Pass/Fail Giving More Credit to Fail

Pass/Fail Giving More Credit to Fail

by Rachel Grotheer -
Number of replies: 4

I have set up a few of my assignments with the "Pass/Fail" scale and have noticed that Moodle is assigning two points to "Fail" and 0 points to "Pass". I suspect this is because of the way the scale is set up, since I have found on the help page for setting up a scale that the grade book will assign points based on the number of items in the scale with the items listed first getting the lowest points and going up from there. Looking at the descriptions of each of the scales, I notice that "Pass" is listed before "Fail" and thus gets the lower point value (in all the other scales, the highest value is listed last - see image below).  Since this is a default scale, I don't think I can change it. Since I graded a couple of assignments before noticing it, I can't change the scale on those assignments. Anyone have any ideas of a way to fix this? Can the standard scale be fixed? 


In reply to Rachel Grotheer

Re: Pass/Fail Giving More Credit to Fail

by Shirley Gregorczyk -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

There are a few older posts about the lack of functionality on the scales.

No you can't change a scale after they have a relationship with a student. I created many bad, useless scales.

I found that it is easier to use the grade>letters values that to use scales. This is only more forgiving. 

Edit the grade letters from the A-F scales to whatever values you desired for Pass and Fail. Remove the other values that will not be used.

In reply to Rachel Grotheer

Re: Pass/Fail Giving More Credit to Fail

by Richard van Iwaarden -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
Don't even attempt fixing this, it will be a mess. When creating a scale it clearly says you need to work from low to high, not the other way around.

Yet I have seen this before and this is my solution:
1. Create a new scale that starts from low to high
2. Rename the old scale, giving it the name 'DO NOT USE THIS SCALE ANYMORE!'
3. Keep the values 'as is', because changing the values will result in every student failing when they passed before and the other way around.

Start next year with the correct scales. Wait 10 years and the problem is usually gone smile
In reply to Rachel Grotheer

Re: Pass/Fail Giving More Credit to Fail

by Rachel Grotheer -
Thank you for your replies. Shirley, I will try the grade to letters technique you suggested.

Unfortunately, since this is a default Moodle scale(ie one I did not set up), I can’t change it at all, not even renaming it to help me not use it. I suspected there was nothing I could do; I just hope Moodle fixes it! In the meantime I will use a new grading system I have created and assure my students I will calculate their grade correctly at the end of the semester.