If you are a GCU student looking for help with your online classroom through Halo | Learn, please see the Halo | Learn section of our Help Center for assistance.
This article will provide information for non-GCU faculty with courses hosted in LoudCloud.
If something in your course is not functioning correctly, we first recommend that you try basic troubleshooting.
If basic troubleshooting does not work and this article does not have any information on your issue, contact Technical Support by emailing HSPartnerHelp@gcu.edu and we will be happy to assist!
Please select a category below to view:
Choose the appropriate drop-down menu to view steps for grading each item.
You can both grade assignments by an individual student or by the assignment to grade many students. If you want to enter the grade for only one student, start by locating the respective assignment. Assignments can be found in a variety of locations, including the Dashboard, Path, or Gradebook. After the assignment has been located, start by selecting a student and clicking over the point value under Grades.
On the Assignment Details page, you can view the Assessment Details (by clicking in the top left-hand corner), see the Citation Report and view the percentage, along with other submission details. Underneath these details, you may see a message that says "Document conversion is in progress. Once conversion is complete, the document will appear below". This message will be replaced by a preview of the assignment document which will appear inline once completely loaded.
If the conversion never completes or is taking a long time, you can also view the submission by clicking the download icon at the top.
If an assignment requires the submission of multiple documents, click the arrow next to the first document title at the top of the screen. This will populate a drop-down menu from which you can select and/or download any subsequent documents.
On the right-hand side, there are sections that correspond with the rubric. When you click on an option, it will update the score on the top. If you do not want to see the descriptions underneath the rating, click on the icon to Collapse Description. Underneath each section you can also provide additional feedback. If you choose to leave comments under specific rubric sections, do not include any special characters or symbols as they will prevent your grade from saving successfully.
Once you are done grading, you can upload any attachments, such as a graded paper with comments added to the document and enter final comments below. Click Save to save the grade if you are not ready to publish, otherwise select Save & Publish. For more information on reassigning, please see the Reassigning Assignments section.
After saving the points, you will see a message confirming the points have saved successfully.
Until you publish the grade, there will be an indication that it is Unpublished. You can also download all of the grades in Excel by clicking on Download Grades.
When submitting grades for Group assignments, you have the ability to grade the group as a whole or each group member individually. After locating the group assignment from the Gradebook page in LoudCloud, you will see groups of students within the Assignment Details Page as shown below.
To enter any other grade values, there MUST be a submission. To award a grade above 0, you will need to reach out to the group members and direct them to submit a document first.
If the assignment uses a rubric, select a rating for each acceptance criteria. The criteria from the rubric will be applied to all students in the group. Then enter point values in the boxes next to the student names at the bottom of the menu. The score you enter in these boxes will be the grade the student receives, regardless of the rating given in the rubric.
For example:
Pretend that a group submits an assignment a day late, but the work they turned in is perfect in terms of the rubric. It's possible to apply the rubric and show that their work was satisfactory, but reduce their points using the entry boxes due to it being late. Please note that this example is NOT a grading suggestion.
When submitting grades for Group assignments, you have the ability to grade the group as a whole or each group member individually.
Start by selecting the student you wish to grade individually from a group.
Next, make sure to uncheck Apply to all members in the group.
Self should appear next to the student’s name that is being graded. You are now able to input the point value for the student.
Most quizzes are auto-graded; however, you will need to manually grade Short Answer questions. You can grade quizzes by an individual student or by the quiz to grade many students. If you want to enter a grade for only one student, start by locating the respective quiz details page through the Dashboard, Path, or Gradebook.
- Select a student and click over the point value under Grades.
- Entries that require manual grading will be displayed first for ease of grading.
- Enter a score, provide feedback, and click Save. If you are ready to publish, click on Save & Publish. You can also enter a comment, if desired.
NOTE If there are special characters or emojis in the comments, you may receive the error: “There was an error while saving points. Please try again.” If this occurs, please remove any special characters and/or emojis and try again. - You can navigate through each question (if there are more than one) using the numerical bar on the top-left. The question and answer will be provided just below the question number.
