Moodle Gradebook: Basic Setup, Display and Functionality
The Moodle gradebook is a powerful and flexible tool that instructors can use to keep track of their student’s grades and progress in a course. It allows instructors to enter grades for assignments, quizzes, and exams and to view a summary of their students’ grades in one place. The gradebook also allows students to view their own grades, so they can track their progress in the course. Some of the benefits of using the Moodle gradebook include:
- It provides an easy way for teachers to keep track of their student’s grades and progress.
- It provides an easy way for students to view their own grades.
- It allows teachers to see at a glance how their students are doing in the course.
- It can help teachers to identify students who may be struggling, so they can provide additional support.
Setting up your Moodle gradebook before the start of the semester can help reduce confusion about grades and make it easier for students to track their own progress. At the end of the semester, instructors can easily submit their Moodle grades via the Wolfware Grade Submit Tool.
- In this article:
- Workshop Links:
Weighted Categories: A Common Grading System
One of the most common ways to calculate a course overall grade is through weighted categories. In a weighted categories grading system, the grades for different assignments, quizzes, and exams can be assigned different “weights,” or values, that reflect the relative importance of each component in determining the overall course grade.
An individual’s course grade using a weighted categories system is calculated based on the relative contributions of the categories. For example, a course syllabus might list several categories with each category contributing a percentage “weight” towards the course grade total:
- Assignments 30%
- Participation 10%
- Quizzes 15%
- Project 25%
- Exams 20%
Moodle calls this grade calculation (or aggregation) method “Weighted Mean of Grades,”and it is the default aggregation method for all new courses created in Moodle.
Category Contribution Calculation
The relative weight of the Assignments category is 30%, or 30, compared to the other categories. In the example below, each assignment has a maximum grade of 100 points. However, it is also possible to have different maximum point values or different individual weights for each assignment. Regardless of how many points each assignment is worth, all assignments together contribute to 30% of the overall grade. This means that even if an item is deleted from or added to the category, the relative impact on the overall grade remains the same.
| Assignment Category Items | Points Earned | Maximum Possible Points |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1 | 80 | 100 |
| Assignment 2 | 92 | 100 |
| Assignment 3 | 85 | 100 |
| Assignment 4 | 83 | 100 |
The calculation for the Assignments category by itself would be the sum of the points earned divided by the sum of possible points. In this example, the Assignments category calculation is (340 ÷ 400) = 0.85, or 85%.
To determine the contribution of the Assignments category to the overall course grade, Moodle multiplies this category calculation by the category weight:
(Points earned ÷ Possible points) x Category weight = Category contribution to course grade
(340 ÷ 400) x 30 = 25.5
Overall Course Grade Calculation
Add the contributions of each category to determine the overall course grade.
| Category | Category Points Earned | Maximum Category Points | Weight | Category Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assignments | 340 | 400 | 30 | 25.5 |
| Participation | 90 | 100 | 10 | 9 |
| Quizzes | 250 | 300 | 15 | 12.5 |
| Project | 92 | 100 | 25 | 23 |
| Exams | 168 | 200 | 20 | 16.8 |
| Overall grade = 86.8 |
Category Tips
- If you want some activities to not be calculated into the course overall grade (for example, low-stakes practice activities): Create a “Non-graded Items” category with a weight of 0.
- If you want all categories to be weighted equally, enter 1 as the weight for each.
Other Grading Systems
While weighted categories is a common grading system, many instructors like to add up the total points for all items to calculate the overall grade. If you use a total points grading system, you can change the Moodle gradebook aggregation method to “Natural”. Many additional grading systems, including “ungrading” and mastery or competency-based grading, can also be used with the Moodle gradebook but are a bit more complex to set up. Request a consultation at learntech@ncsu.edu for guidance and ideas for using Moodle with these less conventional, innovative grading systems.
Moodle Gradebook Setup
Graded activity types in Moodle will automatically be added to your course gradebook regardless of any aggregation method or setup. Graded activities include Assignment, Quiz, Lesson, Workshop, Forum, H5P, and many of our external tools integrated into Moodle, i.e., PlayPosit, Perusall, Yellowdig, Turnitin, Gradescope, and more.
When you have determined a grading system, you are ready to set up your gradebook in Moodle. These two videos provide an overview of the gradebook navigation (3 minutes 13 seconds) and basic setup (5 minutes 35 seconds).
Basic Gradebook Setup
Before starting, you may want to read this Overview of the Moodle Gradebook.
Then follow these general steps to set up your Moodle gradebook:
- Choose “Grades” from the course menu at the top of a Moodle course.
- Click on the dropdown that currently contains “Grader report”.
- Select “Gradebook setup” (located under “Setup” in the dropdown menu).
- If you use a grading system other than the default “Weighted Mean of Grades” you can change the aggregation method.
- Add manually graded items (if applicable).
- Set up categories.
- Change category weights to match the grading policy you have in your syllabus.
Gradebook views
- The default view when you select “Grades” is the Grader report in which you can view grades for all students. You can adjust your preferences for how things appear in the Grader report.
- Choose the Single view option from the drop-down menu to enter grades on manually created assignments. You must have Edit mode turned on to enter and edit grades.
- Choose User report from the drop-down menu to view the grades of an individual student. Students are able to view their grades only from the User report. You can adjust the settings to change how students view the User report.
Resources
Make a More Student-Friendly Gradebook (DELTA Teaching Resources)
DELTA Knowledge Base
DELTA YouTube Videos
- Moodle 4.3 Gradebook Navigation
- Moodle 4.3 Gradebook: Basic Setup for Weighted Grades
- Moodle 4.3: Manual Entries into the Gradebook (3 min 59 sec)
- Moodle 4 Gradebook: Extra Credit (10:09)
- View all DELTA YouTube Videos
Additional Resources
- Moodle Grade Aggregation Explained (Moodle Docs)