Among our faculty who responded to a survey, the two most sought after discussions are for the Moodle gradebook and for quizzes. Consequently, displayed in the Brown Bag Lunch series at LaGrange College, I share two different (but common) gradebook setups based upon common syllabus outlines.

1. The Moodle Gradebook
Brown Bag Lunch, #2

2. Getting Started
1. Direct your web browser to connect.lagrange.edu
2. We will uniformly be calling this learning management system “Connect”.

3. Goals
1. Demonstrate creation of assignments.
2. Create an easy gradebook based upon a total number of points in a course.
3. Create a slightly more sophisticated gradebook based upon sections.
4. Demonstrate benefits of the Connect gradebook.

4. Sample Syllabus: Points-based
Assessment Point Values
Weekly Quizzes (4 @ 10 points apiece) 40 points
Bi-weekly Homework (2 @ 50 points apiece) 100 points
Final Exam 100 points
Total 240 Points

5. Creation of Assignments
● Enable editing of the page. Click on “Turn editing on” in the upper, right-hand
corner.
● Choose a topic (or module).
● Click on “Create learning activity or resource”.
● For now, simply choose “Assignment”.
● Click on “Expand all” and then supply an assignment name, description, and
point value.
Note: Moodle automatically creates the gradebook. Access it via “Course Tools”
and then select “Gradebook”.

6. Sample Syllabus: Weighted Categories
Categories and Assessments Weights
Projects
● Project One
● Project Two
● Project Three
50%
Homework
● Homework One
● Homework Two
● Homework Three
● Homework Four
● Homework Five
25%
Final Project 25%

7. Gradebook Setup
1. Click on “Course Tools”.
2. Click on “Gradebook”.
3. Click on the drop-down menu and then select “Categories and Items”. You
should see a full list of your assignments and your point values.
4. There are three columns (Name, Max Grade, and Actions). On the first row
(the course name), there is a link for “Edit”. Click on “Edit” and then choose
“Edit settings”.
5. The second item down will be “Aggregation”. Choose “Natural” from the list of
selections in the drop-down menu and then click “Save changes” at the
bottom of the page.
Note: You should notice a new column, now, entitled “Weights”.

8. Gradebook Setup, cont.
6. Choose “Add category”.
7. Give a category name and aggregation style for that category. For example:
“Projects” and we’ll choose to aggregate using “Natural”. Click “Save
changes”.
Note: Feel free to explore the other options.
8. You’ll notice a column on the far right, now, entitled “Select”. Select
assessments that you would like to move to your category. Then, in the drop-
down menu, choose the category to which you’ll move those assessments.
For example: We will move “Project One” through “Project Three” to the
“Projects” category.

9. Gradebook setup (3)
9. For each category that you just created, enable a weighting by selecting the
check box for that category and specifying the weight. For example: For
“Projects”, I’ll check the box in the same row and then specify “50”.
Continue steps 1-9 until all categories are created and all assessments sorted.

10. Why “Natural”?
1. All other schemes can be built via this new, flexible aggregation type.
2. Moodle places to deprecate all other types. You may as well learn it now

11. Perhaps you’ve noticed...
1. Your students can now always know their grades.
2. Not all assessments in a section must have the same weighting.
3. Not all assessments in a section must have the same point value.