Forum LAMS for Tech-Heads - General Forum: Moodle 2 integration update: Gradebook integration


 
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10: Moodle 2 integration update: Gradebook integration
In response to 1 01/26/11 07:42 PM
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OK, so I've been doing a lot of code reading in Moodle2 and I quite like it....

One of the things I've reading on is the Grades, that's the ability to grade an "activity" in Moodle so it can be displayed on the Moodle Gradebook.

So I'm thinking of using the Gradebook API in Moodle to pass marks that you get in LAMS directly to the Moodle Gradebook.

The plan is that in Moodle you will set up a numeric scale (say 0 to 100) and then when you do an activity in LAMS that has a result (say an Assessment) then the mark you get there will be passed to Moodle. If the activity had a max scale of 10, and this is the only activity that gives an output in the lesson, then in Moodle the student will get the full 100 points.

But if the student in the Assessment gets a 6 (out of 10 -max for the assessment activity), when when passed to Moodle, it will show 60 in the Moodle Gradebook.

If the lesson has more than 1 activity that returns an numeric output, then we calculate (in LAMS) what's the maximum combine mark you can get and then pass to module the percentage achieved. So say there are two activities an MCQ and an Assessment. The max mark for the MCQ is 10 and the Assessment is 40.... then if the a student gets an 8 in the MCQ and a 20 on the Assessment, then we'll do (combined student result/max possible mark ie: 28/50=0.56).... pass that to Moodle and add in the Moodle Gradebook 56 (as 100 is the max mark it's been set in the scale in Moodle and 0.56 is the result that the student got in the LAMS activities).

So, how does that sound to you? Would it fly for you?

Thanks,

ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

12: Re: Moodle 2 integration update: Gradebook integration
In response to 10 01/27/11 01:45 PM
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I'd have to take more time too look at Moodle 2, but can't right now. Grading was a quite disaster in Moodle 1.x since one could not define grading criteria for each assments as for example in Blackboard. Well that has nothing to do with your question....

What I however strongly suggest that you indeed take into account various international habits at least in some ways.

France:
Grades go from 0 to 20
16 corresponds to an American A or 100 %
20 is reserved for brilliant students (like the unfamous A+)

Switzerland
Grades go from 0 to 6, sometimes from 1 to 6

US
Grades go from A to F
but some numerical scale go from 50 to 100, since 60 is F

So definitely if Moodle can tell you the upper and lower boundary you should take it and then use the range. An additional suggestion - and I'd wait for user reactions - is the ask the teacher what he wants: E.g. 100 LAMS points = 6 and 0 LAMS points = 2. E.g., in the advanced tools tabs you also could ask the user to define a translation from total score to a grade.

I am a quite confused by grading math, but definitely have the impression that people using non-US grading philosophy always have to struggle quite a lot using the grading tools in LMSs.

Posted by Daniel Schneider

13: Re: Re: Moodle 2 integration update: Gradebook integration
In response to 12 01/30/11 08:36 PM
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Hi Daniel,

My understanding is that the Moodle Gradebook has been improved drastically in the past few releases. I don't really have had a lot of exposure to it in the past but the one I've been using (version 2.0) looks like it allows you to do grades and scales of all sorts.

So if you want, you can use any of the numeric grades (from 0 to any number you like). Then using scales you can map the grade to a specific item on the scale A, B, C, etc... or Good, Bad, Terrible... you choose.

The good news is that this is all handled by Moodle, so all I've got to do is pass the mark from any LAMS activities that give you a numeric output and then Moodle can calculate the grade/scales accordingly.

Just about 10 mins ago I have added this feature to the moodle2 demo site. So now when you create a lesson, this is what you get:




As you can see in the second pic, you can also choose not to add a grade by default. In that case then, the will be no mark added to Moodle gradebook (even if LAMS does have a mark though).

When you finish a lesson, if the gradebook option was set, then you do get a result displayed:

And once you check the Moodle Gradebook, then you'll see:

I have added a lesson there "Super hero Assessment" if you want to give it a try. Once you have completed this activity in LAMS, just refresh the lesson page in Moodle and the output from LAMS will be recorded in Moodle (we'll do this automatically before release -this is just to make sure it works for now).

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

15: Re: Re: Re: Moodle 2 integration update: Gradebook integration
In response to 13 01/31/11 08:51 AM
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Yeah that looks ok to me (better than my skill with caribean capitals and superheroes in any case ....). So it's fine with me... After using this feature for real, I may have other suggestions that you then may or may not integrate with a new LAMS version :)

Btw I get an error when I try to add a scale in Moodle.
http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/grade/edit/scale/index.php?id=2

Probably just a Moodle error. People who don't have the right permission I probably shouldn't even see this link. (Anyhow permissions in Moodle is something that requires at least a day of work to understand ....)

Posted by Daniel Schneider

16: Re: Re: Re: Re: Moodle 2 integration update: Gradebook integration
In response to 15 02/01/11 06:01 AM
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Yes, these capitals test are quite a challenge indeed :-)

I'll check on the scales problem but I also think it might be an issue out of the scope of LAMS.

Thanks and looking forward to your comments.

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

19: Re: Moodle 2 integration update: Gradebook integration
In response to 10 02/14/11 09:36 AM
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Hi fellas,

We have now made the gradebook update automatic. So this means that as soon as you finish the lesson, the LAMS activity results are passed automatically to the Moodle gradebook.

I have created this example if you want to try:

http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/mod/lamslesson/view.php?id=16

(this is with Presidents/Prime ministers rather than capitals, so it should be a lot easier ;-)

Once you have completed the activity as learner, you'll see that the marks are now in Moodle gradebook for the course (http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle2/grade/report/grader/index.php?id=2)

Thanks

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

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