Simplifying the gradebook by changing permissions
The gradebook in Moodle 1.9 onwards may be simplified for teachers and non-editing teachers by changing permissions at the system, course category or course level. The following suggested changes can be applied to any Moodle 1.9 site.
Basic method
To change permissions at the system level:
- Login as an administrator.
- Access Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles
- Edit the role(s) of teacher and/or non-editing teacher and change chosen capabilities from Allow to Not set.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Save changes" button.
To change permissions at the course category or course level:
- Login as an administrator.
- Follow the "Assign roles" link at the top right of the course category page or the link in the course administration block.
- Click the "Override permissions" tab.
- Select the role(s) of teacher and/or non-editing teacher and change chosen capabilities from Inherit to Prevent.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Save changes" button.
Removing the overview report link
The overview report lists all the courses a student is enrolled in with the total grade for each course, and teachers obtain the message "There are no courses yet".
To remove the overview report link, change the capability gradereport/overview:view.
Note: For new Moodle 1.9.5 installs the view overview report capability is not set for the default teacher and non-editing teacher roles.
Reducing the number of grade export types
By default, teachers can export grades to Excel spreadsheet (xls), OpenDocument spreadsheet (ods), plain text file (txt) or XML file (xml).
To remove grade export types which teachers aren't likely to use, change any of the following capabilities: gradeexport/xls:view, gradeexport/ods:view, gradeexport/txt:view, gradeexport/xml:view.
To remove the option to export grades completely, change the capability moodle/grade:export.
Reducing the number of grade import types
By default, teachers can import grades as a CSV or XML file.
To remove grade import types which teachers aren't likely to use, change either of the following capabilities: gradeimport/csv:view, gradeimport/xml:view.
To remove the option to import grades completely, change the capability moodle/grade:import.
Forcing grade letter site-level defaults
To remove the ability for teachers to edit grade letters in their courses, change the capability moodle/grade:manageletters.
Forcing standard scales
To remove the ability for teachers to create, edit and delete custom scales, change the capability moodle/course:managescales.
Removing the option to edit grades directly in the gradebook
To remove the grader report turn editing on/off button, change the capability moodle/grade:edit. This will result in teachers not being able to edit grades directly or to hide or lock individual grades (though they will still be able to hide or lock Grade items via the edit categories and items page). This change makes the grader report similar to the Moodle 1.8 gradebook.