If you would like to batch grade assignments, participation, quizzes, or discussion questions, you can do so in Gradebook.
- Start by going to Gradebook from the Navigation Menu.
- Locate the item you would like to grade. You may need to use the scrollbar found at the bottom of the page to look through all of the assignments.
- When you have located the correct item, click on the hamburger menu located below the title, and choose Grade All. Assignments will appear in order of submission from oldest to newest. Please note, this will only show eligible submissions.
NOTE The Grade All feature for Discussion Questions will only appear if students have made a response to the Discussion Question and not their peers. - You can filter between students by clicking on the arrow highlighted in the screenshot below.
- To grade a student, simply add a grade, comment, and click Save (or Save & Publish if you are ready to publish the grade).
- When you are ready to batch publish all of the assignments, go back to the hamburger menu on the assignment and choose Publish all.
The Publish All feature may also be used to publish grades for all students who did not make a submission.
Start by going to Gradebook from the Navigation Menu.
Next, locate the item you would like to grade.
When you have located the correct item, click on the hamburger menu located below the title, and choose Publish All.
From the Publish All pop-up window, place a checkmark in Apply a single grade to all students with ‘Missed’ submission and Publish them. You will then be prompted to add a Score and Comment. Once filled out, select Publish.
Once successfully submitted, you will see a confirmation under Grade of ‘0’ applied & Published for. Then, select Ok. Please note, you will need to refresh the page to see the updated scores.
You can track student participation through the Gradebook tab. To locate student posts, follow these steps:
- Select Gradebook from the Navigation Menu.
- Once on the Gradebook page, locate the appropriate student. You can also search by the student name to narrow down the results.
- The Participation is next to the other assignments and Discussion Questions for the current week. Click on the points to open the Participation window for a specific student. Note, you must click directly over the points.
NOTE Participation is currently located towards the end of the gradebook. To view student’s participation, use the scrollbar found at the bottom of the page to navigate to the far right.You can also click the menu button (three horizontal lines) in order to select Grade All. The Grade All function will allow you to grade multiple students at once. Assignments will appear in order of submission from oldest to newest.
NOTE The "Grade All" feature does not currently work for Participation grades if a student drops or is removed from a course. Participation grades will need to be submitted one at a time. For more information or to sign up for updates, please refer to our LMS Known Issues article.
Using the Grade All feature will automatically take you to the next participation column once you have finished grading. - On the Participation window, you can see all of the posts made by the student you selected. You can filter the types of posts you'd like to see, such as ones you have already marked as substantive.
- When you are ready to enter the participation points, enter a score and a comment, and click Save or Save & Publish.
If a grade is accidentally submitted for participation, you will not be able to unpublish the grade. If this occurs, the grade should be left as a 0. You will want to make sure you message the student to inform them of the situation.
There may be instances where a student needs an assignment or quiz reassigned due to user error or technical challenges that impeded progress.
- Begin by accessing the Assignment page; this can be done through the Dashboard, Path, or Gradebook.
- Locate the student that needs to be reassigned and click over the point value under Grades.
- The Assignment Details page will open. In the bottom right corner, click the Reassign button.
- In the Reassign window, the Attempt Start and Original Due Date will auto-populate. Click on the calendar icon next to Due on and select a date, along with any comments.
If the student has accommodations which have already pushed the due date back two weeks, you will not be able to successfully reassign the assignment to a later date. The date that has been entered by your school representatives cannot be overridden. While it may appear as though the assignment was successfully reassigned on your end, the dropbox will not be open on the student's end. If you are an instructor in this situation and would like to extend a due date further than what your school representatives has pre-entered in the course, contact Technical Support via HSPartnerHelp@gcu.edu for an alternative way to accept the assignment. - Next to the student’s name, there will be an indication that the assignment was reassigned.
