If a student doesn’t submit an assignment, enter a zero in their grade cell. If the grade cell is left blank, the activity is not included in the student’s total grade. The displayed total grade will then be misleadingly high, which may affect the student’s future decisions about completing extra credit work or how much time to designate to studying and test prep. Also, students typically receive an alert message when new grades are posted, so entering a zero for a missing submission when an activity’s due date is reached provides timely and important communication to the student. To further help ensure students are alerted about missing submissions, go to the header cell of the assignment column in the grade book, expand the cell menu, and select “Message Students Who.” Specify that a private message be sent to any student who hasn’t submitted, then compose and send the message.
