Course grading is set up using weights such as these:

• 15% – Mid-Term Exam
• 25% – Labs and Field Trips
• 15% – Critical Reviews
• 25% – Participation
• 20% – Final project

Steps:

1. Starting with a new, blank course, select Grades from the “Administration” block.
2. Click the [Categories and items] tab.
3. Then click the Full View link in the center of the page.
4. From the drop-down at the top of the aggregation column, select Weighted mean of grades.
   1. Put a check next to “Aggregate only non-empty grades” so that blank grades are not calculated as zeros. This will require you to enter a zero for missing or incomplete work if you want the zero to factor.
   2. Leave 0 selected for “Drop the lowest,” otherwise the gradebook will drop the lowest category total for each student.
   3. Click the [Save changes] button and remain in the “Full view.”
5. Next, add categories into which you will organize graded items.
   1. Click [Add category] at the bottom of the screen.
   2. You need to determine the settings for this particular category:
      1. Give the category a name (e.g., Exams, quizzes, labs, participation).
      2. Determine the aggregation type. If you expect the items in the category to be weighted inherently by having all items equal or having more important items worth more points, select “Simple weighted mean of grades.”
      3. Click the [Show Advanced] button and make sure there is a check next to “Aggregate only non-empty grades” so that blank grades are not calculated as zeros—this will require you to enter a zero for missing or incomplete work if you want the zero to figure in.
      4. If you want to drop a certain amount of the lowest scores, select that in the drop-down.
      5. Click the [Save changes] button and remain in the “Full view.”
   3. Continue adding as many new categories as you need to fit your grading structure.
6. Next, add weights to your categories.
   1. Each category will have 0.00 in the weight column. Set each category “weight” to the weight you want this category to hold in relation to the course grades as a whole. (If labs are worth 25% of the total course grade, this category should be set to 25.)
   2. Once your categories are established, continue by adding grade items to the course. You can do this by adding assignments and activities directly to the course. When you add a new assignment or activity, you will be able to assign a category as you edit other settings. You may also choose to simply add manual items to the gradebook.
7. Once your categories are established, click the [View] tab to return to the “Grader Report.”

To add manual items (new grade columns) to the gradebook:

1. Click the [Categories and items] tab.
2. Click [Add grade item] at the bottom of the screen.
3. Give the item a name, grade type and adjust other settings as necessary.
4. Be sure to specify the category to which this item belongs. If this is the only item for a category, you can add it to the main course category and apply the weight to the item as you would a category.
5. Click the [Save changes] button.
6. Continue adding new assignments, activities, and manual items as necessary. As you add these items, be sure to select the appropriate category in the settings. When you finish, click the [View] tab to return to the “Grader Report.”
7. As new items are added, they should appear nested under the appropriate category. If not, you can assign categories by editing each activity or by moving the items in the [Categories and items] tab. To do this:
   1. Click the [Categories and items] tab and click the Simple view link.
   2. Click the checkbox next to the item or items you want to move.
   3. Scroll down and use the “Move selected items to” drop-down to choose the appropriate category. The screen will refresh and your items will be moved to the category.
   4. When you finish, click the [View] tab to return to the “Grader Report.”

   OR

   1. Click the move arrows of the category or grade item to be moved. This refreshes the screen.
   2. Click in the dashed box where the category or grade item should be placed.
   3. When you finish, click the [View] tab to return to the “Grader Report.”
8. As scores are added to the “Grader Report” or through the assignment grade sheet, the Category totals and Course total will update to reflect the current grade.
9. Obviously, check the math to assure that it’s calculating as you expect. You may find it helpful Show ranges, which is accessible by clicking the [My Preferences] tab and setting the “Ranges” drop-down to Yes. This will show you the greatest possible score for an item in the “Grader Report.”

Note: At this point, do not check the extra credit boxes while using “Simple weighted mean of grades” for the category aggregation as this will break the gradebook. If you wish to use extra credit, please use “Sum of grades” aggregation instead.

