Grading

• Initial Gradebook Setup
• Student View of Grades
• Grading Moodle Assignments
• Grading Moodle Quizzes
• Grading Moodle Discussion Forums
• Other Grade Items
• Grading Methods
• Overriding Existing Grades
• Excluding Individual Grade
• Exporting Grades
• Reordering Gradebook Items
• Using Grading Guides
• Beginner's Guide to Moodle Gradebook
• Setting the Grading Scale
• Adding Extra Credit

Initial Gradebook Setup

Gradebook Overview

 

Categories

Weights

Moving Items

Grade Scale

Aggregations

Moodle allows you to aggregate your grades in different ways, depending on how you want your grades calculated.  There is a detailed list of aggregation strategies accompanied by the examples and the mathematics used to calculate grades.  Whether an instructor employs the Moodle grade book or not, having a clear understanding of exactly how a grade is calculated is essential to assigning grades.   Moodle allows for granular control of categories and weights in aggregating grades.  Moodle's documentation goes into detail. 

Moodle Grade Aggregation

Example Calculations

	Raw Scores	Normalized Score
Assign 1	75/100	.75
Assign 2	35/50	.70
Assign 3	10/10	1
Assign 4	85/100	.85

All raw scores are first normalized to a value between 0 and 1:

Mean of Grades

Simple average of normalized grades:

 

Simple Weighted Mean

Normalized grade multiplied by weight, divided by sum of weights:

This is equivalent to:

Natural

If the weights are not adjusted, the default weight for each item is the maximum points possible, and the calculations are identical to Simple Weighted Mean. Natural aggregation allows for weights to be overridden.

 

Weighted Mean

Sample Grades

Category	Percentage	Weight	Category Subtotal
Daily Work	90%	30%	.90 * 30 =  27
Participation	25%	10%	.25 * 10 = 2.5
Tests	75%	50%	.75 * 50 = 37.5
Final	65%	10%	.65 * 10 = 6.5

 

First, Moodle calculates the percentage score in each category.  You may select whichever aggregation method you prefer for each category.  Categories may have different aggregation methods, which may be different from the overall aggregation method.

Final Calculation:

The calculation may seem redundant because the weights add up to 100.  Moodle does not require that weights add up to 100 in this method:

 

Category	Percentage	Weight	Category Subtotal
Daily Work	90%	1	.90 * 1 = .9
Participation	25%	1	.25 * 1 = .25
Tests	75%	3	.75 * 3 = 2.25
Final	65%	2	.65 * 10 = 1.3

(Note:  there was no attempt to use equivalent weights between the two examples)

 

Student View of Grades

Showing Letter Grades

 

 

7 STEPS

1. The first step is to open Course: ASL8001 01: American Sign Language and ... and click Grades

2. Click Grader report

3. Select Course grade settings

4. Click Default (Real)

5. Select Letter (percentage)

6. Scroll down and click Save changes

7. That's it. You're done.

Here's an interactive tutorial

** Best experienced in Full Screen (click the icon in the top right corner before you begin) **

https://www.iorad.com/player/1941145/Moodle-Gradebook---Display-Letter-Grades

Grading Moodle Assignments

Grading Moodle Quizzes

Grading Moodle Discussion Forums

 

A Moodle Discussion forum can be graded within Moodle. The grades are automatically entered into the Moodle grade book. Students are able to view their grades and can receive individual feedback. There are two main ways of grading a discussion forum; whole forum grading and ratings. Whole forum grading allows you to see all of a student's contributions (posts and replies) to the discussion forum on one page and assign them a single grade. When the ratings option is used, each individual contribution is graded and then those grades are used to calculate a grade for the whole forum.

 

Whole Forum Grading

Adding Whole Forum Grading to a Forum

• Log into Moodle, enter your course, and turn editing on.
• Open the section where you want the discussion forum, click Add an activity or resource, choose Forum and click Add.
  • You can also add whole forum grading to an existing forum. Click Edit to the right of the forum name and choose Edit settings.
• Enter the information for the forum as needed (forum name, description, etc.), scroll down, and click Whole forum grading.
• Click the menu next to Type and choose Point.
• In the maximum grade box, enter the number of points the activity is worth. Or, if using percentages, leave it at 100.
• Leave Grading method at Simple direct grading.
  • If you'd like help with using a grading guide or rubric in a forum, please contact support.
• In Grade category, choose which category in your grade book the forum should be in. If you have not yet set up categories (or are not using categories) leave this at the default.
• Leave Grade to pass empty.
• Change Default setting for "Notify students" to Yes
• Change any other settings you need to in the discussion forum, scroll down, and choose one of the blue Save options.

