I am working with an instructor to correct a grade book problem. For some reason I cannot figure out why it is not calculating correctly. The instructor has two grades filled in for quizzes taken in Moodle. He has set up a mean of grades aggregation. The quizzes have a multiplicator of .25 to adjust for a grading need he has. The gradebook is set to aggregate only those grades that have been given. The course totals are being calculated much higher than they should be despite having no manual calculations in place to override them. Any pointers would be great. A screencast below walks you through the problem. Thanks.
Screencast of the problem (Video/Audio)
Nice job with video 
One thing that you can do in Quiz itself, is to adjust Maximum Grade field.
E.g. if you have 4 questions with each supposed to be worth 0.5 points (but they are 1 since you cannot do that in Moodle), then set Max Grade in Quiz> Edit tab to 2.
I believe you need to adjust your course total, since at the moment your (real) grades are scaled up to match possible total of 999 points.
To see that, go to Cat And Items, click Edit Icon near course total ( top of the gradebook), and set 'Grade display type' to Real (Percentage).
Review grader report. Notice that Percentage is displayed properly. But Real number looks to be off.
Go to Cat And Items, type another number for Max Grade in Course Total. Go back to Grader report - % will stays the same, and real number will be adjusted.
If you use Mean, I think you need to set the Max Grade to the most possible points ever. Assume that someone will get 100% on every assignment, calculate that mean manually. Type that number for Max Grade for Course Total.
One thing that you can do in Quiz itself, is to adjust Maximum Grade field.
E.g. if you have 4 questions with each supposed to be worth 0.5 points (but they are 1 since you cannot do that in Moodle), then set Max Grade in Quiz> Edit tab to 2.
I believe you need to adjust your course total, since at the moment your (real) grades are scaled up to match possible total of 999 points.
To see that, go to Cat And Items, click Edit Icon near course total ( top of the gradebook), and set 'Grade display type' to Real (Percentage).
Review grader report. Notice that Percentage is displayed properly. But Real number looks to be off.
Go to Cat And Items, type another number for Max Grade in Course Total. Go back to Grader report - % will stays the same, and real number will be adjusted.
If you use Mean, I think you need to set the Max Grade to the most possible points ever. Assume that someone will get 100% on every assignment, calculate that mean manually. Type that number for Max Grade for Course Total.
Follow up Screencast
The maximum grades have been set to four to allow for whole numbers in the quiz. I don't believe that to be the issue but we can revisit if need be. We have adjusted the grade display type but it didn't appear to change the issue. Lastly, we adjusted the points and that doesn't change the problem we're having. Thanks for your response and if you have any more ideas please let me know. Thanks.
The maximum grades have been set to four to allow for whole numbers in the quiz. I don't believe that to be the issue but we can revisit if need be. We have adjusted the grade display type but it didn't appear to change the issue. Lastly, we adjusted the points and that doesn't change the problem we're having. Thanks for your response and if you have any more ideas please let me know. Thanks.
Hi Robert, sorry if I was not clear.
I meant to say that you can go to Quiz > Edit and set Maximum grade there to 1.
This way you would not need to mess with multiplicator in the gradebook.
Can you please show Grader report without Editing Mode on?
I meant to say that you can go to Quiz > Edit and set Maximum grade there to 1.
This way you would not need to mess with multiplicator in the gradebook.
Can you please show Grader report without Editing Mode on?
p.s I do not think you can use "Aggregate only non-empty grades" with Mean
I'm confused about how it would work with four questions which can't be worth less than one having a total maximum grade of 1 set for the whole quiz. I don't see how that could work.
The possible Total (4) will be simply scaled down to the Maximum (1) that you set yourself.
If a studnet gets 3 out of 4 right, then it will be 75%. 75% out of 1 is 0.75 - this number will be displayed and pushed to the gradebook.
Same for the gradebook interface and Maximum Grade for Course Total. Since you use Mean for aggregation, it is not 999 (or 993). It is 999 divided by 11 (total number of your graded items)
Here is an explanation of different aggregation types: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Category_aggregation
If you want to aggregate only non-empty grades and have the maximum possible at 999, then please choose Single Weighted Mean instead for Aggregation method.
Thanks for the reply. You're definitely right about the quiz being scaled so thanks for that. It appears I can get the percentages correct but maybe I'm misunderstanding what "real" mean in the moodle grade book because it continues to show too many points. Thanks again for the feed back
Follow-up Screencast
Follow-up Screencast
It should show corrected result in the quiz as well. So you and a student will see 0.75 there. Try to click Results tab > Regrade link in the quiz.
This is exactly what SWM will do for you, so this is the best aggregation method for your gradebook. So please make sure to switch and look at it first.
There is no harm in testing and switching. You can switch back in a second.
The points are off because your Max total is scaled up to 999. It should be set to 999 divided by 11 if you use Mean.
This is exactly what SWM will do for you, so this is the best aggregation method for your gradebook. So please make sure to switch and look at it first.
There is no harm in testing and switching. You can switch back in a second.
The points are off because your Max total is scaled up to 999. It should be set to 999 divided by 11 if you use Mean.
