Whole Forum Grading
Enabling Whole Forum Grading
It is possible to allow teachers to grade all contributions in a discussion forum for a particular student or group of students. This includes grading all of the discussion posts as well as replies in other discussion threads within the same forum activity.
Grades received in a discussion forum appear in the grade book and can also be managed using various grade book settings. Forum grading is a useful tool which can significantly facilitate using discussion forums for summative assessment with large number of students.
To enable grading navigate to the “Whole Forum Grading” tab within the Forum activity settings page and select the appropriate grading type and method.
NOTE: There are several grading methods available such as Simple Direct Grading (out of 100 points), Marking Guide and Rubric.
If Marking Guide or Rubric are selected, these need to be either built from scratch or imported from a template in the Advanced Grading page. You will be redirected to the Advanced Grading page after clicking ‘Save and Display’ button in the Forum activity settings page.
Grade Book Management
When the Whole Forum Grading is enabled in the Forum settings the activity immediately appears in the Grade Book as a grade item.
The Forum activity can be hidden from the Grade Book in order to prevent students from seeing the grade. In order to hide the activity navigate to the Grade Book then go to Grade Book Setup page and use the “Edit” button to hide the activity.
In order to hide the Forum activity from the module page, enable module editing and then use the activity “Edit” button to hide the activity.
IMPORTANT: Grades awarded in the Discussion Forum activity become visible in the Grade Book and the activity itself the moment a discussion is graded. Currently, there is no way to delay grade release for the purpose of moderation.
If you need to moderate the grades before release you should hide the activity in both the Grade Book and the module main page before grading and then unhide it after moderation is complete.
Forum Grading Interface Explained
In order to grade forum contribution navigate to the activity and click “Grade Users“
On the left side of the Forum grading interface you will see all discussions posted by a student within the same forum as well as replies to other discussions below. On the right, you can access different grading options.
Use the arrows next to student name to quickly move on to another student.
Use the search option to quickly find a particular student.
When you finish grading don’t forget to Save Changes.