DOWNLOAD A SIMPLE HTML FILE OF THIS DOCUMENT: moodle195_grade_weights

Your site administrator now has the ability to replace or supplement the drop-down navigation menu with tabbed navigation.

Course settings for the gradebook can be found in the Settings tab. Course settings determine how the gradebook appears for all participants in the course.

Grader report preferences (and preferences for other gradebook reports) can be found in the ‘My preferences’ tab.

Grader report

Your site administrator now has the ability to enable a static students column for teachers to scroll grades in the grader report using a horizontal scrollbar. (Note that this feature is not available for IE6 users or for users who have the screenreader setting in their Moodle profile set to Yes.)

The show/hide toggles across the top of the grader report (Show show/hide icons, Show locks etc) have been removed. The settings are still available in the grader report preferences.

For very large gradebooks (with many students and/or many grade items), an informative mouse-over tooltip has been added to each grade cell in the table. It shows the user and grade item to which the grade belongs.
Grades entered through the Grader Report are no longer locked so grades can be adjusted in the assignment view. With this change, grades entered are no longer colored differently.

User report

Category nesting is shown with contrasting colors in the user report, which makes it a lot clearer, especially when lots of categories are in use. A range column has been added.

Easier editing of categories and items

A new Edit categories and items page, with simple and full view, enables teachers to move multiple items between categories and quickly edit multiple settings.

Categories can only be moved one at a time, but all their contents are moved as well.
Category aggregation type can be changed instantly (without submitting the form) by changing the selected option in the aggregation drop-down menu.

Contrasting colors indicate category nesting. The categories and grade items are also indented with a cell colored by the parent category’s color, to make the nesting even clearer.

Extra credit and weight appear in two different columns. If none of the categories have an aggregation type that makes use of either extra credit or weights, these columns are omitted.

Forms for editing grade categories and their associated grade items (e.g. course category and course total) have been combined into one form. This also means that there is no edit icon in the grader report for course and category totals. You just edit the category itself instead.

This change is perhaps the most radical one visually.

Allowing grades over 100%

Your site administrator now has the ability to allow teachers to enter grades over 100% directly in the gradebook.

Understanding aggregation strategies and normalization

Most of the aggregation types in the 1.9.5 gradebook convert a grade to a percentage internally before applying weighting, calculating the category total, and using the category total to calculate the course total.

The different aggregation strategies allow you to choose the way category grades and a participant’s overall course grade are calculated. Aggregation strategies can be applied to the overall course and/or to specific categories. Some common aggregation types include the following:

Mean of grades calculates the score as a percentage of each graded item; adds all the percentages for a category; and divides by the number of graded items.

A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10, category max 100:
(0.7 + 0.25 + 1.0)/3 = 0.65 –> 65/100

Simple weighted mean uses the maximum grade values to weight scores within a category rather than normalizing a grade to 100 percent before weighting. This aggregation type does not allow you to set a weight for items or the categories; it simply uses the inherent weighting you’ve established by setting different maximum point values.

A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10: 70 + 20 + 10 = 100/190

Sum of grades is the sum of all grade values. Scale grades are ignored. This is the only type that does not convert the grades to percentages internally (normalization). This means grades are weighted by their point value directly. The Maximum grade of associated category item is calculated automatically as a sum of maximums from all aggregated items.

A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10:
70 + 20 + 10 = 100/190

Weighted mean allows you to establish weights for categories and items. These weights influence the overall importance of each item or category. For example, if a category is weighted at 50%, then regardless of the number of items in that category, the overall mean score of those items will be 50% of the student’s grade.

A1 70/100 weight 10, A2 20/80 weight 5, A3 10/10 weight 3, category max 100:
(0.7*10 + 0.25*5 + 1.0*3)/18 = 0.625 –> 62.5/100

Deciding which aggregation strategy to use

Find the scenario that applies most closely to your grading philosophy for a particular course.

Scenario 1

IF
I know in advance what all the graded course items are,
and the available points per item are in proportion to each other (bigger items are worth more points).

THEN
Use “Simple Weighted Mean of Grades” or “Sum of grades” as your aggregation strategy.
There is no need to establish categories.

