experimental: gb tutoring
What is this all about
The Case for Cases
In the various agonies of thrashing through our journey into the new and improved gradebook it became self-evident that we really needed quite a few tutorials that addressed a number of different ways of looking at gradebook and that to be most effective the tutorials needed to look at the gradebook the way we looked at grades, in a multitude of different ways and formulations.
Part and parcel of looking at things differently we thought it would be handy to perhaps identify sets of GB settings (much as Gary started to do with his first tutorial) so that eventually, someone who wanted to set up a gradebook like such and such would have a suchandsuch guide, while the teacher across the campus, who felt such and such was just so much could set up a grade book so and so....
And, the thought was that when others had an additional cases, having watched as we stumbled through these initial examples, they would empowered to likewise offer their illustrated examples so that the community could document how all this is supposed to work.
Understanding Aggregation Methods
In order to benefit from the case structure we proposed, you first must understand the aggregation methods available in the gradebook. There are a number from which you can choose (these supplied in the moodle gradebook helpfile associated with aggregation methods):
Mean of grades
The sum of all grades divided by the total number of grades. A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10, category max 100: (0.7 + 0.25 + 1.0)/3 = 0.65 --> 65/100
Weighted mean
Each grade item can be given a weight, which is then used in the arithmetic mean aggregation to influence the importance of each item in the overall mean. A1 70/100 weight 10, A2 20/80 weight 5, A3 10/10 weight 3, category max 100: (0.7*10 + 0.25*5 + 1.0*3)/18 = 0.625 --> 62.5/100
Simple weighted mean
The difference from Weighted mean is that weight is calculated as Maximum grade - Minimum grade for each item. 100 point assignment has weight 100, 10 point assignment has weight 10. A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10, category max 100: (0.7*100 + 0.25*80 + 1.0*10)/190 = 0.526 --> 52.6/100
Mean of grades (with extra credits)
Arithmetic mean with a twist. An old, now unsupported aggregation strategy provided here only for backward compatibility with old activities.
Median of grades
The middle grade (or the mean of the two middle grades) when grades are arranged in order of size. The advantage over the mean is that it is not affected by outliers (grades which are uncommonly far from the mean). A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10, category max 100: median(0.7 ; 0.25 ; 1.0) = 0.7 --> 70/100
Smallest grade
The result is the smallest grade after normalisation. It is usually used in combination with Aggregate only non-empty grades. A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10, category max 100: min(0.7 ; 0.25 ; 1.0) = 0.25 --> 25/100
Highest grade
The result is the highest grade after normalisation. A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10, category max 100: max(0.7 ; 0.25 ; 1.0) = 1.0 --> 100/100
Mode of grades
The mode is the grade that occurs the most frequently. It is more often used for non-numerical grades. The advantage over the mean is that it is not affected by outliers (grades which are uncommonly far from the mean). However it loses its meaning once there is more than one most frequently occurring grade (only one is kept), or when all the grades are different from each other. A1 70/100, A2 35/50, A3 20/80, A4 10/10, A5 7/10 category max 100: mode(0.7 ; 0.7 ; 0.25 ; 1.0 ; 0.7) = 0.7 --> 70/100
Sum of grades
The sum of all grade values. Scale grades are ignored. This is the only type that does not convert the grades to percentages internally (normalisation). The Maximum grade of associated category item is calculated automatically as a sum of maximums from all aggregated items. A1 70/100, A2 20/80, A3 10/10: 70 + 20 + 10 = 100/190
Naturally, some of these aggregation methods will be more common than others. We will begin with the aggregation methods that we use ourselves, and hope that the community can come in and expand upon the rest in time.
Case Divisions
Mean of grades
Weighted mean
Case 1 - New Course (Weighted Mean of Grades) Using "Weighted Mean of Grades" to weight categories containing assignments
Simple weighted mean
Mean of grades (with extra credits)
Median of grades
Smallest grade
Highest grade
Mode of grades
Sum of grades
Case 1 - Brand new course, no existing assignments or categories. Sum of points grading with a single category
Case 2 - This case begins with a course containing assignments, but no categories. It will illustrate the creation of categories, putting assignments in categories, and setting up the grade calculation to produce the total number of points earned for the course. We will also take a look at setting up an uncategorized section to allow for assignments that should not be included in the final point total.