Entering an Excused Grade (“E”) in the Populi Gradebook

Entering an Excused Grade (“E”) in the Populi Gradebook

An Excused grade (“E”) in Populi is used when assigning a score of 0 would not accurately reflect a student’s performance or participation.

This is typically appropriate when:

  • A student did not complete a specific assignment, but has fulfilled the requirement through an alternate or make-up activity.
  • Example: A student did not submit the Week 21 timesheet, but did complete the required hours and logged them under the make-up hours assignment. In this case, marking the original assignment as “Excused” prevents the missing item from negatively impacting their grade.
  1. Entering an “E” removes the assignment from grade calculations, rather than counting it as zero.
  1. Alternatively, leaving the grade blank may also exclude the assignment from calculations, depending on your course setup.
    • Use caution with blanks, as they can sometimes be interpreted differently (e.g., as missing work) depending on grading settings or reporting needs.

Follow these steps to mark an assignment as Excused:

  1. Go to the Gradebook
    Navigate to your course and open the Gradebook.

  2. Select “Edit Grades”
    Select the Edit Grades button to enable editing.

  3. Locate the Assignment Cell
    Find the correct student and assignment column.
    Select inside the grade box for that assignment.

  4. Enter the Excused Grade
    Enter the letter “E” in the grade field.

  5. Save Your Changes
    Select Save Grades to apply the update.

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