---
title: "Gradebook Settings"
canonical: "https://helpcentre.macewan.ca/space/ETS/2548465665/Gradebook%20Settings"
format: markdown
---
**AUDIENCE: ****FACULTY**** | ****STAFF**
# Introduction
All the grades for each student in a course can be found in the course gradebook or Grader report and accessed from the course navigation by clicking **Grades**.
The gradebook helps you to manage and arrange a set of grades effectively. When an activity is created in a course, an entry into the grade book is created automatically (for example, when you create an assignment or forum activity). You can manually input grades for offline activities such as written exams, oral presentations, or class participation. You can specify the method for calculating and assigning different weights to your assessment items and customize how these grades are presented to your students.
It is good practice to have the course outline and weighting criteria for the grades ready before setting up the gradebook.
This sample course outline weighting will be used as a model for the examples on this page:
It is also necessary to have your department’s grade conversion scale. This sample grade conversion will be used as a model in this guide.
# Hide the gradebook from view during setup
If you are working on a course that already has the students enrolled, you should hide the grade book from the student view while you adjust the settings.
To hide the gradebook from students:
Click **Settings*** *at the top of the course page,
On the next page, find the **Appearance** section, and choose **No** in the **Show gradebook to students** selection menu.
** Remember to change this setting back to *Yes* when the gradebook setup is finished.
# Finding the Gradebook Setup
To open the gradebook Setup, click **Grades*** *in the navigation bar.
From the drop-down menu on the left, select **Gradebook setup.**
# Setting Letter Grades
If the letter grade default setting doesn’t include A+, refer to your department conversion letter chart to set up the correct letter conversion.
**Gradebook setup** > **Grade letters**.
Click the **EDIT** button to modify the letter conversion information.
Select the **Override site defaults** check box. The grey background in the cells will change to white, indicating that you can edit the cells. You can now edit the letter grade scale to match your course outline.
You can **round up** grades to the nearest whole number or a specified number of decimal places. It's worth noting that rounding grades up can have an impact on the overall grade for students. For example, if a student's average grade is 79.5 and you choose to round up to the nearest whole number, their final grade will be 80. It's important to consider whether rounding up is appropriate for your grading system and how it may affect your students' performance. Here is an example of the **grade letters** with rounding up.
**Note**: Contact your department Chair for more information if your department has a standard to apply round-up to gradebook grade letters.
Click **SAVE CHANGES** when you are finished.
# Gradebook Setup
Based on the sample course outline evaluation breakdown provided at this page's beginning, all activities have been created automatically in the gradebook except the **Class Participation**.
Select **Grades** from the top navigation menu, and from the drop-down menu, choose **Gradebook setup**.
Any items that have been created using the activity tools will automatically be included in the Gradebook (for example, an assignment or forum activity)
1. Referring to the sample course outline used at the beginning of this guide, all the items (for example: **forum discussions**, **assignments**, and **exams)** created using activity tools will be automatically included in the Gradebook, *except* the **Course participation** mark that must be added manually.
2. The **Max Grade** column is the highest possible points (raw number) that can be achieved for a particular activity. It represents the total points a student can earn for that item.
**Note:** the max grade total can be more than 100 points and will not represent the course total.
3. The **Weights** column allows you to assign a weight (percentage) to each grade item or category to determine its importance in calculating the final grade. The weight column is typically used when multiple grade items (in groups or categories) contribute to the final grade. Assigning weights ensures that each grade item is appropriately considered in the overall grade calculation based on the evaluation in the course outline.
## Adding Manual Grade Items (Grade Column) to the Gradebook
A **manual grade item** allows faculty to manually enter grades for an activity or assessment that is** not automatically graded **within Moodle, such as a paper-based exam, assignment, oral presentation, or class participation grade.
In the **Gradebook setup** area, click the **Add **button, then select **Add** **grade item** from the drop-down menu.
Enter the new item's name and maximum point value in the next window.
Click the **SAVE CHANGES** button when finished.
## Adding a grade category to the gradebook
A **Grade category** is a way to group related Grade Items (activities) in the Gradebook and apply common weighting. Grade Categories allow you to organize the Gradebook based on your course outline.
***Note:**** There is no need to create a category for ****single items**** on your course outline.*
In the **Gradebook setup** area, click the **Add **button, then select Add category from the drop-down menu.
1) Add a **Category name** (e.g., Discussion)
2) Keep the aggregation method as **Natural**; by clicking on *Show more*, you will see steps 3 and 4
3) Keep the **Exclude empty grades** checked (if you uncheck this setting, the gradebook will apply a zero mark as default for all students).
