Setup

There are four key steps to setting up your gradebook in Moodle.

Make sure your aggregation method is set to 'Natural'.
Add all of the categories that you need in alignment with your syllabus.
Add all of the assignments and manual grade items to their appropriate categories (see #2).
Adjust the weights of each of the categories and individual grade items to total 100%.

1. Make sure your aggregation method is set to 'Natural'

Click the Actions menu (gear in the top, right corner) and choose 'Gradebook setup'.

In the top row of the gradebook setup screen under 'Actions', select 'Edit', then 'Edit Settings'.

Change the Aggregation method to 'Natural'.

Moodle has deprecated the use of other aggregation methods such as 'Weighted mean of grades'. The method we will describe here will allow you to weight your Moodle gradebook in alignment with your course syllabus.

If you have categories already in your course, you may need to set them to 'Natural' as well.

2. Create Your Categories

At the bottom of your Gradebook Setup page, select Add Category.

Enter a name for the category, such as 'Assignments', or 'Quizzes' or choose a category appropriate for your needs.

Do not create categories for single items in your course such as a final exam or participation grade.

Click "Show More" for more options such as excluding empty grades, and dropping the lowest grade.
You will not be able to adjust anything in the 'Category total' section.

Click Save Changes

Be sure to repeat these steps if you need to create more categories in alignment with your syllabus.

3a. Add all of your Assignments.

Creating an 'Assignment' in Moodle does several things:

it allows you to communicate the details of each assignment to students, including due dates and the value of the assignment;
it provides a 'dropbox' for students to submit their work to you;
it provides a grading workflow for you;
it creates a column in your gradebook

Please see the article 'Creating an Assignment Dropbox' for instructions.

In the image below, you can see that we've added an 'Assignments' category plus three assignment dropboxes in the course.

The assignment weights currently add up to 100%. Do not adjust the weights just yet!

3b. Add all of your manual grade items.

A manual grade item is an assessment that students do not submit through Moodle. It may be an exam grade, or participation, or maybe an in-class presentation.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click 'Add Grade Item'.

Give the item a name,
adjust the Maximum grade as necessary,
add the item to the proper category,
click 'Save changes'.

Now, I have added another category for midterm exams with two midterms, and a Final Exam. Again, notice the weights are not correct, but Moodle has adjusted them to total 100.

4. Adjust 'Category' weights.

Select the checkboxes for each of the categories and individual manual grade items that constitute your final grade. In the example below, I have chosen the 'Assignments', and 'Mid-term Exams' categories along with the 'Final Exam'.

Set the weights to exactly match your syllabus and total 100.

Moodle will always adjust these weights to total 100.

Adjust grade items within each category.

In the example above, the three assignments are weighted within the category according to their 'Max Grade'. To change that, select the checkboxes beside each of them and change their individual weights to total 100.

In the example below, I have weighted each of the assignments '1'. This will ensure that an odd number of assignments are weighted evenly.

The Max grade must be altered in the grade item's settings on the course page. Max grades cannot be altered in Gradebook or grade item Setup

If you add graded items to your gradebook after you have set it up, you will need to adjust the weights again.

Other options on this page.

You may also move grade items using the drop down menu in the picture below.

Select the check boxes in the righthand column of each item, scroll down and use the dropdown to move items to a different category.