The gradebook has several advantages over keeping grades in a spreadsheet:
Student Grade Transparency: It is important that students are able to view their grades and feedback in a single, accessible place. The gradebook not only shows grades and feedback, but it can also reveal the weights of upcoming assignments so that students can develop an idea of how they are performing in the class. Using the gradebook also promotes quick turnaround of grades as they are instantly available to students one they are saved in Moodle.
Convenient time-saving features: Activity grading in Moodle connects grades instantly with the gradebook. This is convenient and eliminates the risk of data entry errors. You can also filter grades to view by the student, grouping, or assignment for data analysis. The gradebook also includes built-in aggregations function to eliminate the need for creating complicated excel formulas.
Data security: The Moodle gradebook is a safe and secure way to store student grade data. Data stored in Moodle is protected by Brandeis Network Security, and it is backed up several times per week. Offline alternatives for grade storage all carry a degree of risk.
Grade input and visualization: The gradebook contains multiple interfaces for viewing and entering grades. Moodle also has built-in tools for statistical analysis of gradebook data.
Gradebook support: If you have problems or questions about setting up or using your Moodle Gradebook, the Instructional Technologists in the Library are available to help.
It is best practice to create assignments before the first week of the semester. Doing so helps you manage your time during the busy semester and allows students to immediately see their assignments and their respective weights in the gradebook. This usually involves creating all assignments and activities in advance, ensuring they have a place in the gradebook even if all settings are not initially configured.
If this sounds daunting, don’t panic! Remember, you can always expand or edit activities later. For example, creating a quiz activity doesn’t require authoring all the questions right away. Similarly, creating a forum activity doesn’t necessitate drafting an initial post or discussion topic immediately. Non-online activities can still be represented in Moodle by creating a manual grade item. Related grade items can also be organized into categories.
You can use the Availability Settings to control access to assignments, giving you time to fine-tune them without worrying about early submissions from students.
Once you have added all the grade items to your course select the next tab, Add Categories to continue Gradebook Setup.
Add Grade Categories
Categories are useful for grouping similar grade items in the gradebook and assigning them a percentage or weight of the overall grade. For example, if your syllabus had this breakdown:
For this syllabus, it makes sense to create categories for the Reading Comments, Reflections, and Group Project Preparation.
To Add Categories
1. Select Grades from the course homepage to access the Gradebook.
2. Select the dropdown menu next to the Grader report and select Gradebook Setup.
3. From the top right hand corner select Add Category.
4. Enter the Category name and adjust the category settings.
5. Select Save
6. Repeat this process for each category.
Select the next tab, Move Grade Items into Categories, to continue Gradebook Setup.
Move Grade Items into Categories
1) To move all of the Reading Comment assignments into the category you created you will select the checkbox to the left of each assignment in the gradebook.
2) Select the Move link at the bottom of the screen in the course footer.
3) On the next screen select the category where you want to move the items and select the Move button.
4) Save Changes.
5) Repeat this process for the other you categories you created.
To continue Gradebook setup, select the next tab Adjust Weights.
Adjust Weights
With all your assignments and categories created, the final step is to set weights to ensure that your Moodle gradebook aligns with the grading system described in the course syllabus.
The Natural Aggregation method automatically adjusts weights to equal 100% based on point values. To change a category's weight, select the checkmark next to the category and enter the appropriate weight. Weights can also be adjusted for individual assignments by checking the box next to the weight column.
Having followed this guide your gradebook will look like this:
Now we have the weights for each category aligned with grading strategy described in the syllabus. With the Natural aggregation the total always has to equal 100%.
Notice how the categories have automatically adjusted the weights inside of each category:
Aggregation refers to the mathematical strategy that is used to calculate the grade items into a final score for the course in the gradebook. All grade items are converted into percentages by dividing the assigned by the maximum scores that is possible for an assignment. The percentages are then aggregated into a total score for the course. In the Moodle gradebook, Natural is the only aggregation that is available.
For this example we are going to use the following Syllabus:
Reading Comments/Participation - 30% 10 Reading Assignments are due in this course and each one is worth 30 points.
Reflections - 15% Four total assignments and each one is worth 100 points.
Group Project Preparation 15% - Assignments are a Project Proposal and an Annotated bibliography, each worth 100 points.
Presentation - 10% - Assignment worth 100 points
Final Group Project 30% - Assignment worth 100 points
In the Gradebook each assignment in the Reading Comments category will be scored out of 30 possible points.
| Reading Comments Assignments | Student Scores |
|---|---|
| Reading Comment Assignment 1 | 25 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 2 | 27 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 3 | 27 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 4 | 27 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 5 | 25 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 6 | 25 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 7 | 27 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 8 | 25 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 9 | 27 |
| Reading Comment Assignment 10 | 25 |
Category total: 260 divided by 300 = 0.917 multiplied by 100 = 86.67%
The Reflections Category has four assignments with each one being scored out of 100.
Reflections 1 90/100
Reflections 2 85/100
Reflections 3 85/100
Reflections 4: 85/100
Category total: 345/400 =0.9125 x 100 = 86.25%
The Group Project Preparation Category has two assignments each scored out of 100.
Group Project Proposal - 90/100
Group Project bibliography - 90/100
Category total 180/200 = 0.90 x 100 = 95.00%
In this gradebook setup there are two assignments worth 100 points each that are not placed in any categories.
Presentation - 90/100
Final Group Project 85/100
The Natural Aggregation strategy will calculate these assignments with their assigned weights using the following equation:
(Reading Comments x 30) + (Reflections x 15) + (Group Project x 15) + (Presentation x 10) + (Final Group Project x 30)
(260/300 x 30) + (345/400 x 15) + (180/200 x 15) + (90/100 x 10) + (90/100 x 30)
(0.8666 x 30) + (0.8625 x 15) + (0.90 x 15) + (0.90 x 10) + (0.85 x 30)
(25.99) + (12.93) + (13.5) + (9) + (25.5)
86.92 out of 100
.8692 x 1100 = 956
86.9%
A common challenge with the gradebook is that the view for the instructor is quite different from the instructor's view of the gradebook. One way to understand what students can see in the gradebook, and a way to verify the gradebook is setup correctly, is to access the User Report. The User Report includes all assignments that a user has completed in the selected course. The User Report is the most accurate version of a user's grade at the present time in the course.
To access the User Report follow these steps:
1. Open your course in Moodle
2. Select Grades from the settings menu.
3. Select the drop down arrow next to the Grader report and select the User Report.
4. Select a student to view their User Report for the class.
A. Grade Item - This column shows the name and provides a link to all the assignments and graded activities in the course.
B. Calculated Weight - This column shows the weights that were set during the Gradebook setup process. Using the natural aggregation causes the weights for assignments inside a category to automatically aggregate based on the point value. Notice that for the Reading Comments category the 10 assignments are equal to each other in point value(30 points) so each assignment is 10% of that category grade.
C. Grade - This column shows the points the student earned for this grade item.
D. Range - This column shows the range of scores for each assignment.
E. Percentage - Indicates the percentage score earned by the student on each assignment.
F. Feedback - Feedback left for students using the Activity interface will appear in this column.
G. Contribution to Course Total - This column shows what the percentage of a students' score on an individual assignment is towards the course total. For example, look at the Presentation score. The student earned a 90/100 or a 90%. The assignment is worth 10% of the course total and they have earned 9% out of a possible 10%.
For additional help in setting up the gradebook contact the Instructional Technologists at library@brandeis.edu.
