Grading Strategy

An Exercise assignment is quite flexible in the type of grading scheme used. This can be:

1. No grading: In this type of assignment the teacher is not interested in quantitative assessment from the students at all. The students make comments of the pieces of works but do not grade them. The teacher, however, can, if desired, grade the student comments. These "grading grades" form the basis of the students' final grades. If the teacher does not grade the student assessments then the assignment does not have any final grades.
2. Accumulative grading: This is the default type of grading. In this type of assignment the grade of each assessment is made up of a number of "assessment elements". Each element should cover a particular aspect of the assignment. Typically an assignment will have something between 5 to 15 elements for comments and grading, the actual number depending on the size and complexity of the assignment. An exercise assignment with only one element is allowed and has a similar assessment strategy to the standard Moodle Assignment.

Elements have the following three features:

1. The DESCRIPTION of the assessment element. This should clearly state what aspect of the assignment is being assessed. If the assessment is qualitative it is helpful to give details of what is considered excellent, average and poor.

2. The SCALE of the assessment element. There are a number of predefined scales. These range from simple Yes/No scales, through multipoint scales to a full percentage scale. Each element has its own scale which should be chosen to fit the number of possible variations for that element. Note that the scale does NOT determine the element's importance when calculating the overall grade, a two point scale has the same "influence" as a 100 point scale if the respective elements have the same weight...

   If custom scales are set up in the course, these can be used. Note, however, that this type of scale is used as a multi-point scale and that only the first and last items of the scale are shown. For example, if the custom scale "Very Wet, Wet, Damp, Dry" is created in the course, this can be used and it will be shown as a four point scale labeled "Very Wet" at one end of the scale and "Dry" at the other.

3. The WEIGHT of the assessment element. By default the elements are given the same importance when calculating the overall grade of the assignment. This can be changed by giving the more importance elements a weight greater than one, and the less important elements a weight below one. Changing the weights does NOT effect the maximum grade, that value is fixed by the Maximum Grade parameter of the peer assignment. Weights can be assigned negative values, this is an experimental feature.


3. Error Banded Grading: In this type of assignment the submissions are graded on a set of Yes/No scales. The grade is determined by the "Grade Table " which gives the relationship between the number of "errors" and the suggested grade. For example an assignment may have six significant items which should be present, the Grade Table will give suggested grades if all are present, one is absent, if two are absent, etc. The individual items can, if desired, be given weighting factors if some items are more important than others. The number of "errors" is a weighted sum of the items not present. By default each item is given a weight of one. The grading table is likely to be non-linear, for example the suggested grades may be 90%, 70%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 20%, 10%, 0%, 0%, 0% for an assignment with 10 items.The assessor can adjust the suggested grade by up to 20% either way to give the submission's final grade.
4. Criterion Grading: This is the simplest type of assessment to grade (although not necessarily the most straightforward to set up). The submissions are graded against a set of criteria statements. The assessor chooses which statement best fits the piece of work. The grade is determined by a "Criteria Table" which gives the suggested grade for each criterion. For example an assignment may be set up with, say, five criteria statements and the assessors must then choose one of the five statements for each of their assessments. As with the Banded assignment the assessor can adjust the suggested grade by up to 20% to give the final grade.
5. Rubric This is a similar to Criterion Grading except there are multiple sets of criteria. Each set covering a particular "Category", can have up to five statements. The sets are given individual weights and the grade is a weighted combination of the scores from each set. There is no adjustment option in this assessment type.