Summary

The Moodle gradebook is made up of activities and grade items that are organized by categories. The gradebook setup page will be the key tool in creating the grading structure for the course.

Accessing the Gradebook Setup Page

To access the gradebook setup page:

1. Click on Grades in the course options across the top.
2. The default page will open to the Grader report. Click on the dropdown menu directly above the Grader report page title and choose Gradebook setup.

Gradebook Setup Summary

The Gradebook setup will show any existing grading structure. This could include any activities that have already been built such as assignments, forums, and quizzes. It could also include categories if the course site has been imported from a template or other course. 

Grades are stored in activities such as assignments, forums, or quizzes. Grades can also be stored in grade items. Grade items are used to be a grade placeholder for any item that isn't submitted to Moodle. If a test is taken in class, the student isn't submitting anything into Moodle. In this case, a grade item would be used. 

Categories break up activities and grade items into sorted segments. Minor assignments, major assignments, quizzes, tests, and participation are all common gradebook categories. Most syllabi will have a grading breakdown that includes categories. It is a great practice to mirror the grading breakdown in a syllabus to the grading breakdown in the Moodle course. 

Grade Aggregation

It is important to understand grading aggregation before building or editing a gradebook. There are three aggregation types available within Moodle. These types can be solely or mixed and matched together. It is most common to see only one aggregation type used in a course; though there are specific use cases where different aggregation types can work well together. To help understand how each type works, the descriptions and definitions in this article will assume one aggregation type for the entire gradebook.

Simple Weighted Mean of Grades

Simple Weighted Mean of Grades is the most common, default, and very simple to use. Simple Weighted Mean of Grades (or Simple) uses categories to define percentages. Moodle will not force categories to add up to 100, however it is a best practice for finalized gradebook to have categories that add up to 100.

To further clarify, here is an example. The participation category could be worth 10% of the overall grade. In this aggregation type, the participation category would be set to have a score (or Maximum grade) of 10. There could be two grade items within the participation category; one could track attendance, and the other could track active listening or class participation. The attendance grade item could be worth 15 points (one point for each time the course met). The class participation grade item could be worth 10 points and is more subjective as to how the student interacted within class sessions. Together, there are 25 points within the participation category that is worth 10% of the final grade. Simple dictates that 15/25 comes from Attendance and 10/25 comes from participation. Effectively, the attendance grade item is worth 15/25 of 10% or 6% of the final grade. If the attendance and participation grade items were worth the same, each grade item would be worth 5% of the total grade. The total points within the category do not matter as it will always be worth 10% of the final grade. However, the total points within the category do dictate how points are weighted against each other to get to that 10%.

The biggest issue I have seen with this method is when there is a significant discrepancy between the point values of two items within the same category. For example, a category could be worth 40% of the total grade. Within this category, there is an assignment worth 100 points and an assignment worth 5 points that is serving as a check in or draft paper. If a student gets a 5/5 in the draft, the gradebook will give the full 40% from the category once the grade is entered because it is not factoring the other 100 points yet. If the student then gets a 90/100 on the assignment, the overall grade will drop as the student now has 95/105 in the category. Despite the student doing well on the assignment, the grade will decrease as the full 40% from the category is no longer being awarded.

This is a screenshot of a gradebook built with Simple Weighted Mean of Grades. In this example, there are 4 categories worth 30, 10, 20, and 40. The categories add up to 100. There is also an Extra Credit category worth 2 points. 

Weighted Mean of Grades

Weighted Mean of Grades is very similar to Simple Weighted Mean of Grades. This aggregation type still uses categories to define percentages. The major distinction between the two is that the weight of individual activities and grade items can be specifically determined and are not derived from the point value of the activity. Categories in this aggregation type should still add up to 100 in a finalized gradebook.

Using the example from above, the participation category is still worth 10% of the overall grade. There are still two grade items within the category worth 10 and 15 points. Instead of the gradebook automatically calculating the weights as 10/25 and 15/25, the gradebook can be told to provide specific weights. In this case, the gradebook could be told that 5 out of the 10 category points should come from attendance, and 5 out of the 10 category points should come from participation. This allows the activity scores to be entered that are easiest to grade while not having those scores directly influence the weight in the gradebook. All activities could be graded out of 100 points but be weighted according to the outline in the syllabus. 

