Moodle and Web 2.0

One of the most notable changes to the Moodle 2.8 gradebook is a new grade aggregation method called natural weighting. In this article, I will provide a brief overview of natural weighting and share a few examples of how this new feature can be implemented in a Moodle gradebook.

At a basic level, natural weighting is just an updated version of the “Sum of grades” aggregation method. Moodle 2.8 does not include “Sum of grades” as an option, so instructors who simply want to add a group of grades together to produce a sum should use natural weighting instead. However, unlike “Sum of grades,” using natural weighting allows instructors to take advantage of some additional capabilities as well: grade items can be weighted according to their points (the default behavior) or according to any alternate weights that the instructor wishes to use.

Beginning with Moodle classes in the Summer semester 2015, natural weighting is the default aggregation method for gradebook categories, but Moodle’s other aggregation methods (“Simple weighted mean of grades,” etc.) can still be selected for a gradebook category on the category’s settings screen. In many cases, instructors won’t need to change to a different aggregation method, because natural weighting can be configured to produce a sum or a mean, with weights applied or not applied, based on what the instructor needs the gradebook to report.

Floyd Saner (organizer of the Midwest Moots over the past few years) is highlighting the Assignment Module enhancements in Moodle 2.7 and touched on a pretty unknown feature of the Assignment when simple grading is selected for an online text assignment. Did you know that you can do your grading offline (at the beach, at the cabin, on the back of a horse)?

Grading submissions, internet not required.

Read about it here: http://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Assignment_settings#Offline_grading_worksheet