4) If you plan to give options to students to complete only mandatory activities by choice, you may add a number to the “Drop the Lowest” box. Otherwise, keep zero as the default.
**Example:** Students can choose to complete 2 out of 3 discussions in the course. To achieve this, enter the number ‘1’ in the “Drop the lowest” box. This means the discussion category will keep the 2 highest marks and drop the lowest mark.
## Combining related grade items into a category
In the **Select** column, choose associated items by clicking on boxes.
Click the **Move** button at the bottom of the page, and choose the category you want to move the selected items into. Submit your choice by clicking **Move**.
Click **SAVE CHANGES**.
The selected items will be moved to the chosen category.
Some grade items are learning activities and may include formative tasks that are not part of the course grade evaluation. This can lead to confusion if some grades count towards a student’s overall average and others do not.
The solution is to add a gradebook category called **Excluded from Grading**. Ensure that the weighting for this column is set to 0. All items you do not want to be counted toward the final grade should be sent to this category, and students can access their formative task grades.
## Move Grade Items and Categories in the Gradebook
The same arrangement of grade items and categories is recommended in the course outline and the gradebook to avoid confusing the students. To do this, click the vertical double arrow icon beside the grade item or category and select the dotted line on the next page.
After moving items and categories, it should have the same order as the course outline evaluation.
## Assign Weighting in the Gradebook
The **Weights** column allows you to assign a weight to each grade item or category to determine its importance in calculating the final grade. The weight column is typically used when multiple grade items or categories contribute to the final grade. Assigning weights ensures that each grade item is appropriately considered in the overall grade calculation based on the course outline evolution chart.
To assign the weighting, refer to your **course outline** and select the appropriate grade items and categories under the **Weight** column, and then add the weighting.
The **Excluded from Grading** category should be set to “0”.
Click **SAVE CHANGES** to save your work.
You will see the same weighting as your course outline under the **Weights** column.
## Gradebook User Report (Student View) Setup
Students see a slightly different page in their gradebook. To access the **User report**, click **Grades** from the dropdown menu, choose **User Report,** and then **Select a user** from the dropdown menu.
The user report includes some columns that may confuse students accessing their grades. Remove unnecessary columns to show a simplified view to students.
To adjust the **User report** (student view), click **Grades** at the top of your course page, and choose **Course grade settings** from the drop-down menu.
Scroll down the page to find the **User report** section and customize the columns and information you want the students to see.
Click **SAVE CHANGES** to save your selections.
## Change the Course Total to a Percentage or a Letter Grade
Faculty can change the course total shown to students from a **Real** (raw number) to **Percentage** or **Percentage (Letter). **
Click the **Grades** from the middle course menu.
From the drop-down menu on the left, choose **Gradebook setup**.
In the **Name** column, locate the top-level folder (this will likely be titled with the course name) and click** on the kabob menu > Edit category.**
In the **Category total** section, click the *Show more* link to expand the category options.
Locate the **Grade display type** and change the option from **Default (Real)** to **Percentage** or **Percentage (letter)**.
Students can now see their course total in **Percentage** or **Percentage (Letter)**.
# Enter the Grades Manually
You can access the grading in activities such as **Forum**, **Assignment**, and **Quiz** through each activity separately on your course main page. Additional in-class activities, such as **Class Participation**, that have been added to the gradebook as items can be manually graded by following these steps.
Click **Grades** at the top of your course page and find **Grader Report** from the drop-down menu.
Click on **Edit Mode** at the top right of your page.
Find the specific grade column and click on the name of the column.
Click **Grade**.
(1) Enter a **Grade** in this box.
(2) You may add **Feedback** for each student.
(3) After adding grades for all students, click **SAVE AND SHOW NEXT **to move on to the next student.
# Override, Exclude, and Bulk Insert Grades
## Override Grades
If you need to override grades, follow these steps.
Click on **Edit Mode** at the top right of your page.
Click on the kebab menu next to the grade you wish to override, then click on **Edit grade**.
Check the box next to **Overridden**, then enter the new grade in the **Final grade** area.
Click **Save Changes**.
**Note:** **Do not override **a category total or the course total. Those will be calculated based on the weighting setup. Also, you must add zero manually for students who missed the activity submission. The grade calculation will be incorrect if a zero is not assigned for those individuals. Refer to the **Assign Bulk Grades** section for more information on how to add a zero for multiple students.
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