Jean-François Nadeau says: I would like to know why you did not need [the gradebook] before...
Well, in my case I had small classes of Masters-level students (under ten people). When engaging with a class that size over a period of three months, it is easier to come to know each person reasonably well.
Each week was roughly structured like this:
- one or two readings - in our case, papers about constructivism
- journal - reflecting on the reading
- forum - discussing ideas from the journals
- survey - colles, sometimes attls
- journal - reflecting on discussions and own learning
Each student's engagement throughout the course was worth 50% of the total grade. This includes assessments of forums and journals. We (the other teacher and I) judged this overall grade simply by becoming familiar with the "activity reports" for each student. We could do this because we had a good understanding of each student as well as a memory of engaging with them for three months. The activity report served as an excellent tool to help us reflect on the student's activities and development throughout the course.
The other 50% was a single essay from each student, the topic of which was decided by each student and discussed in the forums.
Now, this approach may not work well for larger classes, younger classes, different subjects, or for classes where the teacher does not have time to engage fully with students, but it worked well for us, and may help explain some of Moodle's early design. Of course, Moodle is now evolving to suit a larger range of classes.