

 

To turn on sections in GradeCraft

Sections must first be turned on in the Course Settings:

  1. From the left hand menu, under “Setup,” click “Course Settings.”

  2. Find “Basic Settings” from the Course Settings screen.  

  3. In “Basic Settings,” there are three boxes for sections.

  4. See the next section for more information about the three options.

  5. Turn on the options based on your needs

  6. Click "Save Settings"

 

Descriptions of the three options

 

"Sections"

The first box "Sections" turns on the ability to have sections in your class. You can optionally allow sections' scores to be the average of their students' scores in “Settings” at the bottom of the box. A "Sections" tab will appear under "Users" after enabling "Sections". 

 

"Section Assignments"

The second box "Section Assignments" allows the instructor to set up course-long assignments. Here, you can optionally allow section assignment scores to be added directly into student scores in “Settings”. A "Section Challenges" tab will appear under "Setup" after enabling "Section Assignments". You can add and edit section assignments/challenges in this tab.

 

"Section Leader board"

The third box will turn on the ability to show a Leaderboard for sections. This allows the competition between sections using the average of their students’ scores within the sections. The average will be calculated with students' total points earned in all assignments or section assignments only, depending on the setting made in the other two boxes. Note that the average score will only used for the leaderboard. Assignments are still graded individually for students. For this feature, you can also optionally allow students to opt in to see in-section rankings and points (using pseudonyms to protect their privacy). Enabling this function will turn on a bar graph in the "Section" page. 

Note: the Section Leaderboard will be visible to both you and your students if enabled.

 

To create and add students to a section

Sections do not sync with the student information system, so students need to be manually added and removed from sections.  Therefore, we generally recommend waiting until after the last add/drop date before adding students to sections.

  1. From the left hand menu, under “Users,” click the option for “Sections.”
  2. In the top right hand corner, click the button for “New Sections"
  3. Specify a name for the section (ie:  Section 01).  In the line for “Students,” clicking “Select Students” will bring a list of student names.  By starting to type a student’s name you can search for specific students.  
  4. If desired, teaching assistants/GSIs can be specified as “Leaders” for a specific section as well by clicking the checkbox next to the appropriate name.
  5. Click “Create Section.”

 

Need more help? No worries! Check out the Related Articles on the right or email us at help@gradecraft.com for personal assistance. 
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