Course Completion using course grade total based on passing grades versus activity completion

Course Completion using course grade total based on passing grades versus activity completion

by Phil Everist -
Number of replies: 0
Moodle 3.9
The workplace courses in my environment often change with new grading activities often added  or swapped (i.e. a  Quiz gets replaced by a graded SCORM activity). 

To avoid the issues of resetting course completion when activities change and losing previous completion dates, I encourage course developers to set course completion  based on Course Total and use a category with grade type = None to store any graded item to exclude from the course total.  I  prefer the course completion block to list activities to be completed rather than the blunt course grade = 100 AND course developers tend to intuitively use this option BUT avoiding resetting course completion dates is the bigger issue)

This  works OK  until a course isn't based on 100% in all activities for a course total of 100% and there is a mix of  passing grades for the individual graded items  - if 2 activities need 100% and 2 activities need 80% , what is the best way to still use course grade total that works on the passing grades of each graded item:
  • I could use a blunt average of 95% but 100%, 100%, 70% (fail) and 90%  (pass) would also pass the course
  • I am aware it's possible to use calculated activity totals to treat a passing grade as 100% (e.g. if item grade > 80% set to 100%  to allow setting the course completion criteria to course total 100%)  

Is there a more elegant way (and easier for course creators to use)  to manage mixed passing grades when using course total as the course completion criteria? 

Any suggestions welcome.