Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -
Number of replies: 19

Hi everyone,

I’ve noticed that unlike the User Report, our Grader Report doesn’t have an option to exclude hidden items from the total grade calculation. As you can see below, the User Report gives the option of excluding hidden items from overall grades-- (this is the "View as User" option). Could we get a similar option for the Grader Report? Perhaps we could call it "Include hidden items in calculations" or "do not include hidden items in calculations".

user report options

This feature would really help streamline the grading process, especially since I have all my (hundreds of) items nicely organized and categorized chronologically.

Right now, the only workaround is for me to shuffle activities into a "non-graded" category and move them to their appropriate graded categories as they're opened. However, this becomes quite a mess as I handle about 20 small activities each week and they don’t always stay in order when moved.

It would be so much simpler to just unhide them and have them slot into place automatically. Furthermore, seeing an activity or a quiz automatically count against a student's grade motivates them to complete it as fast as possible. Finally, when it comes time to calculate final grades, it would be incredibly helpful to have a total that accurately reflects only the visible grades.

Is it possible to add this feature to the Grader Report? It would make a huge difference for those of us with a lot of activities to manage.

Thanks for considering this improvement!

In reply to Edward F.

Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por John Provasnik -
Imaxe de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imaxe de Testers
This 'should' be the setting found in Grades - Setup - Course Grade Settings -- "Hide totals if they contain hidden items" setting with "Show totals excluding hidden items" selected for that setting. 

Edit: I just realized at the top of that settings page: "Course grade settings determine how the gradebook appears for all participants in the course."

Followup - If the hidden items are simply future items not yet completed by the user, maybe try using the "Exclude empty grades" option in the Gradebook Setup so it only counts graded activities. I've not utilized the "Hidden until..." setting on each activity on the Setup page to see if that hides the activity from calculation from just the student or both student & teacher...
In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -
Thank you for your reply, John. There is indeed an option in the Course Grade Settings that allows you to "Show totals excluding hidden items," but this affects only the User Report, not the Grader Report. I'd like this option to also affect the Grader Report, or at least have a way of toggling it on the Grader Report.

The problem with using "Exclude Empty Grades" is that if that any unhidden assignments that are not completed by a student count as 100%. So, if a student has one assignment done with 100% and 9 open assignments that have not been attempted, his grade would show up as 100%, which is not what I would want. Also, I end up opening only around 30% of the hundreds of hidden activities I have in certain categories-- depending on the semester. Moving these from one category to another is infeasible.
 
Clarification: Most of my assignments are actually "quiz" activities that are auto-graded.
In reply to Edward F.

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Emma Richardson -
Imaxe de Documentation writers Imaxe de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imaxe de Plugin developers
I am just going to say that many students will not like having a 10% grade while waiting for the rest of the assignments to happen...but maybe that is a US thing - our students also have to keep a certain grade level to participate in sports etc so this form of grading does not work for them... I tend to see it that they have 100% in everything that they have completed rather than they have 100% for incomplete assignments...
In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -

Hi Emma,

I totally get your point, but when students see a grade of 100% after completing just one out of ten quizzes, it can be misleading. This is particularly true for short assignments that are expected to be done quickly once they're available. It might give the impression that they're doing fine overall when there's actually quite a bit they need to catch up on.

On the bright side, the User Report does allow students to see their grades without the hidden items affecting their score--this is how I have it set up right now. It would be really helpful if this feature was also available in the Grader Report.

Below are some images to better explain my point. As you can see, I have hundreds of assignments in a category, but I don’t use all of them. In the Grader Report, all the hidden assignments count as "0"-- I can't make them "not count." Moving these to a different category that "doesn’t count" is not just time-consuming but also disrupts the numerical order of the activities, making it hard for students to find them.

Let me know if anything I've said isn't clear. I value your feedback.

Thanks!

 
activities
 
another 300 or so activities later...
 
activities 2
 
plus 100 or so more...
In reply to Edward F.

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Rick Jerz -
Imaxe de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imaxe de Testers
I am with Emma on this issue. But perhaps one thing that makes sense to show the "current" grade is that future activities are hidden in my courses. So when a student looks at their grade book and sees 78%, they see a grade of 78% for everything that is showing.

But you can go either way with Moodle (as I recall).
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -
Hi Rick and Emma,
 
I apologize for not conveying my problem more clearly. Attached is a User Report PDF of one of my students. As you can see after you open this PDF, this student currently has a 78.70% in my class--This is the correct grade. 
 
