Preface

Moodle is used in many areas of education to provide a range of resources and activities to support learning. However, it can also be used to manage learning and record progress.

This book will explain the uses of the Moodle grades area, also known as the Gradebook, to record grades for work completed and to calculate final grades. You will also learn the different options for grading work, customizing how the grades appear, and how to view progress through a range of reports. This book is based on Moodle 2.2 and will highlight some of the new features within Moodle 2 that complement the gradebook. However, many of the general gradebook instructions will also be useful for Moodle 1.9 users as the core gradebook is the same within both versions.

The book will provide step-by-step instructions, with screenshots, to take you through setting up the gradebook, adding tasks with grades, and reporting progress.

What this book covers

This book is an introduction to the gradebook and how it can be used to manage assessment. It does not explain every option possible within the Grades area and activities, as there are too many! However, it will cover the most commonly used elements that can be used and adapted to meet most course needs.

Chapter 1, Introduction to the Gradebook: In this chapter, you will be given an overview of the different elements of the gradebook and how they apply to an online course. This will set the scene for the practical instructions throughout the book.

Chapter 2, Customizing the Grades: In this chapter, you can follow the step-by-step instructions on how to create your own custom scale (using statements rather than numbers) and use letter grades (letters or words linked to a percentage). Outcomes will also be explained to enable more detailed recording within assessments.

Chapter 3, Adding Graded Activities: In this chapter, you will learn how to add grading options to assignments and also the use of advanced grading methods to enable grading using multiple criteria.

Chapter 4, Assigning Grades: This chapter will demonstrate the various ways in which assessments can be marked with written feedback and grades.

Chapter 5, Using Calculations: In this chapter, we will take a look at using the gradebook to calculate final grades for online courses. We will review the different options available and how each one can be used.

Chapter 6, Organizing Using Categories: In this chapter, we will add categories into the gradebook and move assignments into them. We will also look at ways of using categories to further customize how we use the gradebook.

Chapter 7, Reporting with the Gradebook: This chapter will show you the different reports available to view all grades or individual user information, plus how to export the gradebook data.

Chapter 8, Additional Features for Progress Tracking: Finally, in this chapter, we will look at other features within Moodle 2 that complement the gradebook. We will use the activity and course completion features to provide a pictorial view of the student's achievement.

How to use this book

Users that are new to Moodle assessments and the gradebook can read the book from beginning to end and follow the instructions to get some practical experience. Users that are already familiar with the basics of the gradebook can use each chapter individually to customize the gradebook according to their needs.

If you would like to work through the instructions in this book, you will need editing access to a course in Moodle 2.2.

Note

You can also use the instructions if you are using an earlier version of Moodle, but the advanced grading/rubrics section of Chapter 3, Adding Graded Activities, should be ignored. The gradebook in Moodle 1.9 is also very similar to Moodle 2.x, so most of the instructions can still be followed, if you are using that version.

What you need for this book

This book assumes that you already know the following:

• How to access and navigate Moodle using the breadcrumb menu

• How to add resources and activities in Moodle

Some of the features and activities explained will need to be turned on in the administration settings. Where this is required, it will be explained how to do it in an information box.

Who this book is for

Moodle Gradebook is for anyone who uses Moodle as a course instructor. You will need to know the basic functions of using and navigating Moodle, but no prior knowledge of the grades functions will be required.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "view the Settings block on the course".

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Note

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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