HELP! Grades not being weighted correctly

HELP! Grades not being weighted correctly

by Jennifer Soler -
Number of replies: 3

Hi! I'm trying to solve an issue with one of our faculty members but have just hit a major road block and I was hoping someone can help me figure this one out.

Her gradebook items have been set up into categories and each category is worth different percentages. The problem is that we have noticed that one of the categories, is not tallying up correctly. For example, the instructor has a category for quizzes. In the gradebook the parent category has been set to Weighted means... and the Quiz category has been set to Simple weighted means... with a weight of 60%. Each of her quiz items have different values (i.e. 15, 15, 20, 10 & 10; for a totall of 70 maximum points). Now, when the instructor entered the grades for her students, she noticed that the category total was displaying much lower grades than what her students should really have.

I have looked everywhere to figure out what is causing the quiz items not to be weighted properly, but I just can't seem to find a solution. Please help! Any light on this will be immensely appreciated.

Thanks!

Jennifer Soler

 

In reply to Jennifer Soler

Re: HELP! Grades not being weighted correctly

by Elena Ivanova -
Hi Jennifer,
It would help to see the screenshot of your Categories and Items set up ( and may be Grader report too). smile
In reply to Jennifer Soler

Re: HELP! Grades not being weighted correctly

by Itamar Tzadok -
If the quizzes category is 0-70 points and the quizzes are already set to there absolute value, the category should be sum of grades rather than simple weighted mean. Does that make sense? smile
In reply to Jennifer Soler

Re: HELP! Grades not being weighted correctly

by Bob Puffer -
Just to make certain the actions of the aggregations methods are understood in the Moodle gradebook as it appears in 1.95 and greater:

WEIGHTED MEAN: will take the percentage correct for the category or item and multiply it times the weight. If all weights don't add up to 100, it will first scale the weights so all weights DO add up to 100 and use the scaled weight for its calculation.

SIMPLE WEIGHTED MEAN: wil take the total of the points earned times and divide it by the total points EARNABLE to arrive at a percentage.

In your case, the percentage described above in SWM will be acted upon as described above in WM to arrive at the total.

You've likely stumbled on one of the (IMO) MAJOR FLAWS of the current gradebook -- not maintaining accurate category maxes unless SUM aggregation is used. The suggestion to change to SUM aggregation method is useful only if all grades are filled -- if some are not yet completed, the student will be charged as though they received a zero for that grade. Manipulating the category max from the Items and Categories tab will likely bring you to the point of most reliable success. Without a screenshot I'd suggest it needs to be 100 in order for the category totals to come out correct but I can't be certain.