Record Grades in Moodle

On This Page:

  1. Grade from within a Moodle Activity
  2. Manually Edit Grades in the Gradebook
  3. Export a Spreadsheet from the Gradebook
  4. Import a Spreadsheet of Grades

Moodle provides several ways for instructors to record grades in the gradebook. When grading from within a Moodle activity, grades will automatically appear in a corresponding column (grade item) in the gradebook. Additionally, instructors can manually enter and override grades in the gradebook, view and edit the grades for a single student, view and edit the grades of all students for a single grade item, or upload grades recorded in a spreadsheet.

This page describes the major functions involved with entering grades in the gradebook, and provides links to specific, step-by-step instructions. For an overview of how to set up your gradebook to calculate grades, see Configure the Gradebook in Moodle.

For help with grading contact the HBI Support Staff

Input Grades

Grade from within a Moodle Activity

When a Moodle activity is graded from within an activity, grades will automatically appear in a corresponding grade item (column) in the Moodle gradebook Grader report. We recommend grading within Moodle activities when possible rather than directly in the gradebook because it will allow you to save as you go and can avoid accidentally losing data when multiple instructors and TAs are grading in the same class.

  • See Grade Assignments in Moodle for an overview of how to record grades from within a graded Moodle activity.
  • It’s possible to grade Assignment activities using customizable rubrics. Rubrics can provide more meaningful feedback for students, ensure standardization in grading, and make grading more efficient. For more, see Grade with Rubrics in Moodle.
  • If you’re concerned about bias in the grading process, you can use blind grading to conceal student identities until grading for a particular assignment is complete. For more, see Blind Grading for Moodle Assignment Submissions.
  • Quizzes can be configured to be graded automatically with certain question types or can be graded when reviewing student responses to essay questions. Once a quiz grade is calculated, the total score will appear in the gradebook. For more, see Administer, Review, and Grade a Moodle Quiz.
  • Forums can be graded by rating each post contributed by students. Ratings are aggregated to provide a single grade item for the forum.  For more, see Grade Forum Contributions in Moodle.

Manually Edit Grades in the Gradebook

Grades can also be overridden and entered directly in the gradebook using one of two methods. This is useful during the semester when individual grades need to be adjusted, if you want to record grades in manually created items, and at the end of the semester for any final adjustments.

Import and Export Grades with a Spreadsheet

Export a Spreadsheet from the Gradebook

If you like to calculate grades using spreadsheet software such as Excel, or want to have a archived copy of grades from you class, you can export a spreadsheet of grades from the gradebook. Grades can be exported as .CSV, .XLSX, and .XML file-types. For more, see Export Gradebook Data from Moodle.

Import a Spreadsheet of Grades

If you have grades recorded in a spreadsheet, you can upload grades to the gradebook and specify where in the gradebook you want the grades to go. In order for Moodle to match data from your spreadsheet to students in your class, you need to have a unique identifier for students (either their 8-digit ID number or UMass email address). If you plan to use this feature often, we suggest exporting a spreadsheet from the gradebook as a way of creating a template for your class.