Weighted Mean of Grades

Weighted Mean of Grades

by Ms. Letha Sanders -
Number of replies: 5

Hi,

I would like to know if what I've done is correct in calculating categories with weighted mean of grades.  This is what I've done thus far:

  • Admin category setting is "Simple Weighted Mean of Grades" because it is the default.  I didn't change this.
  • From inside a course, "Grades", "Categories and Items".  I've already set up my categories with weights for Assignments (50%), Participation (25%) and Tests (25%). 
  • The aggregation selection for ALL of my categories and sub-categories is set to "Simple Weighted Mean of Grades" because I read it from one of the forums here.
  • I know I'm supposed to set the Course Aggregation to "Weighted Mean of Grades" but couldn't find where to do this.  I tried opening the hand icon next to my folder name under categories and items screen, but I couldn't see it.

How do I know if my categories are being calculated correctly if I'm uncertain what selections to choose? 

All I wish to accomplish is to use the typical high school calculation for weighted categories. 

  • All individual grade items are worth 100%.
  • All grade items will be split into their respective categories.  Placed in one of the 3 listed above.
  • Grades are then averaged within each category and worth that % of the total grade.
  • Final course grade is the total of category grades averaged above.

I've attached a picture of my categories for a particular course.  But I'm not sure it's calculating correctly.  Shouldn't each category total show the weight I assigned?  It doesn't.

Thanks for your help.

Attachment categories.JPG
In reply to Ms. Letha Sanders

Re: Weighted Mean of Grades

by Elena Ivanova -
Just to double-check - do you have Moodle version that is less than 1.9.4? I d not have that handy, otherwise it would be easier to answer sad
I believe there are 2 edit icons that you can click on Categories and Items screen: one near the name of the category (total in your case, located on top), and another near the words that say "Course Total". Once of those should give you the dropdown to select correct aggregation method for the course.


In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Weighted Mean of Grades

by Ms. Letha Sanders -

Hi Elena,

I'm using Moodle 1.9.2.

Within the Categories and Items screen, all of the Categories and Sub-Categories allow me to choose a selection from an Aggregation window (pull-down menu).

However, neither the edit icon for the top course folder nor the edit icon at the bottom for the Course Total do not allow me to see this field.

Therefore, the only choice I felt I had was to return to the front page admin-> grades->category settings screen and change "Simple" to "Weighted Mean of Grades" instead.  Unfortunately, I understand that this changes all courses to this default.  Sure hope the teachers can still change it as needed.

The Aggregation for all of my Categories and Sub-Categories (within the course) are set to "Simple".  So far, it appears to be grading correctly and even rounds off the percentages up or down.  This is fine.

I'm also concerned with the flexibility for teachers being able to choose their own grading system since I changed the front page admin grade screen to "Weighted Mean of Grades".  Shouldn't this stay as "Simple" for the default?

Do you think something is wrong with my course's Categories and Items screen since it does not show an Aggregation field?

Thanks so much.   Ms. Letha

In reply to Ms. Letha Sanders

Re: Weighted Mean of Grades

by Elena Ivanova -
oh, I did not realize that you saw the dropdown for Course Total but were missing one of the options there smile
Am I correct in my understanding, btw? Or are you missing this dropdown for course total completely?

If you do not see some aggregation method, then you probably need to alow that as an admin.
Go to Site Administration > Grades > Grade category settings > Available aggregation types (for you it can be on different screen, but still should be somewhere there)
Check what is selected (highlighted) there. Highligh Weighted Mean if needed, and save changes.

P.S. We have Weighted Simple and Sum available to our users, with Simple being default. I usually do not say it, but if possible, it is better to upgrade to 1.9.5. Makes life much easier smile
Attachment 05Scr_Jul._16_09.33.jpg
In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Weighted Mean of Grades

by Ms. Letha Sanders -

Hi Elena,

For this course, I'm missing the Aggregation drop-down field completely from the Course Folder and Course Total edit icon screens.  But yes, this field definitely appears on any of the primary categories or the sub-categories screens.

I checked other (unfinished) courses and the Aggregation definitely appears in both the course folder, course total, category and sub-category screens.  But in this particular course, it does not appear when I open the course folder edit icon or the course total edit icon.  I even tried resetting the course so that there were no grades in the gradebook and no students.  Still no change. 

At first, I thought it was just a default for how 1.9.2 works and that whatever the site Admin (that's me!) selects from the Aggregation field (and you can only choose one from the front page admin grades category screen.), it remains definite for all courses with the exception of the categories and sub-categories in the gradebook.  But this can't be correct since the other unfinished courses allow the selection (just one can be chosen).

It would be great to upgrade to 1.9.5 but I feel strongly that I should wait for the more stable download.  Mostly because the moodle user emails that download to my computer from the forums are having some pretty bad problems right now with things not working properly and I'm no computer whiz so I'm sure I wouldn't be of any help even for myself.  Besides, I never could understand the instructions for upgrading and the contacts I made via email pretty much refused to help me (even when I agreed to pay) unless I moved to their server.  Bummer!  The reason I'm on the godaddy server is because it's affordable while I'm building the classrooms.  Hopefully, when I've got some classes up and ready for enrollment (an income!), it'll make sense to move to a more expensive host and pay extra for someone else to maintain my moodle website. 

I know we're not discussing upgrades in this post, but my understanding of an upgrade is just to backup all your courses individually to the hard drive and then download another moodle (newer) version and start all over again.  No problem; I've done this twice already.

That being said, I think I'll use the Share Cart to copy all of my activities and resources from this course into a new course and then see if the Aggregation option field presents itself as in the other unfinished courses.

Thank you Elena for your help and support.  Ms. Letha

 

In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Weighted Mean of Grades

by Paola Lehmann -

Hi, I have a problem. I have different courses for my students at university. For some of them in my grade book I also see the last coloumn "grades total", for others the coloumn is empty though the parameters are the same. Maybe there is a parameter that is different but I can't find it and I'm becoming mad trying to solve this problem. Of course even if I download the table in excel there is non gredes total.

What can I do?

Thank for your help.

Paola