Skip to main content

Gradebook: Overview and Basics

Learn Gradebook basics

Updated over 7 months ago

Purpose

The purpose of this article is tor provide a general overview of the Moodle course gradebook

Overview

The gradebook in Moodle automatically aggregates scores and feedback from Assignments, Activities, and Manual grades in your Moodle course. Students can view their grades in individualized reports.

Instructors can decide when and how students see the gradebook or choose to hide the gradebook entirely. The latter is not recommended.

Instructors can post grades from within an activity which is the most common method for assigning a grade to a student. The Grader report screen can also be used to enter and edit grades manually. This is typically referred to as grade Overrides.

Moodle maintains a history of changes made to the gradebook to allow instructors to view who made changes and when. The gradebook maintains a running course total for students based on a grading scheme set by the instructor.

This article will provide you with a basic understanding of how to manage your course gradebook.

Gradebook sections:

To access gradebook sections, click on the Grades tab under your course name and then look for the dropdown menu which defaults to Grader report.

Gradebook dropdown menu

Grader Report

To access the Grader report in a course, click on the Grades tab below your course name.

Course tabs with Grades highlighted

Features of the Grader Report

You can filter the students by first name and/or surname. Select “all” on both first name and surname to go back to viewing everyone.

You can sort the gradebook by clicking on First Name, Surname, ID number, Email address or by the sort icons next to each Item.

Alphabet prompts for locating student first names and surnames with All option highlighted

You can access an Activity or Assignment directly by clicking on its name.

Link to an assignment

If you select a student's name, it will take you to their profile.

Student name that links to the student's profile

The pencil icon will take you to the Single View for the Activity/Assignment/Student

Pen icon

Clicking on the icons next to each category will cycle you through a series of views with that category by hiding and unhiding columns.

The dash indicates that you are currently in full view. The addition sign indicates the aggregate-only view, and the open box indicates the grades-only view.

If you can’t see certain columns, chances are you accidentally hit this button. Cycle it back to the dash for the full view of the category.

Example icons next to grading categories, e.g., -, +. and checkbox

Selecting the grades icon will take you to the User report tab for that student.

Grades icon - 3 by 3 rows of boxes

The magnifying glass icon will take you to the quiz grade analysis page for that quiz.

Magnifying glass icon

Clicking on any of the boxes in the grades area will let you override a grade. Type the grade in the left field and any comments to the student in the right field. The box will turn yellowish to indicate it was overridden.

Grading and feedback boxes

Assignment grade highlighted in yellow

If you accidentally typed something in the wrong box and want to undo the override, simply deleting what you typed won't work. Instead, you need to go to the single view (the pencil icon) for the activity, turn Edit mode on, and uncheck the override box that's located next to the student's name. After that, make sure to click save to complete the process.

Pencil icon

Red arrow pointing to a checked box in the Override column

Also note that when you override a grade, you should input the point value and not the percentage. If you type 100, thinking it's a percentage, and the assignment is worth 20 points, you will end up giving the student a score of 100 points out of 20, which is equivalent to 500%.


Midterm/Final Grade Entry

We do not use this page since course grades are entered into Banner separately.

Mid-Term/Final Grade Entry with a large X indicating do not use

Grade history

This page allows you to generate a report of grading history. You can select specific students. Grade items or Graders. Students may be listed as Graders if they grade in a workshop or self-grade in a quiz. It is possible to view revised grades only and download the data in various formats.

View of Grade history section

Outcomes report

If you use course-level learning outcomes (CLLOs), this page lists site-wide outcomes and custom outcomes used in the current course. As the name indicates, this is just a report.

View of Outcomes report

Overview Report

This report provides a snapshot of all grades for selected students. This report can only be viewed by those with the View Overview report capability. The capability is not set for instructors and non-editing instructors.

Snapshot of grades for Abbie Student

Single view page

Here, you can view all the grades of one single student or a single graded item for all students. The single-view interface allows you to enter grades in full for a specific grade item or a specific user. Edit mode must be toggled to on.

Single view showing all grades for Abbie Student


Grade summary

This lists all the gradable items in your course and their average score.

View of Grade summary page


User report

This allows you to see the grades for an individual student or all students. It can be viewed in the instructor role or as the student would see them.

View of dropdown menu allowing instructor to select a specific student


Gradebook setup

This is where you can change how grades are displayed for particular grade items, categories, or course summaries. You can organize your gradebook from here by setting up categories. You can work with the weights, individual items grade, and change a few other settings from the gradebook setup page.

Gradebook setup page showing categories and weights

For More Information on Gradebook setup check out this page: Gradebook Setup Categories and Weights


Course grade settings

This is where you can determine how the gradebook appears for all participants in the course. An administrator sets the default course grade settings.

View of sections in Course grade settings


Preferences: grader report

These settings apply to all your courses. You may change them at any time.

View of grader report preferences

Scales

This is where you can add a new scale. Click on the Add a new scale button at the top of the page. Your new scale will only be available in the course where you create it.

Button labeled Add a new scale


Outcomes

This is where you can view the CLLOs that are in your course. it is not advisable to edit outcomes because they are set up in a specific way. However, from here, you can click on Manage outcomes to add CLLOs to your course.

CLLOs may come preloaded in your course, or they are available in a course shell that can be imported directly into your course. If you need help with CLLOs, you can reach out to your dean, department chair, or Moodle support team.

Button labeled Manage outcomes


Grade letters

Here you can view and edit your letter grades. The view tab just shows you the letter grades and their values currently in use in the course.

Grade scale for letter grades

Import/Export

Import allows you to import grades from another place, and export allows you to export grades in various formats.

Import view with Upload grades button

Export option with spreadsheet selected

Did this answer your question?