Quality Points Listing (Grade Scheme)
- Chris Barrett
About quality points
Quality points hosts the grades your students can receive for classes and transfer/test credit and tells Campus Cafe how they factor into a student’s grade point average (GPA). You can also choose whether faculty may assign the grade or only administrators can assign the grade. For example, you may not want faculty to assign a T grade, which your institution reserves for transfer credit.
The quality points configuration also allows you to tell Campus Cafe whether to consider a certain grade a failure or withdrawal, which can impact student’s academic standing or financial aid.
If your institution has over the years changed its grade options or how they calculate into GPAs, you can optionally set multiple grading schemes by semester to accommodate the change. If you do this, Campus Cafe defaults to the most recent semester if none is specifically defined for a semester. This avoids you having to create a grading scheme for every individual semester.
You may also use alternative grading schemes if grades are not uniform across your institution. For example, your Liberal Arts College may allow instructors to submit +/- grades such as A-, B+ and B- but your Law School only allows A, B, C, D, F.
Prerequisites
None.
Required permissions
Module | Number | Description |
|---|---|---|
Registration | 95 | Create and change grades |
Registration | 93, 294 | Associate course with alternative grade scheme |
Registration | 226 | Create alternative grade scheme |
Grade scheme priority
If your institution uses a single grade scheme, Campus Cafe simply looks at the grade and its configuration.
If your institution has configured multiple grade schemes, Campus Cafe needs to know which grade to use because even though the grade may be the same, its configuration may be different. For example, your Liberal Arts College may award a W grade to students who drop after four weeks but there’s no impact to the GPA. Your Law School, however, awards a W and factors it into the GPA as a failure.
To determine which grade to use Campus Cafe…
Evaluates the course for which the student received the grade.
Checks if the course has an Alternative Grade Semester set. If so, Campus Cafe uses the grade tied to that alternative semester.
Checks if any grade is configured with the same semester in which the course is offered. If so, Campus Cafe uses that grade.
Checks for the grade with the highest semester that’s not greater than the semester in which the course was offered. For example, you offered a course in Spring 2024. No grades are tied to the Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022 or Spring 2022 semesters. However, you have grades tied to Fall 2021. Campus Cafe uses that grade.
Configure grades
Campus Cafe creates grades during your initial Campus Cafe implementation to align with your historical data. You may need to adjust the configuration of them to match your institution’s academic policies and ensure GPAs calculate correctly.
Providing a blank grade is mandatory for many operations, including pre-requisites, and integrations with other systems such as a learning management system.
Go to Registrar > Quality Points.
Select the box next to the grade to configure.
Click Edit Selected.
Quality Points: The numerical equivalent of a grade used to calculate GPA. For example, an A typically carries 4 points.
Earns Credit: Select if the grade will be added to the semester and cumulative earned credit totals. For example, an F grade typically does not earn credit so this box wouldn’t be selected.
Grade to Print: Grade to show on transcript. Otherwise will default to grade.
Zero QP Weighting: This is a decimal quality point to give weighting to grade that has 0 quality points for purposes of finding a high grade when checking duplicate enrollments. For example, a student may take the same class three times, earning an F, W and P. You configure the F grade with a zero QP weight of 0.03, the W with a weight of 0.01 and the P a weight of 1.00. In this case, Campus Cafe would consider the P the highest grade to use because it has the highest number, and the other grades will be reversed out of the GPA.
Undergrad Only: Restrict grade to undergraduates.
Usable by Faculty for Deficiency: Allow grade to be entered by faculty on course rosters as a deficiency grade.
Withdrawal Grade: This will prevent the student from receiving a grade in the course. Students typically receive a withdrawal grade if they drop the class late in the semester.
In Progress Grade: Grade counts toward in progress credit.
Waiver Grade: Used by the degree audit system to indicate that a course is being waived.
Is Audit Grade: Optionally assists with billing rules.
Force Pre Req Met: If selected denotes that this grade will meet a course’s prerequisite regardless of numeric quality point.
Default Transfer Grade: Check to make grade the default grade assigned to transfer credit. Many institutions choose T.
Adds to Cum: Grade counts toward semester and cumulative credits/GPA.
Adds to Credit Taken: Grade counts toward semester and cumulative credits.
Usable by Faculty for Final: By default, faculty may assign any grade unless permissions restrict their permission group to only grades with explicitly allowed by selecting this box.
Description: Description of grade (e.g. average).
Transfer Grade: Indicates grade is associated with a transfer (or test) course. This grade will be available when posting transfer/test credit. Classes with this grade will count toward transfer credit in the degree audit.
Non Dupe Grade: If selected any enrollment with this grade as a final grade will not be treated as a duplicate even if the student retakes the class.
Pass/Fail Grade: If selected any enrollment with this grade will be treated as a Pass or Fail. This impacts the Transcript and Degree Audit grade to print.
Incomplete Grade: A placeholder grade indicating student has not completed work.
Visible by Parent: Grade may be seen by a parent.
Gradebook Score Mapping From: The minimum numeric score on a course gradebook to achieve this final course grade. For example, for the grade of an A- you might enter 90.00.
The gradebook score supports two decimal places and you must include two decimal places to prevent gaps between grades.Gradebook Score Mapping To: The maximum numeric course on a course gradebook to achieve this final course grade. For example, for the grade of an A- you might enter 94.99. For an A, you’d set the from score at 95.00 and the to score at 100.00.Â
Click Update.
Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.
Alternative grade schemes
Don’t create alternative grade schemes if…
you simply want to limit students in some courses to taking the classes under a pass/fail option. Instead, when configuring your pass/fail grades (e.g. P and F), select it as a pass/fail grade. Then, on the course, under the Course tab, select Grading Method 1 as pass/fail.
you simply want to stop faculty from giving a specific grade anymore. For example, your institution has eliminated Ds starting next semester. Instead, when configuring the grade, don’t select Use by Fac Final to prevent instructors from assigning the grade.
The most common reason for an alternative grade scheme is if your grades are not uniform across your institution. For example, all math courses allow instructors to award an A+ but biology courses do not.
Campus Cafe supports a maximum of three alternative grading schemes.
Create alternative grade scheme in STParmÂ
Go to Admin > STParm.
In Parameter Code enter SMDESC.
In Parameter Value enter 999991, 999992 or 999993 (each is a different grading scheme).
Click Add.
In the Description enter text to describe the alternative grading scheme
Click Save.
Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.
Make alternative grade scheme semester active
Go to Registrar > Registration Control.
Click Add.
In Semester select the semester you created.
Select Semester Active.
Click Save.
Configure grades
The existing quality points configuration should typically be left unchanged. Instead, you will add anew all grades associated with the new grading scheme.Â
Go to Registrar > Quality Points.
Click New Record.
In Semester select the alternative grade scheme.
Configure the grade available under the new grading scheme.
Click Create.
Changes take effect overnight.
Configure courses
Only course sections tied to your new alternative grading scheme will respect it. For every course section that should follow the new alternative grading scheme it must be associated with it. If the new alternative grading scheme applies to all courses going forward, Campus Cafe recommends tying all courses in the catalog semester (999999) to the alternative grading scheme so when they are scheduled to future semesters, the alternative grading scheme is already set. Please note updating the catalog will have no affect on already scheduled courses, including those that may start in the future.
Go to Filters > Courses.
Next to the course to tie to an alternative grading scheme click the magnifying glass.
Click the Codes tab.
In Alternative Grade Semester select the desired grading scheme.
Click Save.
