How do I enable whole forum grading?

This refers to Moodle 3.8 from September 2020 onward

On a forum within Moodle, you are able to grade each student’s contributions to the forum discussion.

Setting up a new forum with whole forum grading

To add a new forum with forum grading you will need to:

1. Go to your Moodle page and click on the ‘Turn editing on’ button in the top right 
2. Click on the + Add an activity or resource in the section you want to add your forum
3. Select ‘Forum’ from the window and then click ‘Add’
4. Fill in the information such as “Forum name” and “Description” on your forum as you would normally. Full details on this can be found on How to add a forum
5. Click on Whole forum grading to expand the section
6. In the "Type" drop down menu choose how you want to grade your forum, you have the option to choose from 'Point' or 'Scale'.

If you choose 'Point', you are able to give the forum contributions a grade based on points. When you select Point, the Section will expand and give you more options to choose from. Please see below screenshot.

On the other hand, if you choose 'Scale' in the dropdown, you can choose from a grading scale which has been set up on Moodle for instance you might want a simple Pass / Fail grade or an A – F grading scale. Full details on setting up non-numeric grading can be found on How to create a non-numeric grading scale

7. You will need to then adjust the other settings. This will be slightly different depending on whether you selected Point or Scale. If you selected 'Point', the settings will be:

• • "Maximum points": Highest mark available
  • "Grading method": The options are ‘Simple direct grading’, ‘Marking guide’ or ‘Rubric’
  • "Grade category": This is what category the forum grading will appear in the Gradebook
  • "Grade to pass"
  • "Default setting for “Notify students”": This is to set the default value for the “Notify students” checkbox on the grading form

However, if you chose 'Scale', the settings will mostly be the same. However instead of the "Maximum points" options, there is a "Scale" dropdown where you select the scale you want to use.

8. Once you have entered all the settings, click on ‘Save and return to module’ at the bottom of the page.

9. When on your main Moodle page, click on the ‘Turn editing off’ button in the top right

Add whole forum grading to an existing forum

If you have already created your forum and want to add whole forum grading to it, you will need to:

1. On your Moodle page, click on the forum you want to add whole forum grading to
2. Click on the 'Cogwheel' icon and select ‘Edit settings’

3. Scroll down and click on Whole forum grading to expand the settings

4. Select if you want to grade the forum by 'Point' or 'Scale'

5. Once you have selected either 'Point' or 'Scale', more settings will appear which you will need to adjust. Full details are available in Step 7 above

6. Once you have finished, click on ‘Save and display’ to return to your forum

Note: If you decide to use either rubrics or a marking guide for marking, there will additional step in the process to add either the rubric or marking guide. You find details here on how to set up rubrics in Moodle forums and marking guides in Moodle forum

Similar tutorials

• How to add a forum 
• How to grade forums using whole forum gradings
• Using rubrics when grading Moodle forums
• Using marking guide when grading Moodle forums
• How do I set up areas for student collaboration in Moodle? 
• How to use a Forum for blogs or learning journals