Getting Started with the Moodle Gradebook
The Moodle Gradebook automatically aggregates scores and feedback from Assignments, Activities, and/or Manual grades from your Moodle course. Students can view their own grades in individualized reports which protect student privacy. Instructors can decide when and how students see the gradebook, or choose to hide the gradebook entirely. Instructors and Teaching Assistants can use the gradebook to manually enter and edit grades (Overriden), import grades from outside sources (such as OWL, iClicker, and Opscan), or export the gradebook to manage it in another software (like Excel).
Moodle maintains a history of changes made to the gradebook to allow instructors to audit who made changes and when. The gradebook maintains a running course total for students based on a grading scheme set by the Instructor. Final grades can be imported into SPIRE from Moodle with a single click.
How Grading Works in Moodle
The scores for graded Moodle activities are automatically aggregated into the gradebook. In order for Moodle to easily aggregate scores automatically, entries in the gradebook are numeric by default. The default score for each activity is 100, though this can be updated in the Assignment settings for each activity. In the gradebook, you can then control the weights of individual activities, or categories of activities, to aggregate a final score for the class.
Letter grades can be displayed to students based on percentage using a grading scale you set up. Please note: 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 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.
If you follow Moodle methods, grading can be very easy. If you prefer to follow your own methods for grading, it is possible, but may require extra steps and workarounds. For assistance with complex grading schemes, please contact the Instructional Media Lab.
Alternate Grading Methods and Feedback
Some activities (Moodle Assignments and Turnitin assignments) allow you to use a rubric or grading form to calculate a score.
If you prefer to grade only with letters and do not wish to enter numeric scores, manually-added grade items (but not Moodle activities such as Quizzes or Assignments) can be set to allow you to type or import actual letters. Note that if you use this method, no numeric scores are involved and Moodle cannot aggregate a final grade for the course.
For most Moodle activities, you can provide feedback using a (verbal) Scale such as “unsatisfactory”, “satisfactory”, and “outstanding”.
Note: There is a number behind each Custom scale value, so you will need to plan for how those values aggregate in the final grade for a course.
You can add written feedback for students to see next to their grade. For some activities (such as Assignments, Turnitin assignments, Quizzes, and Workshops) there is a field for providing written feedback when grading from within the activity. You can also enter feedback for grade items in the gradebook.
If you go along with Moodle methods, grading can be very easy. If you prefer to follow your own methods for grading, it is possible, but may require extra steps and workarounds. For assistance with complex grading schemes, please contact the Instructional Media Lab (413-545-2823).
Gradebook Support Articles
Set Up Your Gradebook
The Moodle gradebook has several features and functions which will help you navigate to the areas you need to be in to perform the tasks you want. For instructions and information on how to view and interact with the gradebook, see Gradebook Views in Moodle.
To set up your gradebook, you will want to create and organize your gradebook. You can do this by creating Moodle activities, adding manual grade items, and creating categories to contain similar grade items. For an overview of ways to set up your gradebook and descriptions of major gradebook functions, see Configure the Gradebook in Moodle.
For advanced controls, such as changing grade display types, adjusting the overall decimal places counted in grades, hiding, and locking grades, see Advanced Grade Item Options in the Moodle Gradebook.
The gradebook is also where you can view the preconfigured scales or create custom scales for use throughout your course. See Standard & Custom Grading Scales in Moodle.
Once your gradebook is set up, you can control how students see grade items and the entire gradebook. For more information, see Control Visibility of Grade Items in Moodle and Control Gradebook Visibility for Students in Moodle.
For complex grading schemes, you may need to create a custom grade formula. For more information on grade calculations and custom gradebook formulas, see Grade Calculation in Moodle and Custom Grade Formulas in the Moodle Gradebook.
Once the semester is over, you can use the Moodle gradebook to prepare your final course grades, and with one click import those grades to SPIRE. For a step by step guide on this process, see Preparing your Final Course Grades in Moodle and Import Grades from Moodle or Blackboard to SPIRE
Enter, Import, & Export Grades
For a detailed overview of different strategies for entering grades either through assignments, manually editing the gradebook, or for uploading grading spreadsheets, see Record Grades in Moodle.
- Moodle activities that are graded are automatically included in the gradebook.
- You can manually enter and edit grades in the gradebook by Overriding them.
- You can review individual student grades or filter the gradebook by groups.
- You can Import grades from external sources or export data to calculate grades in an external software.
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