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



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.



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.