In this article, you can read how you can attach a grade item to a discussion topic. 

If you want to assess a discussion, you can use a grade item. By attaching a grade item to a discussion topic, Brightspace will automatically include the assessment of the discussion topic in the final grade.  

• Navigate to Course Tools in the navbar of your course.
• Click Discussions.

1. Click the fold-out arrow next to the discussion topic you want to connect to a grade item, then click Edit Topic.
2. If you wish to create a new Discussion topic, click New.

1. Navigate to Assessment (third tab).
2. Select the grade item you wish to connect to the discussion topic in the drop-down menu below Grade Item. Click New Grade Item to create a new grade item in a new window.
3. Fill in a Out of Score (the maximum number of points one can acquire). Make sure the maximum number of points you enter here is equal to the maximum number of points in the grade item (and if you use a rubric, this number has to be the same as well).
4. Select: 
   • Select Allow assessment of individual posts if you want to assess individual posts within a discussion topic. You can use the drop-down menu to select the assessment method you want to use. The discussion topic will thus get an assessment based on the assessment of each individual post. If you do not select this option, you will assess the score of a student based on the overall topic.
   • If you have selected the assessment of individual posts, you can select Include unassessed posts in the calculated topic score as zero if you wish to include unassessed posts in the assessment of the topic. Unassessed posts will now be included, and count as zero points.
5. Click Save and Close.

If a grade item is already attached to another activity, it will no longer appear in the drop-down menu.

The key icon in the Discussions overview will show you whether you have linked a discussion to a grade item.