An instructor can issue grades for a Forum post as well as any reply posts by using the Ratings function. Make sure to Set up the Forum Ratings before following the steps below.
Grading a Post
1. Once students have posted to this forum, you will see the Rate... Dropdown menu below each post.
2. Select the desired grade from this Rate... dropdown menu.
![A dropdown menu appears under each post with a list of all possible ratings values to choose](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/2043199562259/original/et3-jzdh4FARyepLCAVhzQu-b7wnKXk_Ag.png?1615235074)
3. Repeat this process for each post.
Grading Posts and Replies Scenario
Forums can use Ratings to issue points for initial posts and for replies.
For example, an instructor creates a forum wherein students must make 1 initial post worth 10 points and 1 reply to another student for 5 points.
The following settings will help make this possible:
- The Aggregation Method should be Sum of Ratings.
- The Maximum Grade should be 15 (which is the sum of 10 and 5).
After students have posted to this forum, the instructor would give a maximum rating of 10 for any student's initial post
Then, the instructor would give each reply a maximum grade of 5.
Moodle will then add up the grades and put the overall score in the gradebook. The score will never be reported higher than 15, so if a student accidentally made too many replies, their grade will not be inflated.
![A rating of 10 points is given for a student's initial post. A rating of 5 points is given to a student's reply post.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/2043199551789/original/W5R3ORd3xqOWDVgG-o65Qv9i_qoiOcwaKg.png?1615232878)
If Students Do Not Participate in Forum
Any student that does not participate in a graded Moodle Forum, will need to receive a grade of zero (0) for the grade book to calculate their overall grade correctly.
Read instructions on inserting zero grades for non-participants in the Gradebook.
Return to the Forum main resource page for more information on other topics.