Here are two examples when you may need to excuse graded material for a student, such as assessment, assignments, or discussions. Always consult with the Online Education Advisor (OEA) and parent/guardian before excusing any graded materials.

Example 1: A student was unable to complete an assignment or quiz due to a family emergency, technical issue, or similar situation. The student can be excused from the graded material so it’s not counted in a grading period total or course grade total. The student’s grade is recalculated as if the graded material didn’t exist.

~ Mark the applicable graded material as Excused and provide an explanation for the excuse in the Grade Comment. The Grade Comment will appear in the Genius gradebook so the student, Online Education Advisor (OEA), and parent know the reason for the excused material.

Example 2: A student was enrolled in your course several weeks into the semester/year or had technical difficulties for an extended period of time. In these cases, you may choose to excuse graded materials prior to the student’s start date in your course or when a student first began experiencing technical issues.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If the student has missed completing a number of graded materials, you do not have to excuse every missed item. Instead, you only need to excuse the earliest graded material in your course and enter comments in the Grade Comment section. See the specific guidance below.

~ Go to the earliest graded material in your course and mark it Excused for the student. Provide an explanation in the Grade Comment section similar to one of the two responses below:

~ For a student who enters your course later in the year:

The student’s start date in this course was xx/xx/xxxx and all graded materials between xx/xx/xxxx (this would be the course start date) and xx/xx/xxxx (this would be the date of the last item you plan to excuse for the student) will be excused.

~ For a student who has technical issues for an extended period of time:

Due to technical issues, all graded materials between xx/xx/xxxx (this would be the date the student began having technical issues) and xx/xx/xxxx (this would be the date of the last item you plan to excuse for the student) will be excused.

~ The Grade Comment for the earliest graded material will appear in the Genius gradebook so the student, OEA, and parent can see your explanation. For all other graded materials up until the student’s actual start date in your course or when they no longer have technical issues, you can just leave the grade blank and not excuse the graded material. The gradebook will not count empty grade fields (but it does count fields that contain a score of 0, so leave the fields blank).

~ Also, make sure to communicate with the student, OEA, and parent letting them know your intentions of excusing the specific graded materials. You can let them know that even though the excused graded materials will appear in the Genius gradebook with no grade, they only need to be concerned with work going forward from the date where you want the student to begin in your course.

Follow the steps below to excuse graded material in Schoology. This is also known as adding an exception.

Navigate to your Schoology course.

From the left navigation menu, click Gradebook.

Locate the student, hover over the graded material (e.g., assessment, assignment, discussion) you want to excuse, and then click the blue flag in the lower-left corner of the cell.

Under MARK WITH AN EXCEPTION, select Excused. DO NOT enter any grade. Scroll to the bottom of the article to learn more about the gradebook exception icons and how each one impacts the student's overall grade.

Click the blue conversation bubble in the lower-right corner of the cell.

Enter a comment in the Grade Comment field with the reason for the excused material. You can choose to check the box to display the comment to the student.

When finished with your comment, click the X at the top right of the Grade Comment window and your comments will be automatically saved.

Navigate to your gradebook, locate the student, and click the exception icon you want to remove.

To the left of the exception icon, click once to deselect it.

Excused

~ Icon: Filled Green Hexagon

~ Definition: Student is excused from the assessment, assignment, or discussion

~ Gradebook impact: Does not add a score to the cell and does not negatively impact the overall grade

Incomplete

~ Icon: Half-filled Orange Hexagon

~ Definition: Student made an incomplete submission

~ Gradebook impact: Does not add a score to the cell and does not negatively impact the overall grade

Missing

~ Icon: Outlined Orange Hexagon

~ Definition: Student did not complete the assessment, assignment, or discussion by the due date

~ Gradebook impact: Adds a score of zero (0) to the cell and negatively impacts the overall grade