Grades

The Grades and Gradebook modules have been revised in Moodle versions 1.9+ and include a number of vital differences. The changes are good and make it easier for you and your students. Note: If you're using an older version, you should either update or go to http://docs.moodle.org and find documentation for your version.

The Moodle Grades module is made up of two parts:

• Grades: The scores you or Moodle assigns for work in the Moodle course.
• Gradebook: A repository for all grades for every learner in your course. The Gradebook module is a tool for you to use with your course and every student, and it's available for all learners so they can see their own grades and course averages (if you enable that functionality). The links in the Grades section of the Site Administration block enable you to make changes to the default settings.

From the Grades section, you can access the links described in the following sections.

General Settings

General grade settings enable you to change the defaults and create a set of defaults for your site courses. You can enable or disable the graded roles, outcomes, scales in aggregated grades, publishing grades, or a number of different grades features. There are too many to list here and explain each. The Moodle Grade Settings page, shown in Figure 13-17, provides a brief explanation for each setting. If you need more help, click the Moodle Docs for This Page at the bottom of the page to find a more detailed explanation.

Figure 13-17: The General Settings page for grades.

Grade Category Settings

The category settings allows you to choose which options teachers can view and use when adding or editing a grade category in their course grade books. This also sets the default values. Note that making any changes affects all courses on the site.

You can find two important check boxes next to most features on this settings page:

• Force: Selecting this check box removes options the teacher can view. (For instance, the teacher can see “mean of all grades” only as an aggregation.)
• Advanced: Selecting this check box hides the specific feature until the teacher clicks the Show Advanced button. Teachers quickly familiarize themselves with the Hide and Show buttons. This functionality reduces the initial menu choices for teachers but provides them a button to see the choices if they want.

Grade Item Settings

The Grade Item Settings page provides you with options to edit settings for all grade books used by teachers. Modifying the default settings changes what items are displayed for each grade. Turning the setting on or off would require teachers to input data. See the Grade Item Settings page for an explanation of each option available. Under each option, Moodle briefly explains each function.

Scales

I discuss scales at great length in Chapter 7. On the Scales setting page, you can see all the scales that have been added, and you can change the site-wide scale that came with the Moodle setup files as a default. Moodle's default scale uses categories that include Separate and Connected ways of knowing, also discussed in Chapter 7. Here you have the option of renaming it, altering it, or deleting it altogether. You can also set up a whole new site-wide scale that the teachers have an option to use with their courses.

Letters

The Grade Letters page is important because it lists all the letter grades. You have the option of making changes to the default settings. For example, you can change the letter grade boundary for A. Current default setting lists the grade A as 93% and above, with A– given the boundary 93–90%.

Report Settings

The grade book report settings determine the appearance of grade book reports in all courses on the site. The site administrator can find the default and enabled/disabled settings in the administration area.

• Grader Report: Settings enable you to decide how the grades will be presented. The default settings are a good start if you're unsure.
• Overview Report: Just one option for you to decide whether you want the report to display the position of the user in relation to the rest of the learners in the class, for each graded item.
• User Report: This setting enables you to set what the learners see in their grade books. The teacher can override any setting in the User Report in the course setting section located in the Administration block on the course front page.