Excluding empty grades

Excluding empty grades

by Chuck Gobin -
Number of replies: 4

I wanted to make sure I correctly understood excluding empty grades, in order to avoid unexpected results. I understand the general principle just fine and have used the feature regularly. Here's what I'm not completely sure of:

Let's say I have the overall course parent category, then I have two levels of subcategories below it.

If all three are checked to exclude empty grades, I expect all empty grades in the course to be excluded.

If the parent, overall, course is checked to exclude empty grades, but subcategories are unchecked (meaning empty grades are included), what is the effect?

If the opposite is true (parent category is unchecked, but subcategories are checked), what is the effect?


In reply to Chuck Gobin

Re: Excluding empty grades

by Bob Puffer -

Good philosophical grading question. If all subs are set to exclude empty grades, the course grade will do likewise regardless of setting. Like to see a Moodle MOOC on grading using Moodle...

In reply to Bob Puffer

Re: Excluding empty grades

by Chuck Gobin -

Thanks, Bob, for the reply.

I didn't want to go into a lot of detail in my initial query, for fear of obscuring the question.

What I, and I'm sure many others, like to do, is gradually uncheck that option as the course goes by. For example,
I have two main categories, Tests and Participation. The second is where I put all of my forums, grouped into subcategories by readings. So I'm dealing with a three-tiered structure. When "unit 1" is done, I uncheck "exclude empty grades" so my non-participating students don't think they're doing better than they are. But I obviously don't want students panicking either, which is why I have things grouped into subcategories, so just that category is unchecked.

After thinking about it, it seems to me that I should leave "exclude empty grades" checked all the time at the course level, even at the end of the course, because it seems that this toggle just affects the immediate child category--is this correct? So any category showing a grade is included, and any empty categories are excluded.

Then, I should uncheck subcategories as we move past those in the process of the course. Does this make sense?

In reply to Chuck Gobin

Re: Excluding empty grades

by Mark McKay -

Chuck,

Consider a subcategory to be just an individual item at the course level.

In terms of unchecking EEG, it shouldn't be necessary if, as you go, you fill empty grades with zeros using Single View.

EEG functions as a running grade. It's not perfect, but I haven't seen a better way to do it. One thing that is missing for sure is a final grade "calculator". This has been discussed, but not yet implemented.

-Mark

In reply to Mark McKay

Re: Excluding empty grades

by Chuck Gobin -

Mark,

I have done that (changing empty grades to zeros) in the past, but then realized I had two unexpected issues:

1. It wasn't easy to tell at a glance who had tried and failed an assignment versus someone who simply hadn't submitted anything. Probably a moot point, and most students who attempt something come out with a grade marginally better than a zero, but part of me wanting to be able to document that they hadn't submitted anything.

2. I realized after the fact that changing blanks to zeros prevented any automatic updating of assignments in the gradebook. This was a problem when a student who had not posted (because of an excused absence or sickness) wanted to make up the work, and did, but their forum grade still read as a zero.

Both of the above issues reflect student behavior, and I suppose whether the instructor is inclined to grace in the grading process, for which there isn't an automatic answer. In other words, one solution is to just hold the line--no exceptions--and move on.

I agree with you in principle, and in one real sense I prefer filling in with zeros, since it takes the guesswork out of worrying if I've left EEG checked or unchecked.