Gradebook: Entering Grades within the Gradebook

If you are using assignments (How to grade an assignment), quizzes (How to grade a quiz), forums or other gradable items they have their own built-in grading tools that will be overridden by entering grades for them directly into the gradebook. The built-in grading tools have superior ways to provide feedback and provide clearer grading for your students to look over, so primarily use those.

Manual Grade

A grade entered directly into gradebook and will override grades entered in any other interface (if present)

  1. Enter the course you wish to grade
  2. Navigate to the Grades (default tab open is View)
  3. Navigate to the Single View sub-tab
  4. Use the Grade Item drop-down to select the assignment you want to grade
  5. Locate the student you wish to provide a grade to
  6. If the Grade box is greyed out check the corresponding Override check-box.
    1. Enter the Point Value into the Grade box for the student.
    2. Enter any feedback you may have for the student in the Feedback text box.
    3. Repeat for each student.
  7. When done with this assignment scroll to the bottom or the top of the page.
  8. Click the Save button.

Bulk fill in empty grades

This is ideal for courses with a exclude empty grades enabled on a category or course to ensure that students who missed an assignment are still held accountable for it (and that the assignment will count against them.)

NOTE FOR LATE SUBMISSIONS: If you are grading an assignment, quiz, forum or similar in its native grading tool and a student submits an assignment late this bulk action will OVERRIDE any grade you might give them there. After grading them there you will need to remove this override.

  1. If not already in the process of entering grades on this page:
    1. Enter the course you wish to remove a grade override or exclusion from
    2. Navigate to the gradebook (default tab open is View)
    3. Navigate to the Single View sub-tab
    4. Use the Grade Item drop-down to select the assignment you want to grade
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and check the Perform bulk insert check-box
  3. Leave the default values as are (Empty Grades, 0 (zero))
  4. Hit the Update button

Remove a grade override or exclusion

In cases where you have a grade from an activity like an assignment that is being overridden by a manually entered item in the gradebook (two different grades have been entered, the gradebook’s is the one that will show)

  1. Enter the course you wish to remove a grade override or exclusion from
  2. Navigate to the Grades (default tab open is View)
  3. Navigate to the Single View sub-tab
  4. From the Grade Item drop-down select the assignment you wish to remove an override from
  5. Locate the entry on the page and un-check the box in the override or exclude– whichever is present.
    The box containing a point value will grey a little preventing you from modifying its contents.
  6. Scroll to the bottom of the page
  7. Click the Update button to save your changes.

Excuse (Exclude) a student

Exclusions are new to Moodle and are similar to the old aggregate only non-empty grades that could be toggled in the depths of your gradebook. Exclusions can be applied temporarily at the start of term to reduce student grade panic and removed as items come due. The can also be left on for the duration of the term if a student is unable to complete an activity and you do not wish it to negatively affect the individual.

  1. Enter the course you wish to remove a grade override on
    Navigate to the Grades (default tab open is View)
  2. Navigate to the Single View sub-tab
  3. Select the Grade Item for which you wish to give a student an exclusion
  4. On the new page, locate the student’s listing
  5. At the right side of the page is the Exclude column, click the check-box for your student
  6. Scroll to either the top or bottom of the page
  7. Hit the Update button to save your changes
  8. Repeat as desired for each student/assignment

Change the Worth after Grading

In cases where, after the fact you decide you want to increaase the grade value of an activity or realize that you had been grading the activity on the wrong value (maybe its worth 5 points but was setup to be graded out of 100) you can choose how Moodle handles those existing grades.

  1. Expand the Actions menu (gear icon) from the top-right corner of the page.
  2. Select the Gradebook setup option.
  3. Locate the item you want to change the max points for and click the Edit > Edit Settings menu for it.
  4. If you want to keep your entered totals as-is set Rescale existing grades to No.
    – OR –
    To have those entered values scale with the worth of the grade item set Rescale Existing Grades to Yes
  5. Change the Value of Maximum grade as desired.
  6. Scroll to the bottom of the page
  7. Click the Save changes button.
  8. Double-check your entries, just in case!

View Previously Entered Grade Values

In cases where you may have erroneously overwritten a grade value you can look at what was with gradebook history.

  1. Open the Nav drawer from the top-left corner of the page (hamburger/three lines icon).
  2. Select the Grades link
  3. Click into the Grade History tab on the second row of tabs.
  4. Choose the Grade item and leave all all things as defaults.
  5. Click the submit button
  6. The page displayed will be a lot but it will show you the original grades you entered if those aren’t marked elsewhere