Moodle's gradebook is a powerful tool for sharing grades and feedback with students and calculating final grades. The gradebook provides several different options for how to calculate and display grades. You may configure your gradebook before the start of the semester or build it as you teach.

This page outlines the major functions involved in configuring the gradebook and provides links to step-by-step instructions. For an overview of how to input and record student grades, see Record Grades in Moodle.

For further assistance with grading, contact the Instructional Media lab at instruct@umass.edu.

Set Up Your Gradebook

Create and Arrange Grade Items and Categories

When you add activities (e.g., Assignments or Quizzes) to a Moodle course, corresponding grade items (columns) are added to the course gradebook. Moodle also lets you manually add columns to your gradebook to record extra grade items (e.g., if you administer an offline midterm exam). In both of these cases, it is fine to build your gradebook as you go, but when it is time to calculate final grades, the organization of these items is essential to making sure you get the correct results.

• To add extra grade items, categories, and to organize the items in your gradebook, see Create & Organize Items & Categories in the Moodle Gradebook.
• If you want to use categories to organize items, create subtotals, or drop the lowest grade from a category, see Grade Category Options in the Moodle Gradebook.

Calculate Grades

The simplest way to calculate grades is to let Moodle handle calculations. Moodle has built-in calculations (aggregations) to compute the score for the entire course (and subtotals if you need them). Moodle can aggregate grades as Natural (the sum of all grade values), Mean of grades (the sum of all grades divided by the number of grades), and Custom weights (where weights are applied to individual items or categories as a percentage of the total grade). You can also create a custom formula if you require additional operations.

• For instructions on how to calculate grades within the gradebook, see Grade Calculation in Moodle.
• If you want to use a custom formula to calculate grades, see Custom Grade Formulas in the Moodle Gradebook.

Prepare Final Grades for SPIRE

At the end of the term, you can easily transfer grades from the Moodle gradebook to your SPIRE grade roster. Moodle will convert numerical grades to letter grades using a scale of your choice. After importing grades into SPIRE, you can still edit grades before they are approved and submitted to the Registrar.

• Whether you use Moodle to calculate grades or want to import grades calculated in a spreadsheet, see Preparing your Final Course Grades in Moodle.
• To control the letter scale used to convert numerical grades to letters, see Letter Grades in Moodle.
• Once you have final grades in your Moodle gradebook, you can transfer these values to your SPIRE grade roster in a few simple steps. For more details, see Import Grades from Moodle or Blackboard Learn to SPIRE.

Additional Gradebook Options & Grading Methods

Display Grades with Letters and Percentages

By changing settings in your gradebook, you can control how grades are displayed to students, including showing grades as a numeric score (Real), percentage, or letter. By default, Moodle activities use the Grade type of Points, with the Maximum grade set at 100.

On the Letters tab in the gradebook, you can customize grade boundaries by matching ranges of scores to letter grades (e.g., 93.00-100.00 for A). Then when grading, enter the number that matches the letter grade you want to assign (e.g., 89 for a B+), or upload numeric scores from a spreadsheet. When Moodle generates letter grades, it will match numeric scores to the ranges in the Letters settings and display the correct letter grade to students.

Note: Grade items associated with Moodle activities allow only numeric scores to be entered. The ability to enter letter grades directly into Moodle as manual grade items is no longer available for Moodle in the Cloud. Instructors must enter or import grades as points, but letter grades can be displayed to students based on percentage. For more information, see Display Letter Grades for Numerical Scores. If you have questions about using letter grades in Moodle, contact the Instructional Media Lab at instruct@umass.edu.

• To configure the grade boundaries for a letter scale, see Letter Grades in Moodle.
• To display grades using letters or percentages, see Advanced Grade Item Options in the Moodle Gradebook.

Grade with Rubrics and Non-numeric Scales

If you want alternative methods for evaluating student work, some Moodle activities support grading with rubrics and non-numeric scales. 

• Rubrics are useful when you want to assess student work using multiple criteria. In Assignment activities, you can use advanced grading options to configure a rubric and criteria, and then when grading, the rubric will calculate an overall score. For details, see Grade with Rubrics or Grading Guides in Moodle. Rubrics can also be used when grading Turnitin assignment. For details, see Turnitin in Moodle - an Overview.
• Custom Scales are for when you want students to see Excellent, Good, Fair, etc., as a grade on an item instead of a numerical score. While custom scales can be used to display non-numeric assessments (e.g., ?-, ?, and ?+), the gradebook will still be able to do calculations with these items if needed. For details, see Standard & Custom Grading Scales in Moodle.

Get Help

These are just a few of the methods that instructors at UMass Amherst have developed for grading in Moodle. If you are stumped trying to get Moodle to generate grades the way you want, or have developed an interesting method of your own, contact the Instructional Media Lab (at instruct@umass.edu). We are happy to assist with challenges and always interested to hear about any new solutions.