When I open up my Grader Report, this same student's grade now shows up as a 48.65% (See clipped image from Grader Report below). 
 
grader report course total
 
There is currently no way to have the Grader Report show the grade as 78.70% (exactly how it's shown in the User Report) because the Grader Report counts all hidden items as "0," while the User Report gives the option of either "excluding hidden grades" or "including hidden grades" (see image below).
 
show hide hidden items
Allowing the ability to "exclude hidden items" in the Grader Report, just as it's allowed in the User Report (shown above), would significantly help me and many of my colleagues. Thank you for your consideration.
In reply to Edward F.

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -
If you're combing through this thread in search of a fix, I've tried a workaround suggested by ChatGPT that mostly works. Here’s what you can do, as suggested by ChatGPT:

"Adjust Permissions: If hidden items shouldn’t impact the grades displayed in the Grader Report, you might consider adjusting permissions related to viewing hidden grades. This can be done by navigating to Administration > Course administration > Users > Permissions and modifying the grade:viewhidden permission. Note that this fix relies heavily on your specific Moodle setup and requires administrative access."

I applied this by creating a new role modeled after the "non-editing teacher" but with the grade:viewhidden permission removed. This change correctly adjusted the grade calculations in the Grader Report to exclude hidden activities. However, frustratingly, when you export the Grader Report, the totals are still miscalculated.

It's incredibly irritating how such a seemingly simple issue persists without resolution. This problem has been highlighted previously by others, yet there seems to be a lack of urgency from the administrators to address it. This oversight complicates what should be a straightforward process, adding unnecessary stress and workload.
In reply to Edward F.

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Rick Jerz -
Imaxe de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imaxe de Testers
Your problem might be a bit deep.

I checked one of my Moodle courses, and the grades reported by the User Report exactly match those in the Grader Report. And I have hidden items in the course and grades. When I log in as the student, grades match. This suggests that your issue has something to do with your settings. Furthermore, the Moodle grade book is very comprehensive, with many ways to use it and display grades, making it a bit complex. For me to help someone fix their grade book requires a lot of effort because of the many settings.

You can rely on ChatGPT, but I wouldn't. Nor will I try to correct ChatGPT because I don't trust it. And I don't know everything you have done based on ChatGPT. I would rather read the Moodle docs about the grade book and grade book options. Also, I have not adjusted "permissions" as ChatGPT seems to advise.

I have found that my best approach to getting the grade book set up is to start a simple, new (experimental) course with a few students. In one browser, I do things logged in as a student; in another browser window, I observe the grade book results. In your case, if you have been adjusting permissions, you might need to reset your Moodle back to square one.
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -

Thanks for checking on that, but this issue isn't just about my settings. Moodle's design mandates that the Grader Report include hidden items in its calculations, while the User Report gives the option to exclude them. There's even a note explaining why the totals might differ if hidden items are excluded in the User Report (see the attached photo).

forcedhiddenitemcalculation

It seems short-sighted to assume teachers would always want hidden items included in the Grader Report—clearly, there's a demand for more flexibility, as others have also requested this feature.

I've actually found ChatGPT quite helpful in navigating Moodle complexities, not just for this issue but overall. It might be worth exploring.

Also, I don’t believe resetting all of Moodle is necessary. I’ve set up a new user role that can be easily removed to revert any changes, making a full reset overkill for this situation.

In reply to Edward F.

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Rick Jerz -
Imaxe de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imaxe de Testers
So that setting that you show explains Moodle's logic and that the two reports could show different grades.

You say, "Moodle's design mandates that the Grader Report include hidden items in its calculations."

But when I put this into ChatGPT as a question, ChatGPT says "Moodle's design doesn't strictly mandate that the Grader Report includes hidden items in its calculations." I would agree with ChatGPT. I have many hidden items in my course's Grader report, and the Grader report shows me the student's course total without these hidden items.  I came to this conclusion, however, without ChatGPT.)

Perhaps this is controlled by having "exclude empty grades" for the course within the "Gradebook setup."

It would take some exploring to see how "empty" and "hidden" grade settings used within the various grade reports interact. And looking at your original post, it might be that the Grader report's grade calculation is controlled by the "Gradebook setup" option.

Someone else might have some additional thoughts about this.
 
