For some classes, teachers may want to have a final exam or project count for a certain percentage of the final grade of the course, without factoring into the other terms for the course. This article reviews how to set up both PowerTeacher Pro and Schoology so that the gradebooks calculate correctly and match.
Setting up PowerTeacher Pro:
Step One: Create a “Final” Category in PowerTeacher Pro by selecting the + button on the top of the page, and selecting “Category”. Name the category (for example, “Final”, “Final Exam”, “Final Project”, make sure it is added to all of your classes, select a color, and hit “Save”
Creating the "Final" Category
Step Two: Navigate to “Settings” in the left-hand menu, and select “Traditional Grade Calculations”. Under one of your classes, click the pencil icon that corresponds to the “F0” term
Step Three: In the menu that pops up, use the Plus Button to add an additional row, and then change the “Type” to “Category Weighting”. Under the “Attribute Column”, and select the category that you created earlier.
Setting up the F0 term for your classes
Step Four: To correctly set the weights, adjust the “Weight Column” so that the final is appropriately weighted. See the above image for the set up that makes the Final 10% of the grade.
Step Five: Once you have completed the set up for one of your courses, you can then either copy those settings to your other courses (instructions can be found in this linked article) or you can repeat the steps above for each course.
If you are only using PowerTeacher Pro, you can stop here. At the end of the year, when giving your final, simply make the assignment and give it the category “Final”. From there, you can
Setting Up Schoology:
Syncing the final from Schoology is possible, though because of the different ways the platforms handle calculations it does take several steps:
Step One: In Schoology, navigate to “Grade Set Up” and select the “+ Add” button above the course categories. Once in there, enter the following details:
Category Name: Final
Calculated By: Total Points
Drop Lowest: 0
Weight: 0
Step Two: In your Schoology course, navigate to the PowerSchool App in the left-hand navigation page and select the “Configuration” tab. Once there, find the “Define Categories” section, and find the category for finals you created in PowerTeacher Pro. In the left hand column, use the drop down to match the “Final” category in Schoology to that final.
Matching Final Category in Schoology
Step Three When ready to give the final, create the assignment as you normally would in Schoology, giving it the category of Final. After giving and grading the final, scores should sync automatically over to PowerTeacher Pro, correctly calculating the grade according to the weights you set in PowerTeacher Pro.
Step Four To ensure that grades match between Schoology and PowerTeacher Pro, after you have finished grading the final assignment in Schoology and all grades have synced, you should edit the Schoology assignment and check the “Set as Midterm/Final” button. Note that having this button checked prevents the assignment from syncing, which means that any updates you make to the grades will need to be manually made in PowerTeacher pro.
Checking the "Set as Midterm/Final Box"
Step Five: In “Grade Setup” in Schoology, you will see a new “Final” grading period under “Grading Periods & Final Weights”. Adjust the “Weight Column” to match what you set up in PowerTeacher pro, which will lead to the two gradebooks matching.
Correct Setup of Grading Periods in Schoology