How Do I Configure the Delphinium Course Settings?

Set the Start Date and End Date for the course. 

Notes: 

• These should be the first and last day that students can earn points in the class. These values will be used by Delphinium components to show students their progress in the course. For example, the Milestone Tracker, Grade Tracker, and Course Count Down components use these values to track a student's progress.

• If you configure these values in the Canvas course settings before you load the Delphinium page for the first time, Delphinium will copy these values from the Canvas course settings. 

• These dates do not need to match the start and end date configured in Canvas. For example, if you want students to submit all their work a few days before the end of a term, you can set the end date earlier.

• If the course is using grading periods, these dates will reflect the grading period you are currently viewing.

• You can type the date directly into input field or  you can use the date picker popup that appears when you click in the input field

• •  Use the arrows to navigate months

  • Click the month and year title to skip directly to a month or year

  • Click a date to add it to the date input field

Delphinium uses "max points" to calculate when to give awards like prize boxes and avatar levels. In 0-based grading courses, max points are used to calculate the 0-based grading scale.

Set the Max Points for the course. 

If you do not know how many points are in the class, Delphinium can count them for you by clicking either the All Points, or Published Points Only buttons.

Notes:

• The Max Points for a course should equal the number of points considered a "perfect score" in the course. This value depends on how you design your course.

  • For most courses, this will be the sum of all of the points possible on assignments

    • If you will be adding or removing assignments, you will need to estimate what the max points will be at the end of the class. One way to estimate is to look at how many points were available at the end of a previous version of the course. You can change this value later if necessary. If you are unsure, it is better to estimate a little high. If you need to lower max points later, it will only help students unlock more awards. If you guess low, and raise it later, some students may be frustrated when awards they received are relocked. If it becomes clear that your max points estimate is too high, you should lower it, otherwise students will never reach the top awards.

  • For a 0-based-grading course, this number is the "max score" from which grade levels are computed, even if there are more points available in the course

    • In a 0-based-grading course, you might create an effect similar to "extra-credit"  by setting the Total Points lower than points possible on assignments so that there are more points possible than the configured "perfect score" 

  • If the course is using grading periods, this value will reflect the max points for the grading period you are using

If your Canvas account uses grading periods, then you can select the grading period to display in Delphinium. Learn more about grading periods in Canvas here:

• How do I add grading periods to an account? 

• How do I use grading periods in a course?

In Delphinium, grading periods are used to filter which assignments to display. When a grading period is selected, only assignments with due dates that fall within that grading period will be displayed in Delphinium components and the Delphinium Gradebook. Items with no due date are displayed in the last grading period.

Each grading period has its own Start Date, End Date, and Max Points. You must configure each by selecting the Grading Period from the drop down list and updating the fields. Start and End Date will be prepopulated using the Grading Period dates, but you can overwrite these values.

Teachers can select which Grading period to view in their own view, and they can use the Set all students to this Grading Period check box to change all students' grading period view at the same time. Students can also change which grading period they are viewing in the Student Settings.

This setting controls which content components like box content and iris content display.

Select how content is organized for students in this course: Modules or Assignment Groups.

Notes:

• All courses contain at least one assignment group

• Assignment groups can only contain content with scores, like quizzes, discussions, and assignments

• Modules can contain other content  like pages, links, and files

• Modules can be used to control content access using time locks, prerequisites, mastery paths, and requirements

Select whether or not your course uses 0 or % based grading.

Notes:

• %-based grading

  • Students start at 100% and likely work their way down

  • Students can view their grade in Delphinium or Canvas

  • This is the traditional way of tracking grade progress and will be familiar to most students

• 0-based grading

  • Students start at 0 points and work their way up the grading scale, similar to how a video game tracks progress

  • Students must view their grade in Delphinium, the Canvas grade display will not match

  • 0-based grading is less common. Read this tutorial to learn more about the differences between the two grading style: 0 vs % Based Grading 

  • 0-based grading displays the grade in a way that will be unfamiliar to most students. You should not use 0-based grading unless you have a clear understanding of how it works and have explained it clearly to your students.

Display size is the "zoom" level that Delphinium is displayed at for a specific user. It is useful for users to adapt how Delphinium is displayed depending on their screen size or for accessibility reasons.

Select a "Display Size": Small, Medium, or Large.

Note: Changing this setting does not affect other users. Students can select their own display size in the Student Settings. 

It is often a good idea to make Delphinium the Canvas course home page. This will display Delphinium as the first page that students see when they enter a course.

Click Make Delphinium the Course Home Page to make Delphinium the Canvas course home page.

Note: If necessary, you can change your home page again in the Canvas settings. See this link for details:

• How do I change the Course Homepage?

Click Save to save changes to Delphinium course settings.

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