Scenario 2

IF
I know in advance what all the graded course items are,
and I use one standard scale to grade my course items. (Points out of five, or out of one hundred, etc.)
But, some things are worth more than others (e.g., a final exam graded out of 100 is worth more than a homework assignment graded out of 100).

THEN
Use “Weighted Mean of Grades.”
Assign proportional weights to the ITEMS.

Scenario 3

IF
I want the flexibility to add graded course items (pop quizzes, for example).

THEN
Use “Weighted Mean of Grades.”
Add proportional weights to the CATEGORIES of items that you want to be flexible.

Scenario 4

IF
Everything in my course counts the same, regardless of what scale I use to grade it. (A 15-question quiz is worth the same number of points as a 10-question quiz.)

THEN
Use “Mean of Grades.”

Establishing grade categories

If you select a strategy above that suggests you should use categories, it is easiest to establish these categories prior to adding assignments or manual grade items. This gives you the ability to designate the category (e.g., exams, quizzes, labs, etc.) when you create the grade item. Categories simply allow you to group grade items and alter settings to affect these grouped grades.

To add new categories:

1. Select Grades from your course “Administration” block.
2. Select the [Categories and items] tab.
3. Click the [Add category] button at the bottom of the screen.
4. Configure the settings for this particular category:
   1. Give the category a name (e.g., Exams, quizzes, labs).
   2. Determine the aggregation type. Usually set this to the same aggregation type as you have selected for the overall gradebook. However, it is possible to select a different aggregation type for a category. Just be careful as this can have unexpected results.
   3. This category can become a parent category and new child categories can be added within. To illustrate this, a “Quizzes” category (parent category) could contain two other categories (child categories under the parent) labeled, “Pop quizzes before mid-term” and “Pop quizzes after mid-term.”
   4. Item weight: The weight of the category in relation to the other categories.
   5. Click the [Save changes] button.

To edit categories:

1. Click the [Categories and items] tab.
2. Click on the [Edit] button next to the category you would like to edit.
3. Make any necessary changes.
4. Click the [Save changes] button.

To rearrange grade categories:

1. Click the [Categories and items] tab.
2. To move a category up or down, select the move icon (designated by the up/down arrow).
3. Select the empty box to move the category to a new location.
4. Click the [Save changes] button.

To rearrange grade items:

1. Click the [Categories and items] tab.
2. To move a graded item up or down, select the move icon (designated by the up/down arrow).
3. Select the empty box to move the graded item to a new location.
4. Click the [Save changes] button.

To assign existing grade items to categories:

If grade items are added to a specified category, they will be assigned to the parent or course category. To assign grade items to a category:

1. Select the [Categories and items] tab.
2. In the “Select” column, place a check next to the grade item(s) you wish to move.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select from the “Move selected items to” drop-down menu the appropriate category in which the grade items should be moved.

To add manually graded item:

To add new grade items to the grader report without adding an activity to the course page:

1. Select the [Categories and items] tab.
2. Click the [Add grade item] button at the bottom of the screen.
3. Give the item a name and grade type and adjust any other settings as necessary.
4. Click the [Save changes] button.

Entering/Editing grade, including decimal grades and grades over 100%

A handy feature of the gradebook is the ability to quickly enter or edit grades in a spreadsheet type view. This view allows you to enter point values higher than the grade item’s maximum. It also allows you to enter values with decimal points.

To access this view:

1. Click Grades in the “Administration” block.
2. This should bring you to the “Grader Report” view, but if not, click the [View] tab then click the Grader report link.
3. Click the [Turn editing on] button in the upper right corner. This will display input boxes for each grade along with editing icons.
4. To enter a grade, click into the box for the student and grade item and enter a score. To enter multiple grades, hit tab key to move down the current column of text entry boxes.
5. When you finish entering grades, click the [Update] button at the bottom of the screen to save the grades.
   IF YOUR CAMPUS IS USING TIMEOUTS, REPLACE THE PREVIOUS LINE WITH THE FOLLOWING:
   When you finish entering grades, click the [Update] button at the bottom of the screen regularly to save grades as you work to avoid getting timed out.