- The student has submitted the assignment
- You've put in a grade for the assignment
- The due date for the assignment has passed
Assignments can be reassigned up to two (2) weeks after the course end date. Notice: You are not required to provide a student with the full two (2) weeks. It is simply the time frame in which assignments can be reassigned.
To reassign a quiz that has been attempted, submitted or not submitted, you will follow a similar process to reassigning Assignments.
- First, go to the Quiz Details page; this can be done through the Dashboard, Path, or Gradebook.
- Locate the student that needs to be reassigned and click over the point value under Grades.
- Once on the student’s Quiz page, click the Reassign button.
- A window will pop up confirming that you want to reassign the quiz. Reassigning removes all previous attempts, so it is important for the correct student to be selected. Click Yes to continue.
- In the Reassign window, the Attempt Start and Original Due Date will auto-populate. Click on the calendar icon next to Due on and select a date, along with any comments.
- A confirmation message will pop up acknowledging the adjustment.
- Below the student’s name, there will be an indication that the quiz was reassigned, and the student can attempt it again.
Quizzes can be reassigned up to two (2) weeks after the course end date. Notice: You are not required to provide a student with the full two (2) weeks. It is simply the time frame in which quizzes can be reassigned.
- Start by accessing the Group Assignment Details page; this can be done through the Dashboard, Path, or Gradebook.
- Locate the student that needs to be reassigned and click over the point value under Grades.
- The Group Details page will open. In the bottom right corner, click the Reassign button.
- In the Reassign window, the Attempt Start and Original Due Date will auto-populate. Click on the calendar icon next to Due on and select a date, along with any comments.
- Next to the student’s name, there will be an indication that the assignment was reassigned.
- Start by opening the Assignment Details page for a student.
- Then, select View Reassign History.
- The Reassign History drop-down should appear with the Reassigned Date and Instructor’s Comment. The Reassigned Date will show the date in which an assignment was reassigned, and the Instructor’s Comment will display any comments left for the student.
Instructors may use LopesWrite to view and comment on students' submissions.
To submit comments to LopesWrite reports, start by selecting a student and clicking over the point value under Grades.
Then, open the LopesWrite report by selecting View Details.
After opening the LopesWrite report, highlight a section that you would like to comment on. A comment bubble icon should appear to the right. To leave a comment, click on the comment icon.
Once your response is typed, select Comment.
You will receive a ‘Comment saved successfully’ message at the top. Comments will be labeled as Faculty Feedback.
If you need to make an edit or delete a comment, select the downward arrow to the right of Faculty Feedback. You will be presented with options to edit or delete a comment.
Your school will have a specific way to submit final grades outside of the LoudCloud system once the class is over. If you experience issues with submitting the final grades or if you are unsure how to submit final grades, we recommend that you reach out to your school representative for further assistance.
Error Messages
View the list of possible errors below for steps on how to resolve them.
Within the LoudCloud Gradebook, you may see a -- symbol in the letter grade field of the Final Grade column. To populate a letter grade, click into the box, remove the -- symbol, and then select Tab on your keyboard. The letter grade should then appear. This process will need to be completed for each student individually.
Within the LoudCloud Gradebook, you may see a red triangle in the Final Grade column that displays the error, “Letter grade configuration has not been set up” when you hover over the triangle. If this error occurs, contact Technical Support via HSPartnerHelp@gcu.edu for further assistance.
The Forums allow for communication and engagement with your students. To access the Forums, select Forums in the Connect tab on the Navigation Menu.
There are three types of forums:
- Discussion Question,
- Private Forum, and
- Questions to Instructor Forum.
Students are often required to answer discussion questions. By selecting a discussion question, you can view all of the students’ participation post replies to that question. To grade a discussion question, click on the post you want to enter a grade for within the Discussion Question Forum, then click in the space to the right of Points.
Enter the score and a comment, then choose Save or Save & Publish. When you publish the grade, it will be visible to the student.
If you select Save & Publish, a pop-up message will confirm you are ready to publish the points.
You also have the ability to mark posts as substantive. Keep in mind that only replies to other posts can be marked as substantive.
