Hi Betty: Weights aka components always take some thought. Since you have control over how much, a methodology I would think is important would include your course objectives (CO's) and Student Learning Objectives (SLO's). Also what media and related resources you have access to or need. Next, weights. One approach is to think about which grading criteria you want to use, then assign the weights afterwards. For instance, will there be a mid-term? Final; project; homework; class exercises; quizzes; essays; group project; class participation; skills; research; these kinds of things. Whatever is relevant, the next step would be to weigh the relevant importance to the overall course. Some have used a simple 8X2 process. The large number represents the number of componets. In this technique, each component (i.e., homework) is assigned either 2, 4, 6 or 8. If the weight is light, thats 2X2 =4. Say the final and mid-term are weighed the same. Higher weight, higher number, say 6. So 6X2=12 + 6X2=12. Follow this process until all components have a number. You've now defined the relative weights. You can convert these to percent, or modify them. It's just a way to sort relative weight. I'm sure there are dozens of other approaches including just approximating and see what looks about right. Regards, Barry