When entering weights in the gradebook, the actual weight number only matters in relation to other weights in the same category. If all activities should be equal in weight, the same number should be entered for all activities. It may be simpler to enter the weight according to the syllabus. For example, a category could be worth 40% of the overall grade. There are two assignments in the category, both worth 100 points. Assignment 1 is worth 25% of the overall grade, and assignment 2 is worth 15%. The weightings could be entered as 5 and 3 or 25 and 15. It is much simpler to enter the 25 and 15.

This is a screenshot of a gradebook built with Weighted Mean of Grades. In this example, there are four categories worth 100, 100, 20, and 40. Despite the category totals, the categories are weighted to be 30, 10, 20, and 40. Graded activities are also weighted within each category against each other. Some categories like quizzes are using weights that represent the points directly associated to the overall score. Other categories like Assignments are using weights that represent the percentage towards the category value. Both options are valid, though it would be very difficult for students to understand how points are being calculated. 

It is very common for categories to be built using Simple Weighted Mean of Grades, but for the activities to be weighted using Weighted Mean of Grades. 

Natural

Natural grading is the simplest in understanding but requires the most foresight. Natural grading means that 1 point is worth 1 point, regardless to which activity it belongs. Categories are nice to provide breakdowns but provide no further definition to points. Gradebooks using Natural commonly do not add up to 100 points. Rather these gradebooks commonly add up to 500 or 1000. These gradebooks require the most foresight as new activities cannot easily be added without disrupting the current point breakdown as one new activity directly influences the gradebook total. For example, this course could have five assignments worth 50 points, five quizzes worth 20 points, and a final worth 50 points. The course total is 400 points. The biggest benefit to this aggregation type is it is extremely easy for students to see where points are coming from or missing. 

This is a screenshot of a gradebook built using Natural grading. In this example, there are four categories worth 60, 20, 40, and 80 adding up to 200 total points. The activity points directly correlate to the 200 points, and it is very clear where points are coming from. The weights are also provided.

Exclude Empty Grades

Excluding empty grades is a commonly used feature in the gradebook. This features excludes any grade that does not have a score. If the feature is enabled, any empty grade does not count against the student and provides an accurate real time estimation of the students grade. As discussed above, it can lead to drastically inflated scores if a student gets a perfect score on a small assignment. When the larger assignment is graded and the student does not get a perfect score, the grade will go down even if the student does well.

If the feature is disabled, empty grades are counted against the student. Instead of providing a real time estimation, students see the gradebooks build up towards the total score. This feature does not have the problems with artificial inflation, but students may be discouraged after getting the first score in the gradebook and only seeing the overall go up by a few points instead of the real time estimation. 

Building the Gradebook Structure

Add Categories

Create a new category by:

1. Clicking on Add category at the top of the Gradebook Setup page.
2. Fill in the Category name. The name should reflect the contents and/or match the syllabus.
3. Define the Aggregation type. The default is Simple weighted mean of grades.
4. Define if empty grades should be excluded. This setting is hidden under Show more... and is defaulted to be enabled. When enabled, empty grades are excluded.
5. Optional Define Keep the highest. Keep the highest will keep the x highest scores within the category. It is recommended to have all activities be worth the same point value when using this feature.
6. Optional Define Drop the lowest. Drop the lowest will drop the x lowest scores within the category. It is recommended to have all activities be worth the same point value when using this feature.
7. Define Maximum grade. Maximum grade will determine how much the category is worth. If using Natural grading, this value does not need to be defined. Maximum grade is within the Category total setting section.
8. Optional Define Parent category. Parent categories allow for subcategories to further define how points are calculated. Subcategories are never essential but can provide a better replication of the syllabus grading breakdown.
9. Click Save changes.

Remember it is encouraged that category totals should add up to 100. Moodle will not enforce this, but the percentage points will be awkward. This does not apply for Natural grading.

Add Grade items

Grade items are used to house grades in Moodle where the student did not submit anything to Moodle. Commonly grade items cover Participation scores and in-person tests.

Create a new grade item by:

1. Clicking on Add grade item at the top of the Gradebook Setup page. 
2. Fill in the Item name.
3. Define the item point value in the Maximum grade field.
4. Define the Grade category. If the categories are already built, the grade item can be immediately placed into a specific category.
   1. If a category is chosen, an option to make the grade item extra credit becomes available.
5. Click Save changes.

Edit Existing Categories

If a category name or point total needs to be adjusted:

1. Click on the Edit under Actions for the category header. 
   1. 
   2. In the screenshot, the Edit that should be clicked is the one at the top.
   3. Choose Edit settings
2. Update any settings necessary including name, aggregation type, maximum grade, etc.
3. Click Save changes

Edit Grade Items

Grade values for assignments, quizzes, and forums need to edited within the settings for that activity. An assignment point value cannot be edited from the gradebook; it has to be edited from the assignment settings.

