Grade category settings
Location: Administration > Grades > Grade Category Settings
Grade category settings enable administrators to choose which options appear for teachers when adding/editing a grade category in their course gradebook, and their default values. Settings are applied site-wide.
Forcing settings
Force checkboxes are for forcing certain items to apply. This results in switches and drop-down elements being disabled in all course gradebooks. For example, if the Aggregation Type setting is forced as "Mean", teachers will no longer have the option to change the aggregation type of each grade category separately, the option will not be there in the category edit form.
Selecting "Do not force" after a forced setting has been applied will simply restore each category's setting to its previous state, prior to the application of the forced global setting. Administrators can thus experiment with these settings without fear of losing any specific category settings.
Advanced settings
Advanced checkboxes are for selecting items which are only displayed when a teacher clicks the "Show advanced" button in the category edit form.
Available aggregation types
In Moodle 1.9.5 onwards, administrators may reduce the number of aggregation types available for teachers to use.
By default, all existing aggregation types are available (Mean of grades, Weighted mean of grades, Simple weighted mean of grades, Mean of grades (with extra credits), Median of grades, Lowest grade, Highest grade, Mode of grades, Sum of grades). This list may be reduced to only a few types, with additional types being enabled as/when teachers request them.
Note that reducing the number of aggregation types simply results in disabled aggregation types not appearing in the aggregation type dropdown menu. All existing grade category calculations remain the same, regardless of whether the aggregation type is later disabled by an administrator.