 

Grading a Forum using Whole Forum Grading

• Log into Moodle and enter your course.
• Click on the discussion forum title that you want to grade. 
• Click Grade users to the right of the blue Add a new discussion topic button.
  • If you do not see this button, follow the steps above to add whole forum grading to the discussion forum.
• The grading screen (pictured below) will appear.
•  

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Ratings

Adding Ratings to a Forum

• Log into Moodle, enter your course, and turn editing on.
• Open the section where you want the discussion forum, click Add an activity or resource, choose Forum and click Add.
  • You can also add whole forum grading to an existing forum. Click Edit to the right of the forum name and choose Edit settings.
• Enter the information for the forum as needed (forum name, description, etc.), scroll down, and click Ratings.
• Next to Aggregate type, choose how you'd like Moodle to calculate the discussion forum grade from one of the following options:
  • Average of ratings: the mean of all ratings.
  • Count of ratings: the number of rated items becomes the final grade. Note that the total cannot exceed the maximum grade for the activity.
  • Maximum: the highest rating becomes the final grade.
  • Minimum: the smallest rating becomes the final grade.
  • Sum: All ratings are added together. Note that the total cannot exceed the maximum grade for the activity. This is the most common option.
  • Note that in all of these options the ratings that will be considered for calculating are both initial discussion posts and replies.
• Click the menu next to Type and choose Point.
• In the maximum grade box, enter the number of points the activity is worth. Or, if using percentages, leave it at 100.
• In Grade category, choose which category in your grade book the forum should be in. If you have not yet set up categories (or are not using categories) leave this at the default.
• Leave Grade to pass empty.
• Change any other settings you need to in the discussion forum, scroll down, and choose one of the blue Save options.

Other Grade Items

You can also add your own entries to the gradebook that aren't linked to a Moodle activity like an assignment or discussion forum. This could include in-class activities for face-to-face classes or other activities completed outside of Moodle.

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Adding Other Grade Items

• Log into Moodle and enter your course site. 
• Click Grades  from the menu on the left.
  • If the menu is not visible, click in the upper left corner.
• Choose Gradebook setup from the dropdown menu on the Grades page.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and choose Add grade item.
• Fill in the following information:
  • Grade item 
    • Item Name: how the entry will appear in the gradebook. This will be visible to you and the students.
    • Grade type: value is the default choice. Click the for information about the other options.
    • Scale: this option is only active when using the scale grade type.
    • Maximum grade: the largest number of points the item is worth.
    • Minimum grade: the smallest number of points the item is worth.
    • Hidden: if checked, the grade item will not be visible to students.
    • Locked: this option does not apply to this type of grade item. Do not check it.
  • Parent category
    • Item weight: this only applies if you are using weighted grades and categories.
    • Grade category: this only applies if you are using categories in your gradebook. Choose the category the grade item should be in.
  • Click Save changes
  • The item will appear in your gradebook. Follow the instructions for reordering gradebook items if needed.

Grading Other Grade Items

• Log into Moodle and enter your course site. 
• Click Grades  from the menu on the left.
  • If the menu is not visible, click in the upper left corner.
• Choose Single view from the dropdown menu on the Grades page.
• Choose the gradebook item you want to enter from the dropdown titled Select grade item (#1).
• Enter the numerical grade for each student (#2).
  • To insert the same grade for multiple students, see Bulk Insert Grades below.
• Enter any feedback you might want to leave for the student (#3).
• Click Save and then Continue.

Bulk Insert Grades

• Log into Moodle and enter your course site. 
• Click Grades  from the menu on the left.
  • If the menu is not visible, click in the upper left corner.
• Choose Single view from the dropdown menu on the Grades page.
• Choose the gradebook item you want to enter from the dropdown titled Select grade item (#1).
• Scroll to the bottom and check the box next to Perform bulk insert (#4). 
• From the dropdown, choose either Empty grades or All grades.
  • Use Empty grades if you have already entered some grades and want to give all the rest of the students the same grade while keeping the grades that are already there.
  • Use All grades if you haven't already entered other grades and want to give all students the same grade, or if you have already entered other grades but want to overwrite the existing grades. 
• Type the grade you want to be entered next to Insert value.
• Click Save and then Continue.