Thanks for the follow up. I did go through regrade and it shows all grades as resetting to 0 and does not show the fractional difference. No harm though since it does show in the gradebook.
I tried the SWM and it did not cause the desired result so I'm not certain that's still the answer.
If the aggregation type is set to mean then why would I have to set the total points to 992/11 (this is a correction by the prof)? Shouldn't the fact it's set to mean automatically do this? What's the point in having an aggregation type if I have to manually set the denominator? Where would I even set such a thing if that's the case? Do you have a screenshot of an example possible? Thanks.
I tried the SWM and it did not cause the desired result so I'm not certain that's still the answer.
If the aggregation type is set to mean then why would I have to set the total points to 992/11 (this is a correction by the prof)? Shouldn't the fact it's set to mean automatically do this? What's the point in having an aggregation type if I have to manually set the denominator? Where would I even set such a thing if that's the case? Do you have a screenshot of an example possible? Thanks.
You do not set denominator anywhere. You just calculate it in your head, and type 90.18 in the Max Grade column for Course Total (located at the very bottom on the Categories and Items interface) instead of 100 in my example, and 999 in yours. Make such to click Save changes.
What kind of result have you got once you switched to SWM? Why do you think it is not working?
What kind of result have you got once you switched to SWM? Why do you think it is not working?
Screencast Follow-up
I have tried setting it both ways it doesn't make a difference on the calculation. I have recounted the maximum grade it that doesn't seem to be the problem. I can't possibly have to set the maximum as different for each student so what gives? Thanks.
Edit: It does appear that I had the final grade overridden but un-checking that doesn't seem to solve the problem still.
I have tried setting it both ways it doesn't make a difference on the calculation. I have recounted the maximum grade it that doesn't seem to be the problem. I can't possibly have to set the maximum as different for each student so what gives? Thanks.
Edit: It does appear that I had the final grade overridden but un-checking that doesn't seem to solve the problem still.
Just in case, this is what calculating an average means: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_calculate_an_average (you need to divide the SUM on the number of scores being averaged).
Percentages are fine, since they are not affected. But real numbers are off, since you are not dividing on 11 first, so the numbers are inflated. Sorry, this is how it works
As I have mentioned previously, I do not think that Aggregate Only do not works with Mean.
SWM is what you need (or just SUM for that matter, though Aggregate only will not work there).
Try to switch to SUM, by the way, to review.
In SWM everything is "assigned" equal weight, so you can ignore the word weight in the title. I guess that's what confuses you.
If you overridden your course total, you indeed made it stuck to the wrong calculation.
Did you do it for every student? If so, you will need to fix it one by one.
Try in on the third one (Nicole). Go to Grader report, Turn Editing on. Click Edit icon for her Course Total. Make sure Overridden falg is unchecked. Save changes.
Review her total both with SWM and SUM selected.
P.s. You still have not switched the display of Course Total. Please do that, since it will help you later.
Go to Cat And Items, click Edit Icon near course total (top of the gradebook), and set 'Grade display type' to Real (Percentage), so you will see both numbers in non-editing mode.
Percentages are fine, since they are not affected. But real numbers are off, since you are not dividing on 11 first, so the numbers are inflated. Sorry, this is how it works
As I have mentioned previously, I do not think that Aggregate Only do not works with Mean.
SWM is what you need (or just SUM for that matter, though Aggregate only will not work there).
Try to switch to SUM, by the way, to review.
In SWM everything is "assigned" equal weight, so you can ignore the word weight in the title. I guess that's what confuses you.
If you overridden your course total, you indeed made it stuck to the wrong calculation.
Did you do it for every student? If so, you will need to fix it one by one.
Try in on the third one (Nicole). Go to Grader report, Turn Editing on. Click Edit icon for her Course Total. Make sure Overridden falg is unchecked. Save changes.
Review her total both with SWM and SUM selected.
P.s. You still have not switched the display of Course Total. Please do that, since it will help you later.
Go to Cat And Items, click Edit Icon near course total (top of the gradebook), and set 'Grade display type' to Real (Percentage), so you will see both numbers in non-editing mode.
Thanks again for your time and help. It's a great tribute to the community here.
I think we're in agreement on what an average is so no issue there I think.
I have switched back and forth between the mean and simple weighted mean and it makes no difference in the grades. I don't want a sum either so that's not going to help me.
I have checked and no grades are being overridden.
The points still don't make sense either way.
I have changed the grader report view but it's confusing to students so there's not sense in turning it on for now.
Screencast Follow-up
I think we're in agreement on what an average is so no issue there I think.
I have switched back and forth between the mean and simple weighted mean and it makes no difference in the grades. I don't want a sum either so that's not going to help me.
I have checked and no grades are being overridden.
The points still don't make sense either way.
I have changed the grader report view but it's confusing to students so there's not sense in turning it on for now.
Screencast Follow-up
Perhaps the multiplicator on the quiz is causing the problem, but I do have one suggestion - I have my course total set to 100, not the sum of points, because I believe the aggregator is a percentage, so the value should represent 100% as total points.
Could you give that a try? It might be multiplying your small scores in an attempt to have 999% as the maximum grade.
Nancy