Grade items however do not have additional settings and can be edited from the gradebook. To edit a grade item:

1. Click on the Edit under Actions for the Grade Item.
2. Update any settings necessary including name or Maximum Grade.
   1. If grades have already been entered for the Grade item, Moodle will ask if the existing grades should be scaled to match the new value or if the grade values should remain the same.
3. Click Save changes.

Extra Credit

There are two ways to add extra credit. An extra credit category can be added. This will add on points to the overall score of the grade. If an extra credit category is used, the items within the category should not be marked as extra credit. 

Extra credit can also be in the form of extra credit activities. These can be added to existing categories and may better reflect why the extra credit is added. Extra credit may be given to the exam category for participating in TA lead study sessions for example.

To add an Extra Credit category:

1. Click on Add category at the top of the gradebook setup page. 
2. Define all values as mentioned above including name, aggregation, and maximum grade.
   1. The maximum grade should be entered as the percent points of extra credit. If 2 percent points of extra credit can be awarded, enter a 2 into Maximum grade.
   2. If using Natural grading, the points should reflect the total points in the course.
3. Click Save changes.
4. Click on the Edit in the category header as described above
5. Choose Edit settings
6. Under the Parent category settings, enable the new setting that is available to make the category extra credit.
7. Click Save changes.

To add an extra credit grade item, follow the instructions above on adding a new grade item.

To make an activity (assignment, forum, quiz, etc.) be extra credit:

1. Click on the Edit under Actions next to the activity
2. Enable Extra credit under Parent category
3. Click Save changes.

Nullifying Grades

Occasionally activities or items are added into the gradebook that are graded but should not influence the course grade. This could be a practice quiz or draft assignment.  In these instances, students should be able to see their scores in the gradebook, but the scores should not effect the final grade. The easiest solution is to create a new category and give it a value of 0. Any item put into this category can have a value but it contributes to a category worth 0 towards the overall grade.

Items Outside of a Category

Because of how gradebooks are calculated, the most volatile piece in a gradebook is activities that are not stored within a category. Gradebooks are calculated by adding up all values at the base level. The base level typically only has categories. If an activity is not within a category, it is being calculated at the base level along with the categories. 

In this screenshot, Assignment 1 is not within a category. Based on the indentation, it is also observed that it is at the base level. This gradebook now has 4 categories totaling up to 100, an extra credit category worth 2 percentage points of extra credit, and an assignment worth 100. The assignment is being calculated at the same level as the categories and is acting like a 100 point category. This gradebook is being calculated as having 200 total points and 2 points of extra credit. This causes extreme issues as Assignment 1 is worth 50% of the entire grade instead of the being weighted within the Assignments category. This issue becomes very apparent when a student does poorly on this assignment and the overall grade takes a hard downward turn. Placing Assignment 1 into the proper category will resolve the issue.

Organizing the Gradebook

Mass Reorganizing Activities

There are many cases where the gradebook activities need to be reorganized. The activities could have been built before the categories were created or the import process may have caused an issue. Instead of manually moving each item, the gradebook setup allows for moving multiple items at the same time. This tool is best used to move activities into a specific category rather than reorganizing activities within a category.

 To mass move activities:

1. Select the checkbox on the right side for every activity that should be moved into a specific category.
   1. 
   2. In the screenshot, the checkboxes to the right of Assignment 1 and Assignment 2 could be checked to move Assignment 1 and Assignment 2 into a new category together.
   3. Any amount of activities can be checked, and they do not need to share a category before moving.
2. At the bottom of the page, select the new category in the drop down menu for Move selected items to.
3. Moodle will automatically process the change.

Reorganizing Individual Activities or Categories

Sometimes a gradebook could be functionally organized but not organized in a way that is easy to follow. For example, a category may include 10 quizzes. However the order of the quizzes may not proceed according to the order in which they were taken or named. In this case, reorganizing the quizzes to follow a specific order would make the gradebook as a whole easier to follow. Categories may also be reorganized to match the syllabus or provide a more clear understanding.

To move individual activities or categories:

1. Click on the Up/Down arrow to the left of the activity or category.
2. In the new screen, choose the line where the activity or category should land. There will be a space between every activity and every category to select.
3. Moodle will automatically process the change.

In the screenshot, the assignments category was chosen to be moved. If the Assignments should land between the forums and quizzes categories, the gray cell should be selected directly above quizzes and below the entire forums category.