Grade categories are great for grouping activities together, calculating subtotals, making special calculations such as weights and ability to drop the lowest score in the category. 

Step 1: From the course main page, click on Grades at the top. 

Step 2: Using your mouse, click on Grader report (2a) then select Gradebook setup (2b) from the drop down

Step 3: Click on Add category at the top of the page. 

Step 4: Grade Category : Enter the Category name such as Homework, Quizzes, Tests….

• Aggregation - determines how the grades will be combined
  • Natural - the sum of all grades / straight points (default)
  • Weighted mean - each grade item can be given a weight to change the importance of the overall mean. 
  • Simple weighted - The difference between Weighted mean is that the wight of each item has its Maximum grade. 
  • Highest grade - result in the highest grade after normalization. 
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  • Exclude empty grades - if there is not a score for the activity entered, the activity is excluded from the overall score. 
  • Drop the lowest - enables a specific number of grades to be excluded from the overall score. 

Step 5: Default Natural aggregation,  will not allow any changes to the Maximum grade, the aggregation is set to add everything up. 

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  • Item info - Enter information about the grade item that is not displayed anywhere else.
  • ID number - Setting ID Numbers for extra grade calculations and custom reporting.
  • Grade to pass - Will change the color of the grade, red=fail  Green=pass .
  • Grade display type -determines how the grade will be displayed on grader report (real, letter, percentage or any combination of them together.
  • Overall decimal places - determines how many decimal places after the zero.
    • Moodle will continue to use the 5th decimal place when figuring grades despite your setting. 
  • Hidden until - Will hide the grade item until that date and time.
  • Lock after -   lock after will not allow you to grade after the date.
• Grade type - None= no grade, Value = Numerical value with a min/max, Scale = Not used, Text= feedback only
• Maximum Grade - The most a student could get on this grade item. 
• Minimum Grade - typically set to zero, its the lowest score a student could get, even if they do not do the activity. 
• Hidden - will hide the grade item from the student
• Lock - Will not allow you to enter a grade for anyone

Step 6:  Parent Category - ability to have categories inside other categories. 

• Weight adjusted - will allow you to set the weight and prevent the weight from automatically being adjusted.
  • Weight - a value used to determine the relative value of multiple grade items in a category or course 
• Parent category - Decide what category this category will live under - you do have the ability to have a category inside another category
• Save Changes - when finished