Extra credit

In some cases, you may decide after the gradebook is established as above, that you want to add optional extra credit grade items to the gradebook or to a particular category. Only two aggregation types easily allow for extra credit: “Sum of grades” or “Simple weighted mean of grade.”

Assigning extra credit using “Sum of grades” or “Simple weighted mean of grades”

1. Click the [Categories and items] tab then click the [Turn editing on] button.
2. For the gradebook or category in which you want to apply extra credit, change the “Aggregation type” to Sum of grades or Simple weighted mean of grades.
3. Then, beside the appropriate gradebook item place a check in the box located in the “Extra Credit” column.
4. Click the [Save changes] button at the bottom.

Exporting the gradebook

You may want to export your gradebook to either serve as a backup or be able to manipulate the data through spreadsheet software such as Excel.

Follow these steps to make a backup of your Moodle gradebook for your records.

1. Click on [Export] tab.
2. Select an export format (OpenDoc, Plain text, Excel, XML)
3. Set options as required.
4. Click the [Submit] button.
5. After previewing the data on the following page, click the download button.

DOWNLOAD A SIMPLE HTML VERSION OF THIS USER DOCUMENTATION: moodle195_gradebook_userdoc.html

TIP: If your scale is a custom non-value (not a number), Moodle’s behavior in combining or averaging the scores into a percentage value is unpredictable. When an average or aggregate is important, then it is a good idea to stick with the standard 100% scale to compute an overall grade.

1. [Include scales in aggregation] Leave as Yes/checked, but unchecking and rechecking can recalculate grades for debugging purposes.  If there are problems with grade calculation in a course, this is the only place for administrators to force Moodle to do the calculations again.  This is reportedly not very processor intensive, but can take a few minutes.
2. Allowing Grades over 100%.  If you would like to allow teachers to use grades over 100%, put a check in the box next to [Unlimited Grades]. It is recommended that this setting is enabled at an off-peak time, as all grades will be recalculated, which may result in a high server load.
3. A new [Navigation Method] drop-down menu setting enables administrators to choose whether to enable tabs navigation of the gradebook in addition to/instead of the existing drop-down menu.

Grader Report Settings

1. A new [Static Students Column] setting in Administration > Grades > Report settings > Grader report enables administrators to enable a static students column for teachers to scroll grades in the grader report using a horizontal scrollbar. (Note that this feature is not available for IE6 users or for users who have have the screenreader setting in their Moodle profile set to Yes.) For very large gradebooks (with many students and/or  many grade items), an informative mouse-over tooltip has been added to each grade cell in the table. It shows the user and grade item to which the grade belongs.

Grade Category Settings

1. A new [Available Aggregation Types] setting in Administration > Grades > Grade category settings enables administrators to reduce the number of aggregation types. By default, all existing aggregation types are available (Mean of grades, Weighted mean of grades, Simple weighted mean of grades, Mean of grades (with extra credits), Median of grades, Lowest grade, Highest grade, Mode of grades, Sum of grades). This list may be reduced to only a few types, with additional types being enabled as/when teachers request them. Note that reducing the number of aggregation types simply results in disabled aggregation types not appearing in the aggregation type drop-down menu. All existing grade category calculations remain the same, regardless of whether the aggregation type is later disabled by an administrator.

For more information about gradebook improvements, see Moodle.org: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Gradebook_improvements_in_Moodle_1.9.5

As always though, we’re looking for suggestions from the community about things *you* want us to look at and work on. These can be bug fixes, hacks, functionality improvements, documentation, road testing, etc. 

Note: You don’t have to be attending Hack/Doc Fest to make suggestions — we’d like suggestions from the entire community. 

Here’s a rough list based on brainstorming by the steering committee. None of this is set in stone (save for updating the Moodle: Liberal Arts Edition package to Moodle 1.9.5 and rolling in all of our fixes/patches/commonly used modules, etc.)

Please add your ideas to this list! Not sure if something fits? Just ask! Feel free to post a comment or email me at newquisk@lafayette.edu.