To mark a post as substantive, open the reply and select the Yes option in the bottom right corner.
You can determine if a post was made by you, if it has been graded, or if it was marked as substantive by the following icons:
Post was made by instructor
Post has been marked as substantive
Post has been graded
The Private Forum allows for private 1-1 communication between faculty and student, and student to student in the same class. Faculty have administrative oversight over all posts housed in the Private Forum.
To initiate a discussion with a faculty or student, click New Topic in the upper right-hand corner.
After selecting the student or faculty you would like to contact, you must enter a Title and Description; if desired, you may attach a file to your message. To send the message, click Submit.
You can arrange the message by who last made a post in the forum message.
The Questions to Instructor Forum allows for class-level communication. Topics in this forum are visible to all faculty and students in the class.
To initiate a discussion, click New Topic in the upper right-hand corner.
You must enter a Title and Description; if desired, you may attach a file to your message. To send the message, click Submit.
Posting a welcome announcement is a great way to introduce students to relevant course materials and reinforce class expectations. Many faculty members will also post weekly announcements explaining learning objectives and provide helpful resources.
To access and manage announcements, click on the Announcements icon in the upper right-hand corner.
Creating, Editing, and Deleting Announcements
To create a new announcement, click Create New.
You will be taken to the Create New Announcement page. Enter a Title and provide the content of the announcement in the Description box. If you would like to attach any files to the announcement, you may do so by selecting Browse. Next, enter a Start date and time for the announcement. By default, the End date will be the last day of the course. If you would like for students to be able to reply to the announcement, check Users may reply to this announcement (e.g. if you would like all students in class to acknowledge reading the expectations in the announcement).
If the announcement is ready to be published, select Publish. A dialog box will appear to confirm you would like to publish the announcement; select OK to publish the announcement.
You will receive a confirmation that the announcement was created successfully. To create another announcement, select Yes; to return to the Manage Announcements page, select No.
If you are not ready to publish the Announcement, you may select Save as a draft. If an announcement has been saved, but not published, it may be Edited, Published, or Deleted from the Manage Announcements page.
Once an announcement has been published, it may be Revised (correct a typo or add an attachment), Deactivated, or the message thread may be closed from the Manage Announcements page.
The Roster provides you with a list of all students and faculty associated with each class.
The Roster provides you with a list of all students and faculty associated with each class. Here you can find the personal details such as email address, home address, work experience, and education that has been shared on each profile. For assistance with editing your own profile, see the Setting up your Faculty Profile section in the Settings and Configuration tab. To view the roster, click Roster in the Connect tab of the Navigation Menu.
Once on the roster page, click on a student name to access their profile information.
The Status section will display which students are Active or Inactive in your course.
There may be some situations where you would like a hard copy of the roster. Whether it is for attendance or keeping track of students, you can print the roster with the steps below.
- To view a table with the course roster, click the Student Contact Information button.
NOTE Sometimes clicking the Student Contact Information button will not bring up the roster table. If this is the case, then try clicking it a second time. - Once the table is open, it should look similar to this:
- Highlight the entire table.
- Right-click on the highlighted table and select Print from the pop-up menu
- Select the Print button in the print window.
- This should print out the table on its own for you to use as necessary.
Printing the table from LoudCloud doesn’t always work as intended; it may print out the entire webpage instead of only the chart. If this is the case, you can copy and paste the table into an Excel spreadsheet. Once this is done, you can print out the Excel spreadsheet instead.
NOTE If you do not have access to Excel, you may use another spreadsheet software. Steps may vary for different spreadsheet software. - Open an Excel spreadsheet.
- Highlight the entire table inside of the LMS.
- Press ctrl + c or cmd + c to copy the table.
- In Excel, click on the cell that you want the table to start in.
- Paste the table into Excel with ctrl + v or cmd + v
- Once the table is in Excel, press crtl + p or cmd + p
- Make sure that preview matches what you want to print.