(I don't claim to be an expert on all the features of Moodle's grade book; I just know it is powerful and complex and does exactly what I seek.  I have never used ChatGPT to help me understand the grade book, and will continue relying on Moodle docs and experimentation.  But if you find ChatGPT helpful, certainly continue to use it.)
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -
Hi Rick,

Thank you for the dialogue, and I appreciate your perspective on exploring Moodle's settings further. Let me clarify the situation with an example that might illustrate where the confusion is coming from:

I simplified things a bit and set the Classwork/Homework category of my previous semester's course to 100%. This category has about 300 items, mostly quizzes. About half of these items are hidden as they were not covered in class, for some reason or another. Here’s what happens in the case of one of my students:

With "Exclude empty grades" checked:  This student who completed only about 30% of the visible activities during the semester (but did well on those) shows a grade of approximately 98% in both the User Report and the Grader Report. This is because this setting effectively ignores all unattempted (empty) and hidden items in the calculations (hidden items that have never been revealed are, of course, unattempted too). See images below:
 
USER REPORT
userreport96
 
 
GRADER REPORT
graderreport96
 
 
Without "Exclude empty grades": This student’s grade in the User Report (where hidden items are excluded) drops to about 36%—reflecting her true grade out of the non-hidden total. However, in the Grader Report, which now counts hidden items as zeros, her grade plummets even more to around 20%.
 
USER REPORT
userreport38
 
 
GRADER REPORT
 
graderreport20
 
 
As you can also see from the example above, clicking the "Exclude empty grades" box in the category settings ends up giving a student who should have a 36% in the class a 96%. 

While I'm sure you've been able to get Moodle to do everything you've wanted it to do, it still can't exclude hidden items from the Grader Report UNLESS the "exclude empty grades" box is ticked. Doing this, though, as I've already pointed out above, also excludes all unattempted items (both hidden and unhidden), which causes an absurdly inflated and incorrect grade (96% when it should be 36%, in the example I showed). 
 
ChatGPT is a tool, just like Moodle is. I'm surprised you're so averse to using it. To each his own, though. 
In reply to Edward F.

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Rick Jerz -
Imaxe de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imaxe de Testers
Yes, Edward, our conversation has been very pleasant. Sorry that we don't have more people wanting to chat (other than Emma and ChatGPT). I guess I am in good company. 😝
 
I have become lost in our conversation with all of the settings.  Somehow, I have set my Grade report to exclude hidden items from its total.  My Grader report totals exactly match what the student sees when they view their grade book, which is what I desire.  This might be because I like to show the current grade (as Emma does).  For example, I can't follow or reconstruct your saying, "Student who should have a 36% in the class a 96%." 
 
Don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that you have not tried to communicate the issue.  I am just saying that my brain has become overworked trying to figure this out.
 
The grade book, and all its settings, is complex yet much more flexible than other LMSs.  And I do see at least one more person, Blair, asking for features that might parallel your ideas.  Blair describes some issues about "hiding" and "excluding" grades.
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -
Hi Rick,

Thanks for the discussion-- it's always valuable to delve into these complex settings together. It seems that we have different configurations and experiences with the Moodle gradebook, which is not uncommon given its flexibility.

I've reuploaded a screenshot from Moodle's own documentation that explicitly states that the Grader Report and User Report WILL, under default situations, like mine, show different grades if hidden items are excluded. This directly supports the need for a feature that allows consistent handling of hidden items across all reports (see image below).
 
settings
 
 
As I've already pointed out before, the only way Grader and User Report grades would ever match is if you tick the "Exclude empty grades" box in a particular category, which is what you probably did. For obvious reasons, this does not work for me or for other people with this problem. 

I don't think Blair's situation is the same as mine, but here is a screenshot of a forum post from 2021 where another user asked the same question regarding hidden items affecting grade calculations. There are others too that I've run across in the past 5 years-- yes, I've been looking into this for a while. It seems this is an ongoing issue that has affected multiple users across different versions of Moodle. (see screenshot below)
sameproblem

These references make it clear that this isn't just about individual settings but possibly a broader functionality that could be enhanced in Moodle. I encourage more community members to share their experiences and insights on this matter, as a collective effort might lead to a robust solution that benefits us all.

Moving forward, I'll be implementing a workaround by creating a new user role that adjusts the "viewhidden" permissions, but I hope we can continue this conversation to find a more integrated solution, as this workaround is still cumbersome and requires administrative rights. 
In reply to Edward F.

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Rick Jerz -
Imaxe de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imaxe de Testers
Yes, I saw that "underline" description above, but it is not totally correct. You can have hidden/unhidden items, and you can have excluded/included grades, and even empty/non-empty grades, and some interaction between these appear to make exceptions to that underlined description. Perhaps that simple description might become very long if the exceptions were listed.

Yes, in my grade book setup, I always "exclude empty grades."

Where we might be ending up is for you to create a Tracker request for what you seek.
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -

Thank you for pointing out the complexities involved with the interactions between hidden/unhidden items, and excluded/included grades. I've gone ahead and created a tracker request to address these issues more systematically. This was my first time using the tracker request system; I wish I had known about it earlier!

In the meantime, I've developed a workaround that might help simplify the grade viewing process, even for those without administrator access. You can suggest this to your administrator if you yourself don't have administrative rights:

Create a "Grader View" Role: This role is based on the "Non-editing teacher" but set to prevent viewing hidden grades. This allows anyone in this role to see the grader report exactly as students would, without the hidden items affecting the total.