Grading Methods

Detailed View

Quick Grading

Feedback

audio/video feedback

Grading Guides

Rubrics

Feedback Files

Grading Workflow

Overriding Existing Grades

Excluding Individual Grade

Exporting Grades

Reordering Gradebook Items

When viewing the gradebook, items are listed in chronological order, based on when the assignment or activity was added to the course site. This order might be different than the order the activities appear on the course site and/or the order you'd like them to appear in the gradebook. If a course uses categories for grading, this method can also be used to put assignments into the proper grading category.

Instructions

1. Log into Moodle and enter the course you want to adjust.
2. Click Grades in the left menu. If that menu is not visible, click the three lines in the upper left corner to make it appear.
3. Click the dropdown menu and choose Gradebook setup.
4. Click the up/down arrow to the left of the item you want to move.
5. The screen will change, showing numerous checkboxes indicating where the item can be moved.
6. Click the checkbox that corresponds to the location you'd like the item to be.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until all the items are in the desired order.
8. Note: If you are using categories, make sure to keep each gradebook item within the proper category.

 

Using Grading Guides

Beginner's Guide to Moodle Gradebook

If you haven't used Moodle Gradebook before, this would be a great time to try it out. Some benefits include:

• graded Moodle activities are automatically imported into the Moodle gradebook
• students can log in and see their grades at any time
• at the end of the semester, final grades can be sent to Portal with a few clicks.

If you'd like to get started, please follow the instructions and links below. 

Setting Up Your Gradebook

1. Make sure your grade scale in Moodle matches the grade scale for your course.
2. Decide if you want to do weighted categories in your gradebook or not.
3. If you're using weighted categories, set up the categories and put existing assignments into the correct categories.
4. Grade your assignments.

Setting the Grading Scale

The grading scale is how Moodle translates percentages into letter grades. It is also the scale that is used when exporting grades from Moodle into Portal. The default grading scale can be changed in your course to match the grading scale in your syllabus. Grading scales to transfer with other course material when importing a course from a previous semester, but it is still wise to check this grading scale for accuracy at the beginning of each semester.

 

Checking the Current Grading Scale

• • Log into Moodle and enter the course where you'd like to check the grading scale.
  • Click on Grades in the navigation drawer on the left side.
    • If the navigation drawer is not visible, click on the three lines in the upper left corner.
  • From the drop-down menu (which likely says Grader Report), scroll down to Letters and click View.
  • The grading scale currently set for the course will be shown. 
  • If the grading scale that is shown is not the grading scale you want to use for your course, click Edit grade letters and follow the directions below, starting at the *.

 

Changing the Course Grading Scale

• Log into Moodle and enter the course where you'd like to check the grading scale.
• Click on Grades in the navigation drawer on the left side.
  • If the navigation drawer is not visible, click on the three lines in the upper left corner.
• From the drop-down menu (which likely says Grader Report), scroll down to Letters and click Edit.
• * If it is not already selected, check the box to Override site defaults.
• Edit the numbers and/or letters to match the grading scale for your course.
• Scroll to the bottom and click Save changes.

 

Default Grading Scale

A	95-100
A-	93-94
B+	91-92
B	87-90
B-	85-86
C+	83-84
C	79-82
C-	77-78
D+	75-76
D	72-74
D-	70-71
F	0-69

 

 

 

Adding Extra Credit

Extra credit can be added to the Moodle gradebook as a gradebook item that adds points to the student's number of accumulated points, but not to the point total for the course. This ability is dependent on some settings in your gradebook. For additional help with this, please contact support. 

Instructions

• Log into Moodle and enter your course site. 
• Click Grades in the left side menu.
• From the dropdown menu, choose Gradebook setup. 
• Scroll to the bottom of the gradebook page and click Add grade item.
• On the next page, underneath Grade item, give the item a name and a total number of points in the maximum grade box. 
• Underneath Parent category, choose the grade category for the item (if applicable) and change the weight to 1.0. 
  • If you don't have the option to change the weight of the item, your gradebook will not work with this method of extra credit.
• Click Save changes.
• The item should now appear on the list of grade items. An underlined plus sign will appear to the right of the item point total, indicating that the item will be calculated as extra credit. 
• Follow the instructions for grading other grade items to enter the extra credit points.