Gradebook: Add a Natural/Points-based Category

Scroll to the top of the main page of your course (if you aren’t there already).

Select the Grades option from the Secondary Navigation. 

Select the Gradebook Setup option from the Tertiary Navigation. 

Click the Add category button.

For Category Name, enter the name of the category for the corresponding category mentioned in your syllabus (preferably named exactly as it is in your syllabus for maximum clarity for your students).

For Aggregation select Natural from the drop-down menu.

OPTIONAL: If you want to have grades be accurate to-the-minute, ensure that Exclude empty grades is checked. Otherwise, students will only be capable of getting an accurate score at the very end of the term. If checked, you will need to manually enter values of 0 (zero) for every missed assignment as a student misses it or their grade will appear falsely high.

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click the Save Changes button.

When done, you should see an empty category worth 0.00 points (because it’s empty and there are no points in it).

You’ll need to add items worth points to this category to give it your desired total.

Use the above steps to create a category in the gradebook for each grouping you establish in your syllabus.

NOTE: Right now there are 0.00 points in this course as there are no actual assignments worth any points at this time.

Once you’ve created all the categories, you will need to populate them with actual grade items.

• You can create manual grade items if those activities are not going to be completed in Moodle.
• Otherwise, check out our article on Introduction to Activities and Resources and assign points and place in categories as is appropriate for what you have in your syllabus.

Until you’ve created every single activity, the total points won’t match your syllabus.

Make sure to double check your totals against your gradebook when you think you’re done.