One of the most essential yet potentially confusing tasks that is necessary to complete before a course can be taught in Moodle is setting up the gradebook. This series of posts will be dedicated to walking you through this process.
Getting Started
Before you begin the process of actually setting up the gradebook, there are a few preliminary steps that need to be accomplished:
- Design Learning Activities: Make sure that all of the learning activities to be evaluated are included in the course. For easier reference later, include the week or topic number in the title of the activity (e.g., Week 5 Q&A Forum, Week 3 Written Assignment, Topic 6 Quiz). Then, delete any unused learning activity placeholders by clicking on the Edit menu (with editing turned on) to the right of the activity you wish to delete and selecting the Delete option.
- Determine Weights of Grades: If you have not already done so, determine the weight of the assessment categories (e.g., quizzes, written assignments, forums) as well as the individual assessments, and add this information to your course syllabus.
- Open Gradebook Setup: Click the blue Actions menu gear icon to the left of the “Turn editing off” button and select “Gradebook Setup” from the dropdown menu.
Create Categories
Once you have completed the preliminary steps, you are ready to create any missing assessment categories (e.g., Readings, Participation or Attendance, Case Studies). To do this, click on the grey “Add category” button at the bottom of the Gradebook Setup page and enter the name of the new category.
Then, save it by clicking the blue “Save Changes” button on both the New Category page as well as on the Gradebook Setup page.
Categorize Assessments
After you have created categories for your assessments, you must then ensure that each assessment is properly categorized. To move an assessment to another category, mark the box to the right of the assessment(s) you want to move. Then, select the desired category from the “Move selected items to …” dropdown menu on the bottom left of the Gradebook Setup page.
Note: If you need to add assignments for which you do not have a learning activity placeholder (e.g., a test taken on paper in the classroom), you can add them by clicking on the gray “Add grade item” button at the bottom of the Gradebook Setup page. You can then categorize these new items by clicking “Show more” under the Parent Category and choosing the desired category from the dropdown menu.
Don’t forget to save these changes.
Order Assessments
Within the categories, put all assessments in chronological order by clicking on the arrow to the left of the item and inserting the assessment in the desired location. As always, be sure to save your changes.
Click here to read Part 2 on assigning weights to categories and assessments.