Including & Excluding Empty Grades in Moodle

There are primarily two methods of displaying/calculating grades.

(1) Exclude empty grades

This is the method we usually recommend. It gives your students a consistent running total for their grades based on the number of points they have attempted at a specific point in time. It works well for instructors who keep their grades updated in Moodle throughout the term, and it tends to be preferred by most students. For this to properly calculate, the instructor must fill in a zero point (0) for every assignment that was not, or will not be give credit in order to count against the student. This is why percentages can appear artificially inflated if each grade item does not have a numerical value and shows a dash (-).

(2) Include empty grades

This method works well if an instructor doesn't wish to enter in a zero grade as Moodle treats each empty grade as a 0; however, students do not receive an accurate grade percentage displayed in Moodle until the end of the term. As you can imagine, this can cause problems (and sometimes panic!) as students do not have an accurate idea of where they stand in the course.

Both methods must be fully understood by the instructor, and grades should be regularly updated as doing so will best benefit the student.

How to Delete a Student's Moodle Assignment Submission

We received a request from an instructor recently:

"I need to delete a student's submission to a Moodle assignment (she accidentally uploaded the wrong assignment)."
Our reply:

Moodle handles that a little differently than we might prefer. Depending on whether you have the Assignment settings configured, your student may or may not be able to simply edit or make a second submission with the correct file. Either way, you should be able to:

1. click into the Assignment
2. click the "View all submissions" button
3. select the checkbox to the left of the student's name
4. click the "With selected…" dropdown, "unlock submissions" and the "Go" button:

That should enable to student to resubmit to the Moodle Assignment with the proper file.

Yes, it would be more straightforward if there was a "delete submission" option in that dropdown menu, but I think Moodle wants to keep the submitted file on a "better to have and not need than need and not have" theme.

Using Outcomes In Your Moodle Course

As an instructor at LBCC, you have been told that "at the end of each term, you will be asked to report how many students met each outcome for your course…"

If you are looking for a way to effectively and efficiently assess and report learning outcomes in your teaching, you are in luck, because Moodle Outcomes is one of the "if you only use Moodle for this one thing, it's WORTH IT" features.

How do you get started using the Outcomes functionality in Moodle?

Step #1- Install Your Outcome Set in Our Moodle System: Share a Google Doc or Sheet with me that contains all of your course(s) outcomes. They can be arranged in a bulleted list, or in separate cells on a sheet. The specific layout really doesn't matter, as we have to install them copy & paste style. It's one of those tasks that is more tedious than we prefer, but still definitely worth it!

Step #2 - Attach Your Outcome Set to Your Moodle Course: Once we have your course outcomes installed on our Moodle system, select the Outcome set for your course. In your course settings area:

Click on "Select outcome sets" in the "Outcomes" area:

Select your course outcome set in the "choose an outcome set" dropdown, and click the "Ok" button:

Click the "save and display" button at the bottom of the course settings page:

See the above steps in action:

Step #3 - Attach Outcomes to Activities & Resources: You will be able to indicate individual outcome(s) for each Resource and/or Activity in your Moodle course. Just go to the settings area for the Resource or Activity in question:

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That was easy enough, but what can you do with that? How about a report on the percentage of students who have successfully completed your course outcomes? Easy:

Step #1 - Navigate to Your Course Outcomes Page:

Step #2 - Access the "Activity and Performance" Report: 

Step #3 - Download Your Report:

You've got enough to go on now, don't you? Of course, we are available for any questions or ideas - go ahead and comment below!