NOTE Sometimes the table may be too large and carry rows to a second page. If this is the case, try changing the orientation to landscape or fitting all columns to one page. - Select the Print button and it will print your spreadsheet.
Group assignments are used to facilitate collaboration and communication. Faculty are responsible for creating the groups within the classroom.
The first step in setting up groups is navigating to a Group Assignment drop box in your classroom. This can be achieved by clicking on the Path tab in the Navigation Menu.
Once on the Path page, select the Topic in which the Group Assignment is due and then click on Tasks to expand the menu. Click on the Group Assignment to go to the Group Assignment page.
On the Group Assignment page, click Manage Groups.
All students who have not been assigned to a group will show on the left side of the screen under Students Not Assigned. To create a new group, click Add Groups.
In the Add Group window, enter a Group Name and click Add. You cannot have two groups with the same name. Please do NOT add special characters in the Group Name (i.e. #, ", ;). Adding special characters can prevent you from making edits to the group/members later.
To assign students to a group, check the box next to their name(s) and click the blue double arrow button next to the corresponding group to which you wish to assign them. The group name can be edited by clicking Edit Title next to the current name.
You may also disable a group by selecting the Deactivate button to the right of the group name. Essentially, disabling a group removes access to the group forum. To remove a student from a group, check the box next to their name and click Remove to place them back into the column on the left.
To view the group forums, navigate to the assignment details page. Click the grade point box next to the student whose group you would like to view.
In the grading box that appears, click the icon in the upper left corner next to Group Forum.
Any posts that have been made in the group forum will appear below.
To set up your faculty profile, click your name located in the upper right-hand corner.
Once on the profile page, there will be four main sections that you can edit to add personal information such as your preferred contact phone number, personal signature, work experience, and education history.
Keep in mind that unless you make your information private, all personal information entered in your profile is visible to any students and GCU Staff that participate in the courses you teach. To change the privacy status of any information you enter, click the lock icon to the right of it. Your profile information does not need to be entered for each class, as it will be part of your faculty profile.
To add or edit personal information, expand the section and click Edit.
It’s important to confirm that your school email address is listed correctly in the Personal Information section of your profile. Since the times and locations can vary, you are expected to enter Office Hours on the Roster for each individual class you teach. For instructions on how to add Office Hours, see the Class Roster section under the Classroom Management tab.
Once you are satisfied with the information in the section you are editing, click Save. The Save button will appear at the bottom of any section that is currently being edited.
You should not change the preferred time zone from Arizona regardless of where you are located. Changing your time zone to anything other than Arizona time will negatively interfere with your profile, assignments, quizzes, discussion questions, and responses in LoudCloud. This can cause them to appear overdue or late prior to it being midnight in Arizona.
In addition to editing profile information, you can also add a picture to your profile using the following steps:
- Click Change Picture under your name on the left side of your profile page.
- In the Upload Profile Image dialog box, click Choose File to upload a picture from your computer.
NOTE The accepted file types are .jpg, .png, .bmp, and .gif. The file size cannot exceed 20 kilobytes.
- Once the file has been selected, click Save to complete the upload process.
There is a Profile Completion bar on the right that will display the percentage of what has been completed on your profile. Please note that the information entered is completely voluntary and your profile does not need to be 100 percent complete.
Faculty will receive alerts through the Notifications page whenever there is new activity in the classroom such as replies in the forums, student submissions, and course content updates.
To view your notifications, click on the Notifications icon in the top right-hand corner of your course dashboard.
You can also access the Notifications page by clicking on the Navigation Menu in the upper left-hand corner of the classroom, selecting Messages, and then Notifications.
Once on the Notifications page, it will list your notifications by date received. The peach color indicates notifications that are marked as unread.
Selecting the title of a notification will open its details and enable quick access to the alert’s content through the Go To Content button.
You can modify or remove notifications by placing a checkmark in the boxes next to the appropriate notification(s) and clicking Mark as Read, Mark as Unread, or Delete.
The Notification Settings option is also located on this page.
These settings will allow you to set if you would like to receive notifications and how you would like to receive them.