Customizing Class and User Progress

One important tool to know about in TCU Online is Class Progress. It will show you data (such as time spent in the course or content, grade details, activity participation, etc.) about your students as a class or for a specific student.

This page will introduce you to Class Progress and User Progress. It will also walk you through the process allowing or disabling a feature that displays to students their Current grade, their Maximum Final grade, and Minimum Final grade. Students can use this feature to keep track of if it is possible for them to attain the grade in the class they desire. It can also help them to see earlier on in the semester if they need to improve their performance or participation. For this reason, it is important to have your grade book finished when the semester begins.

  1. Once inside your class, click on Assessment, then Class Progress.
    Select Class Progress
  2. The Class Progress page displays all of your students as a class and shows four different metrics applied to everyone. In the Settings section, you can swap out any of these options for other ones in the system. For example, currently selected are Content, Logins, Quizzing, and Grades.
    Class Progress Settings
    The other options are Assignments, Discussions, Objectives, Checklist, and Survey. You can choose the metrics that best reflect your course’s needs.
    In Class Progress, select Settings
  3. Selecting a student’s name (such as Susan B. Anthony in the example below) on the Class Progress page will take you to the student’s User Progress page.
    In Class Progress, select a Student's name
  4. You can see on a student’s User Progress page all of the different ways that your student participates with the course. Your student will only be able to see their own page (like this one) when they click on Class Progress. They cannot see anyone else’s page.
    User Progress
  5. Notice here under Grades it displays the student’s Current Grade, Maximum Final, and Minimum Final. Their current grade is what is released to them in the grade book as their Final Calculated/Adjusted Grade (whichever you’ve released to them). The Maximum Final is the grade they could earn if they scored perfectly on all possible assignments set up in the gradebook. The Minimum Final is the grade they would earn if they stopped all work now at this point or got a 0 on all remaining work.
    User Progress Student Grades

    Pedagogical Point:

    This tool can be used to help students self motivate and stay on top of their work earlier in the semester because they can see how their final grade is being affected. For example, Susan B. Anthony now knows that she currently has an A- at 90.04%, but that for her to obtain an A (which starts at a 93% in this course), she would need to earn a near-perfect score on every assignment for the rest of the semester. This provides her with the opportunity to manage her expectations for her likely grade in this class earlier in the semester than the final few weeks or to adjust her work and effort accordingly.

    Note: Including Bonus items (TCU Online’s term for extra credit) will affect these percentages. Some instructors prefer to keep the Bonus items as excluded from the final score until the final weeks of the semester in order to better reflect to students their how they are doing.

  6. If you would prefer to change what students can see in their User Progress area (to hide a tool you aren’t using, for example) or to hide the option to see Maximum Final and Minimum Final, select Settings.
    User Progress Settings
  7. This Settings page allows you to customize what students will see in their User Progress. If you unmark a box under Progress Indicators to Include, that item will no longer display to students in their User Progress page. For example, you are not using any Checklists in your class so you can unmark the Checklist box; this will streamline the student’s view because that tool area will disappear. Also note, the second box under Progress Report Information Settings. This is the box to unmark if you do not want you or your students to be able to see their minimum and maximum final grade in the User Progress tool. Make sure to select Save and Close after making changes in order for them to take effect.
    User Progress - Progress Indicators