Extra Credit and Weights

Extra Credit and Weights

by Peter Davis -
Number of replies: 8
Hey,

So I am trying to have a course that has both extra credit and item weights in categories.

Now when I change the weight in the gradebook setup, where it should be the item weight (First Image) and then I go to check in the item itself, sometimes it is still item weight (Second Image) and sometimes it is now an extra credit weight (Third Image).

I guess it comes down to I guess I don't understand how to add extra credit items and how to weight items.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Peter Davis
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In reply to Peter Davis

Re: Extra Credit and Weights

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
What are you categories and gradebook set to? Natural grading?
In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Extra Credit and Weights

by Peter Davis -
So the course is set to "Weighted mean of grades."
I figure out that the categories that were "Mean of grades (with extra credit)" are the ones turning the weight into extra credit weight and if I change it to "Weighted mean of grades" then the item weight stays the item weight.
(Please feel free to give advice on the best grade aggregation to use)

So at this point I guess my question goes back to, so how do I use item weights to make some be worth more points than others and still use extra credit in the same course. I thought about separating them into categories but I saw online that Moodle won't count extra credit grades when there are only extra credit items in a category. Is that still true?

Thanks!
Peter Davis
In reply to Peter Davis

Re: Extra Credit and Weights

by Q Peiffer -
Hi Peter!
One of the ways I've done this in the past is to encapsulate the entire gradebook in a subcategory set to the original aggregation (in this case, "Weighted mean of grades"), and then set the course category aggregation to "Natural" and creating an extra credit grade item in the course category but not the subcategory. This allows for an extra credit item to be created that would add points after a weighted mean is calculated.

Hope this helps!
In reply to Q Peiffer

Re: Extra Credit and Weights

by Peter Davis -
That does make sense, and I feel like I might be able to make that do what I wanted to, but I have one question. Does this mean you couldn't have any other subcategories? Such as "Reading" "Assignments" "Quizzes" etc. Because most of my weights are actually by category. Example: Reading is worth 20% of the grade. I have a few classes that have individual item weights, but a majority is done through category weights.

Thanks!
In reply to Peter Davis

Re: Extra Credit and Weights

by Peter Davis -
So after doing more testing I answered some of my own questions, and now have more.

So you have the entire course as a category. Then your "Normal Categories" now are "sub categories" in your "course category." And all of your assignments and such go under those "sub categories." Do I have all that right?
Then you have a gradebook item that is for extra credit.

So last question. How then do you make the extra credit item grade (like the percentage you can put in Natural Aggregation) equal total grade percentage.
For example: I want to use the grade item for adding 3% to the total grade. How do I make sure that is the case?

OK, one more question. smile Could I do the reverse? Is there a way I could use the grade item for say attendance? You missed so many classes and now you need to loose 6% of your final grade. Could there be a grade item somehow that takes away so much percent of your final grade?

Thanks so much!
In reply to Peter Davis

Re: Extra Credit and Weights

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
I find natural grading is a whole lot simpler and will handle this just fine. There is a simple checkbox for extra credit which takes care of that - if you total course has 300 points, you would just make it equal 9 points and check the box. On the attendance, that is graded anyway so will naturally deduct points if they are not attending. However, you can also do manual calculations on each item too so that if it is under a certain amount, you could adjust the grade points down to whatever you want (I believe you can do negative points here but honestly I have never tried).
In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Extra Credit and Weights

by Peter Davis -
I did notice the natural way of extra credit, and I like just checking a box.

So with natural aggregation my test course is out of 400. That appears to be the total of max grades for assignments. I set the course and categories to be natural. The students, teachers, and registrar however need the grade in a percentage out of 100%. Is there a way I can do that in natural grading?
In reply to Peter Davis

Re: Extra Credit and Weights

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
Yes, you just set the gradebook view to percentage and the gradebook will show percentage (I think it actually shows both).