Gradebook Setup
The Gradebook Setup page determines how your individual grade items make up a student’s entire course grade. It can do so using various aggregation methods, which you can read about in depth on Moodle’s documentation site.
This article will not cover all, but some of the most useful aggregation methods in CCAD Moodle.
It’s best to have your gradebook laid out in your syllabus before creating it in Moodle. That way, students know what to expect and will have an accurate sense of how they’re doing when they check their course grade throughout the semester.
If you need to make changes to the gradebook in the middle of the semester, communicate them to your students as soon as possible. This will:
Minimize confusion
Make expectations as clear as possible
Give students the best chance to get things done on time and be successful in the class
Where is it and the Basics
You can get to the Gradebook Setup two ways.
Go to your main course page and open the Course management gear at the top left and select Gradebook Setup.
2. On the left in the Navigation Drawer, click Grades. This will take you to the Grader Report (Moodle’s term for the gradebook). If the drawer is closed click the ≡ button to open it.
On this page, click Grader Report to open the view drop down menu and select Gradebook Setup.
This is what an empty Gradebook Setup looks like. Notice the two buttons at the bottom, Add Grade Item and Add Category.
Grade Item - Simply put, something your students will do to receive points. This could be a presentation, a participation grade, a field trip, or anything else. Grade Items are different from Activities created on the course page, students cannot interact with them. If you want them to submit and Assignment, take a Quiz, receive a grade for Attendance, participate in a Discussion Forum, complete a Lesson or Workshop, please read our article about Moodle Activities.
Category - A bucket containing Grade Items and graded Activities. Categories help you structure your course gradebook.
Grade Aggregation Methods
Each category, including the entire course, has its own grade aggregation method that you can control. First, let’s look at the aggregation method for the entire course.
Click the Edit drop down to the right of the top level of the course and choose Edit Settings.
Click the Aggregration drop down to view all of the aggregation methods. Simple weighted mean of grades is the default.
As previously mentioned, this article won’t cover all of the aggregation methods, but if you want to read more about them you can do so on the Moodle site Moodle’s documentation site.
Simple weighted mean of grades
This method weights grade items automatically based on their max grade. For example, if Homework A is worth 50 points and Homework B is worth 100 points, then Homework A is worth twice as much as Homework B. Note that the course total is still 100, even though the total of the items is 150. Mean of grades means that the course total will be scaled to whatever you set it to, 100 by default. This method supports extra credit.
Weighted mean of grades
This method allows you to set custom weights, regardless of max grade. Note the appearance of the Weights column using this method. If both Homework A and Homework B are worth 100 points, you can control the relative importance of each item by entering proportional values in the box next to each item. Here, Homework A is worth 60% and Homework B is worth 40% of the course total.
Natural
Natural grading is a raw sum of points. If Homework A is worth 50 points and Homework B is worth 100 points, then the course total is 150 and cannot be rescaled. This method supports extra credit.
Extra Credit
Extra credit is supported by simple weighted mean of grades and natural, but not weighted mean of grades. You can designate an item as extra credit from its settings by clicking the Edit drop down, choosing Edit settings, and checking the Extra Credit box in the Parent Category section. Click the Save changes button at the bottom.
Back on the gradebook setup page, a blue banner will let you know if your course total was rescaled. In this example, the course total was 150 until Homework A was marked for extra credit. Extra credit points do not count toward the total, the new course total is 100.
Extra credit icons are marked with a + next to their max grade.