M27a - How to apply weightings to grades in the Gradebook

You will find this guide useful if you have a course with several assessments that each contribute to the total grade for the course. However, the proportion or weight that each assignment should contribute to the total varies. Hence, you need know how to change the weightings applied to each assessed item so that the course total reflects the different contributions to the Course total that they make.

For example: A course has 7 graded assignments as tabulated below:

Note that:

1. The maximum grade that can be achieved for the course is 100%. Hence the sum of the proportion each assessment contributes to the Course total must be 100% and that of the weightings 1.0.
2. Quiz 0 is a practice quiz and does not contribute to the final grade. Hence it has a 0 weighting.

Step-by-step guide

By default Moodle's gradebook typically assumes each assessed item carries the same weight, which in the case of the example above means that each of the assessed items would contribute 100/7 = 14.285% each to the Course total. If there were just two assignments then each would contribute 50%.

1. Click Grades in the Settings block on the course homepage.
2. Click Setup tab.
3. Click the Gradebook setup link. 
4. Click on Edit for the top level folder (usually the course name) under the Actions column and then select Edit settings.
5. On the Grade category screen click on the Aggregation dropdown menu. For more information on the other Aggregation options, please refer to documentation on the Moodle website. 
6. Select 'Weighted mean of grades' from the Aggregation dropdown list. This sets the aggregation method for the named Category (if there is one - although there isn't in your case. So it sets it for the whole gradebook).
7. Click on Show more… and decide whether you want to Exclude empty grades (click on the ? To find out what it is and does)
8. On the same screen in the section titled Category total, click on Show more… and change the Overall decimal points if you want the grades to be rounded off whole numbers.
9. Click on the Save changes button at the bottom of the screen. This will return you to the 'Gradebook setup' screen where you will now see a column headed 'Weights'.
10. In the text boxes in the Weights column change the 1.0 value to the appropriate 0.x value for each assessment. Ensure that these new values add up to exactly 1.0.
11. Click on the Save changes button at the bottom of the screen and click on the View tab to return to the Grader report where the Course totals should now reflect the new weightings. (Note that the percentages awarded each assessment are shown rather than their weighted contribution to the course total for a student).
12. If the Course totals do not reflect the new weightings there may be other settings that need to be altered as follows:
1. Click Grades in the Settings block on the course homepage.
2. Click Setup tab.
3. Click the Gradebook setup tab (if it wasn't selected by default) and for each of the items that is to contribute to the Course total:
1. Click on Edit  under the Actions column and then select Edit settings
2. Click on Show more… and set the Multiplicator to 1.0 and Offset to 0.0
3. Click on the Save changes button
4. Once all contributing items have been checked/modified in the way, then on the Gradebook setup screen click on the View tab to return to the Grader report where the Course totals should now reflect the new weightings.

Adapted from: <https://moodle.yorku.ca/instructors/training/gradebook_assigning_weights_to_grade_items.html>

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