Gradebook guide

Each assessed activity on your Moodle module is a grade item. As you add more grade items to your Moodle module, you might need to organise them into categories. You can display/hide a single category from students, and you can give each category a weighting, depending on its importance to the overall assessment.

Placing grade items in categories:

• makes grading easier
• allows you to obtain category totals (e.g. totals for all quizzes, assignments or group work) automatically
• makes it possible for you to assign a weighting to those categories

1. Select Grades in the contextual navigation menu above the module name. 
2. Open the drop-down menu, choose Gradebook setup.
3. Select Add category at the top of the page.

1. Select Grades in the contextual navigation menu above the module name.
2. Open the drop-down menu, choose Gradebook setup.
3. Select the arrow next to the grade item or category which you want to move.

4. Select the new location and Save changes.
   • You may be directed to a recalculating grades page. Select Continue when prompted.

1. Select Grades in the contextual navigation menu above the module name.
2. Open the drop-down menu on the left of the page. Select Gradebook setup.
3. Tick the check box to the right of the grade items which you want to move. Open the Move selected items to drop-down menu at the bottom of the Gradebook setup page, choose the target category.
4. You may be directed to a recalculating grades page. Select Continue when prompted.

Note: Moving items and categories does not affect individual grades, but will affect scores that are aggregated by category.

1. Select Grades in the contextual navigation menu above the module name.
2. Open the drop-down menu on the left of the page, select Gradebook setup.
3. Select Add category button at the top of the page.
4. Enter Category name, e.g. Formative Assessment 
5. Select Save changes.
6. Move all formative assessment grade items to this category. 
7. Select Edit and choose Hide on the Formative Assessment total row.

   

8. Ensure that Weighted mean of grades is applied for the grader report. Enter Zero weight for the Formative Assessment category.

   

9. Open the drop-down menu on the left of the page, select Module grade settings, under overview report, change Hide totals to Show totals excluding hidden items. Select Save changes button.

Screencast

Watch the screencast below for an overview of how to set up Gradebook to manage formative assessments.

If you need to provide online marks for an offline assessment, you can do this by adding a grade item to your Gradebook. You will have to add grades manually in the Grader report page or via the import feature in Gradebook. Students will be able to view the grades via Grades & feedback report. If you have more than one assessment in your Gradebook and they have different weightings you will first need to change aggregation method in Gradebook.

Change aggregation method in Gradebook

1. Select Grades in the contextual navigation menu above the module name.
2. Open the drop-down menu on the left of the page, select Gradebook setup.
3. Open the Edit menu alongside the Gradebook name. By default, this is the name of your module. Select Edit settings.
4. Select Weighted mean of grades as the Aggregation type.
5. Scroll down and select Save changes.

Add Grade item to display grades for offline assessment

1. On the Gradebook set up page, select Add grade item at the top of the page. Name it as the title of the offline assessment e.g. [Module title] Invigilated Exam.
2. Select Save changes.
3. Add a weighting for the Grade item if required and select the Save changes button.
4. Hide the Grade items while marking is in progress and Show the grade items when marks are ready to release. Open the Edit menu alongside the relevant Grade item and select Hide or Show.

If you need to break marks for an assessment into constituent parts, you can do this by changing the aggregation to weighted mean of grades and by adding new grade items to your Gradebook. For example, students submit two short answers to a Moodle Assignment. You want students to get grades for each answer rather than an overall grade for the assignment activity. You will have to add grades manually in the Grader report page or via the import feature in Gradebook.

Change aggregation method in Gradebook

1. Select Grades in the contextual navigation menu above the module name.
2. Open the drop-down menu on the left of the page, select Gradebook setup.
3. Open the Edit menu alongside the Gradebook name. By default, this is the name of your module. Select Edit settings.
4. Select Weighted mean of grades as the Aggregation type.
5. Scroll down and select Save changes.

Add category

1. On Gradebook setup page, select Add category button. Name it as the name of the assessment. 
2. Select Weighted mean of grades as the Aggregation type.
3. Scroll down and select Save changes.
4. Set the weight for the category and select Save changes.
5. Move the Assignment into the category and set the weight for the Assignment activity to 0.
6. Select Edit alongside the Assignment and select Hide so it does not display in the Grades & feedback report for students.

Add grade items

1. On Gradebook setup page, select Add grade item at the top of the page. Name it as a part of the assessment, e.g. Question A. Select the category you have just created from the Grade category drop-down menu. 
2. Select Save changes.
3. Add as many Grade items as required.
4. Set the weighting for the Grade items. Select Save changes.
5. Hide the Grade items while marking is in progress and Show the grade items when marks are ready to release. Open the Edit menu alongside the relevant Grade item and select Hide or Show.

Example of a Mid term assessment with a weighting of 40%. Mid-term Assignment has a weighting of 0% and is hidden. Question a and Question b make up the mid-term assessment (with 60:40 percent weight).

Student view

Below is what a student will see in their Grades & feedback report.

• Select Grades in the contextual navigation menu above the module name.
• Open the drop-down menu on the left of the page, under Setup, select Preferences: Grader report then select the report type you want to change.
• Under Show/hide toggles, select what you want to display on the report.
• Under Special rows, select Show more and make your selections about how grades will display and be calculated.
• Under General, select how you want various elements of the Grader report to display during the grading process.
• Save changes.