Section 12.1. Using Grades

12.1. Using Grades

There isn't much to do with the current grades area. You can access the grades area by clicking the Grades link in the administration area on the left side of the main page of your course.

After you click the link, you will be taken to the Grades display, as shown in Figure 12-1. The students in the course are listed in the lefthand column. Across the top, you'll see all of the activities you have added to your course with the possible points for each. The far-right column records the students' total points and the total possible points.

Figure 12-1. Grades area

Once grades have been recorded in the grades area, students can check their grades by clicking on the grades link in the administration area. They can see only their own grades, not the other students', as shown in Figure 12-2.

Figure 12-2. Student grade view

12.1.1. Adding Manual Assignments

One of the chief complaints with the current gradebook in Moodle is the difficulty of adding a manually scored assignment. Scores for activities you've added to your course are automatically added to the gradebook, but what if you want to record a grade for something that isn't a Moodle activity?

Currently, the only way to add a manually scored column to the gradebook is to create an offline assignment. When you add the offline assignment to your course, it will create a column in the grades area. After you enter grades for the new assignment, they will appear in the grades table.

12.1.2. Downloading Grades to a Spreadsheet

Most instructors want to be able to do more advanced calculations on their grades than a simple point average. Currently, the Moodle gradebook does not support curving, weighting, or dropping grades. The only way to perform these calculations is to download the gradebook to a spreadsheet and perform your calculations there.

Fortunately, it's easy to download and manipulate the grades into a spreadsheet:

1. Click on Grades in the administration area

2. From the Grades table, select "Download in Excel format."

3. Save the file to your local hard drive, as shown in Figure 12-3.

   Figure 12-3. Download grades in excel format

   
   
   

4. Open the file you just downloaded with Excel or another spreadsheet. It will appear like the example in Figure 12-4.

   Figure 12-4. Moodle grades in Excel

   
   
   

5. Add additional columns and calculations as necessary.

Once you have manipulated the grades in Excel, you will need to communicate the new scores or final grades to students. While there is currently no way to upload a spreadsheet into Moodle, you can share the new scores with students. Simply create a new offline assignment and enter the results from the Excel spreadsheet.