Allow Role Switching: Ensure that teachers can switch to the "Grader View" role from their normal teaching role. This switch can be easily done from the user menu and doesn't require role assignment at the course level.

As for exporting the grader report with accurate course totals, a quick workaround I found effective is to simply use 'Control + A' (Cmd + A on Mac) to select all content on the grader report screen, and then paste it as plain text into an Excel sheet. This method has been working well for me since the normal report export feature messes up the course totals.

I hope these steps help alleviate some of the issues many of us have been experiencing until a more permanent fix can be implemented through the tracker system. Below is a more detailed walk through, for those of you with administrative rights:

Step 1: Create the New Role

  1. Go to Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles.
  2. Click Add a new role.
  3. Use Choose a role to duplicate and select Non-editing teacher.
  4. Name the role (e.g., "Grader View") and provide a short description.
  5. Scroll down to the capability moodle/grade:viewhidden.
  6. Set this capability to Prevent to ensure this role cannot view hidden grades.
  7. Click Create this role at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: Allow Role Switching

  1. Stay in Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles.
  2. Click on the Edit icon next to the Teacher role.
  3. Find the section Allow role switches.
  4. Add the "Grader View" role to the list of roles that teachers can switch to.
  5. Save changes.

Step 3: Switch to the Grader View Role

  1. The teacher logs into Moodle and enters the course.
  2. They can switch roles by accessing the user menu (often top right) and selecting Switch role to... > Grader View.
  3. The Grader Report in this role will exclude hidden items, showing only the grades that students can see.

Step 4: Return to Normal Role

  1. To switch back to the normal teaching role, the teacher should select Return to my normal role from the user menu.

Hope this helps!

In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Dan Rosenthal -
(older thread, but I am jumping in)

Hi Rick:

I see a similar issue, where the User Report and Grader Report do NOT match. The Grader Report will always show hidden items (greyed out and indicated) AND will always calculate the scores of HIDDEN items into course totals.

My research is showing that this is due to one important caveat: The grade item MUST have a score. Otherwise, hidden (and empty) items do not calculate. This is set in the Gradebook Setup, where you can Exclude Empty Grades.

We had a big storm here in Asheville, NC this Fall. We we returned to class, half of my students had completed things before the storm. The other half did not. Rather than deleting those grade items, I hid some of them (extended dates on others). That served the student view perfectly in the User Report. HOWEVER, my Grader Report totals were "incorrect" (as far as I am concerned), because they calculated the HIDDEN items that HAD GRADES. My final grades were incorrect, as I normally take them from the last column of Grader Report or Single View -> Course Grade. As mentioned, I had to move those items to a zero-weighted category to remove them from calculation.

Just like the User Report, we should be able to toggle "Show totals excluding hidden items" in the GRADER REPORT.

dan
In reply to Dan Rosenthal

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -

Hi Dan,

Thank you for jumping into this thread. I completely understand your frustration—this has been a long-standing issue that continues to baffle me as to why Moodle hasn’t addressed it. I also hope things are returning to normal for you and your school community after the storm in Asheville.

As for the issue at hand, I share your sentiment that the inability to toggle "Show totals excluding hidden items" in the Grader Report is a major oversight. It’s particularly frustrating because it creates inconsistencies between the User Report and Grader Report that complicate our workflows unnecessarily.

In the meantime, I’ve been using a workaround that might help simplify things. I listed the solution just above in the thread, which involves creating a new role specifically designed for viewing the Grader Report without hidden items counting toward the total. While it’s far from ideal, it’s helped me bridge the gap until Moodle implements a proper fix.

I’ve also gone ahead and created a tracker request to address this issue more systematically: MDL-81712. If you’re willing, adding a comment or vote to the tracker might help bring more visibility to the issue.

Finally, I’ll be honest: some of the responses in this thread have been less than helpful, especially when they dismiss the issue without fully acknowledging the problem or exploring its nuances. I won't name names, but I can assure you, I’ve felt the same irritation. That said, I believe continuing to collaborate and share solutions like this will eventually push Moodle in the right direction.

I remain optimistic that a more permanent solution will emerge. Thanks for sharing your experience—it’s helpful to know this problem impacts others as well.

Take care,
Edward

In reply to Edward F.

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Rick Jerz -
Imaxe de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imaxe de Testers
I will have to revisit this issue and provide more thoughts. For now, I voted for your tracker item. Thanks for creating it.
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Option to Exclude Hidden Items from Grader Report Grade Calculation

por Edward F. -

Thank you for the upvote, Rick. Wishing you a Happy New Year!