Moodle: Setting up the Gradebook

Overview

All the grades for each student in a course can be found in the Moodle gradebook > Grader report.

Accessing the gradebook setup menu

• Click the Grades tab on the top of the course page
• Click the drop-down on the top left of the screen
• Scroll down and click Gradebook setup

Creating grade categories

A grade category is useful to help organize similar assignments in the gradebook. For example, you can create a large "Quiz" category that holds every quiz given in the course for easy viewing.

• At the top of the Gradebook setup page, click the Add Category button
• Enter a name for your category (e.g. "Quizzes")
• Click Save changes at the bottom of the screen

Creating grade items

Activities that receive grades, such as Assignments, Quizzes, and Forums, automatically added into the gradebook. Manual grade items are meant to include activities that happen outside of Moodle. For example, class participation or oral exams. To add a grade item: 

• At the top of the page, click the Add grade item button 
• Fill in the following information: 
  • Item name
  • Grade type - This changes how you will grade the item. Below are all the available grade types"
    • Value - a numerical grading system, defaulted to a 0-100 range
    • Scale - a grade selected from a list of items, such as the typical letter grades (A-F) or a choice of "Outstanding" "Satisfactory" and "Not Satisfactory"
    • Text - a way to give only written feedback.
  • Maximum/Minimum grade - The lowest and highest possible scores. This is only available using Value grades.
  • Grade to pass - the minimum score to pass the assignment.
  • Weight - By default, grade items are weighted by their maximum grade. However, by checking "Weight adjusted", you can change the grade item's weight to be higher or lower. 
  • Grade category 
• Click Save changes at the bottom of the screen

Moving grade items into categories

• Check the box in the Select column of any of the grade items you wish to move
• At the bottom of the screen, pick a category from the Move selected items to drop-down menu
• The page will reload and move your grade items into the category you selected

Assigning weights

The gradebook will automatically calculate relative grade weights based on the maximum grade values of each grade item, but you can override those weights and enter your own on either categories or individual grade items.

• In the Weights column, check the box to the left of any category/grade item weight you would like to override
• Enter the relative weight out of 100 to assign to that item or category
  • Within each category, the grade item percentages will be out of 100 of the category.
    For example, a “quizzes” category is worth 30% of course and consists of 2 quiz activities. The ‘quizzes’ category = 30% while quiz activity 1 and 2 = 50% each
• Repeat this for any other Categories or Grade Items you wish to customize.
• When all weights are assigned, scroll to the bottom of the list and click the Save changes button

Gradebook Appearance

To make the gradebook visible to students, see Moodle: Making grades visible to students.

Changing the Grade Display Type

By default, the gradebook shows students each assignment's point values and their percentages. The following steps will show you how to change this:

1. Enter the Grades menu from the top of the course page
2. Select Course grade settings in the drop-down menu just below the top bar
3. Under the Grade item settings heading, change the Grade display type to your preference
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save changes

Viewing only one course section at a time

If you have a metacourse, you can add a filter to your Gradebook to view and grade one section at a time

1. Select the Settings tab from at the top of your course.
2. Expand the Groups heading to view and select either Separate groups or Visible groups. For the purpose of the gradebook, it does not matter which one you chose, both will work
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save changes.

Then, from the Gradebook (Grades tab), in either the Grader Report or the Single View tab in the drop-down menu, change the filter to one of your course sections.

Questions?

If you need further assistance or have specific questions that aren't covered in this article, please don't hesitate to reach out for personalized support by submitting a Moodle Support ticket. 

Acknowledgement

Created by Carly Born, Fri 7/23/21. Last modified by Sam Johnson-Lacoss '24, Thurs 12/5/23.