Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

از Kimber Warden در
Number of replies: 7

I thought this was possible in Moodle, but now that I'm trying to implement it, I'm not so sure:

I have a course with 2 groups of students, Group A and Group B. Group A is required to complete assignments 1-3. Group B is required to complete assignments 1-3 AND 4-6.  I want Group A to see/access only their 3 required assignments and have their final grades calculated on only those assignments. I want Group B to see/access all 6 assignments and have their final grades calculated on all 6 assignments.


I can control which group sees which assignments, but I can't seem to control how the grades are calculated. The calculation for Group A's final grades include the zeroes recorded for Assignments 4-6, so they fail the course even if they get perfect scores on their 3 required assignments. I could theoretically change the final grade calculation to include only non-zero grades, but that would allow a student who skipped Assignment 1 to still receive 100% in the course, which I don't want.

Is there some way to accomplish my goal of differentiating instruction? I assumed using Groups would be the obvious answer, but it doesn't seem to be. Am I missing something?

میانگین امتیازات:  -
In reply to Kimber Warden

Re: Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

از Derek Chirnside در

Kimber, this is a combination of requirements I have not seen.

I think that each course has a grade book, and this is the same for every member of the course, and cannot be changed based on groups/cohorts.

I suspect the only way you will be able to do this in regular Moodle is to run two different courses.  Each with the right number of assignments - and the automatic links to gradebook.

Then: either duplicate the material in each course, or run a separate comined course.  You can share files between courses, but not moodle entities like activities or resources.

Good luck

-Derek

میانگین امتیازات:  -
In reply to Kimber Warden

Re: Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

از Paula Clough در

Kimberly,

What version of Moodle are  you using? There is an option to not count assignments with no grade in them, I believe.  Let us know your Moodle version and I will do some research on which versions have that option.

Paula Clough باحال

میانگین امتیازات:  -
In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

از Paula Clough در

Well Kimber, I think I may have found that the ability to do this may be something built in by our host and not a part of the Moodle itself.  I am still researching.

Paula Clough

میانگین امتیازات:  -
In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

از Paula Clough در

This is what I found in my Moodle ... you might want to look and see if it is in yours as well. This is under the full view... if I check the Aggregate the non empty grades only then, the empty ones will not be included in the grade average. If a student doesn't do the assignment and you want it to count against him, then you have to put in a zero. This should allow you to do what you want. I have included a picture. This link will tell you a little about it in the Moodle docs http://docs.moodle.org/21/en/Grade_categories

 

I hope this helps.

باحال

Attachment grade book view.png
میانگین امتیازات:  -
In reply to Paula Clough

Re: Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

از Kimber Warden در

That's a good temporary workaround, Paula, thanks! The downside of aggregating only non-empty grades as a permanent solution is that students who have completed only half of their required assignments by semester's end still think they're getting an A in the class. لبخند You'd be amazed at how many of our high school students are shocked when their report card is mailed home!

I've added a feature improvement request (http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-35316). It would be really great if Moodle could be used for differentiating instruction (and complying with the U.S. Talented and Gifted law) by allowing some activities to be assigned only to certain groups, without impacting the other students. It's not practical to run 3 separate (but 99% identical) courses for gifted students, regular students, and students needing special accommodations. It seems that using groups is a natural solution.

Please vote for the feature improvement!
Kimber

میانگین امتیازات:  -
In reply to Kimber Warden

Re: Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

از Naomi Quirke در

Hi Kimber,

We have different groupings being graded differently on the same course routinely.  The way we do it is with groupings:

1) Set up a grouping for each group.

2) Set up individual assignments for each grouping.  They can be a copy of each others.  In the settings, make each assignment available only for the correct grouping.

3) In the grade calculation, set the final grade to be the sum of all assignment grades.

میانگین امتیازات:  -
In reply to Kimber Warden

Re: Aren't "groups" for differentiating instruction?

از Bob Puffer در

This is a very common scenario and easily resolved with any Moodle 1.95 and beyond:

  1. Aggregate only non-empty grades, if the term has gotten to the point of students thinking their getting a grade, place zeroes in the grades so they see the ultimate outcome of doing nothing more
  2. Use groupings as mentioned by another to make sure students get only the assignments they're supposed to work on

We've facilitated this procedure in a couple ways:

  1. We hacked the code so everytime a group is created a grouping is created also with the group as its member.  This shoulda been part of core but you wouldn't believe the arguments against a no-brainer
  2. Our grader report (LAE grader) has a zero-fill icon which fills all the empty grades in a column with zeroes at those times when you need to bring everybody up-to-speed
میانگین امتیازات:  -