Section 12.2. Creating Scales

12.2. Creating Scales

Scales are a non-numeric way of evaluating students' performance. Instead of giving an assignment a number from 1 to 100 as a grade, you can give the student a word or a small phrase as standard feedback.

Moodle's default scale"Separate and Connected was of knowing"-gives you three options: Mostly Separate Knowing, Separate and Connected, and Mostly Connected Knowing. These phrases relate to a theory about how people approach the world. Separate knowers try to remain objective and avoid personalizing knowledge. They like to debate and critique new ideas. Connected knowers learn in a socially connected, empathetic way. They try to find consensus instead of confrontation.

This scale comes with Moodle as a default. Some people use it, but many create their own. You can create a scale using any rating system you choose. You can even create a different scale for each assignment.

To create a new scale:

1. Click on the Scales link in the Administration panel.

2. On the Scales page, shown in Figure 12-5, click the "Add a new scale" button.

   Figure 12-5. Scales page

   
   

3. On the next page, shown in Figure 12-6, give your scale a name .

4. In the Scale box, create your scale. Each item in the scale should be separated by a comma. For example, a goodbad scale would be very good, good, fair, poor, very poor.

   Figure 12-6. Adding a new scale

   
   

5. 5. Write a detailed description for your scale. Your students will have access to the description, and you can use this to give them additional feedback. The more details you put in the description, the more students will understand what each scale item means.

Once you've created your scale, you can use it in any activity where you would give a grade, except of quizzes. Quizzes are the only tool where you have to use a numeric grade so Moodle can compute a score.

When you give feedback using a non-numeric scale, the activity does not appear in the total grade column. Instead, the word you select for the feedback appears in the grades list, as shown in Figure 12-7.

Figure 12-7. Scales in the grades area

12.3. Effective Grade and Scale Practices

Grades and scales are important tools for providing feedback to your students. Using these tools effectively can help you create a more powerful learning environment.

12.3.1. Grade Practices

As we have seen, the grades tool is very simple. There isn't much to worry about when managing the grades area.

The most important thing to remember is to frequently download your gradebook for backup. Your system administrator should be backing up the entire server on a regular basis, but you can never be too certain. After all, your students will complain to you if they lose their grades, not to the system admin.

For regular backups , I recommend creating a folder specifically to hold your grade data files. Once you've created the folder, complete the following procedure once a week during your course:

1. Click on Grades in the administration area.

2. From the Grades table, select Download in Excel Format or Download in Text Format.

3. Save the file to your disk, somewhere other than in your grade storage folder.

4. Once the file has been saved, rename it to include the date of the download.

5. Copy the renamed file into your grades storage folder.