Forums provide two ways to push a grade to the gradebook: ratings and whole forum grading. Prior to Fall 2020, ratings were the only available option.

Note: This guide specifically covers grading within forums. To find more information about how to create a forum, please see the guide to adding a discussion forum.

Note: While it is possible to use both whole forum grading and ratings at the same time, it is highly recommended to choose one or the other as each will create a separate grade item in the gradebook for the same forum. When in doubt, use whole forum grading.

Table of contents

• Whole forum grading
  • Set up with points
  • Set up with rubric
  • Entering a grade
• Ratings
  • Set up ratings
  • Enter a rating

Whole forum grading

Whole forum grading brings iLearn's assignment grading interface into forums. Instructors can set up grading via points, non-numeric scales, and rubrics. The following instructions assume you have created a forum already.

To set up whole forum grading with points

1. Select the forum link on the course page where you want to enable whole forum grading
2. From the gear wheel menu, select Edit settings
3. Under Whole forum grading set Point under Type
4. Set the number of points possible in Maximum grade
5. Select Save and display to save your changes

To set up whole forum grading with a scale

1. Select the forum link on the course page where you want to enable whole forum grading
2. From the gear wheel menu, select Edit settings
3. Under Whole forum grading set Scale under Type
4. From the Scale drop down menu, select the scale you want to use for this forum
   
5. Select Save and display at the bottom of the page

To set up whole forum grading with a rubric

1. Select the forum link on the course page where you want to enable whole forum grading
2. From the gear wheel menu, select Edit settings
3. Under Whole forum grading set Point under Type
4. Set the number of points possible in Maximum grade
5. Under Grading method select Rubric
6. Select Save and display
7. Select Define a new grading form from scratch
8. Create your rubric
   

   Note: For more information on creating rubrics, check out the guide to creating a rubric.

9. Select Save rubric and make it ready

To enter a grade with whole forum grading enabled

1. Navigate to the forum you wish to grade and select it
2. Select the Grade users button
   
3. The grading interface will show the student post on the left and the grading interface on the right. Enter the grade in the Grade field and select Save.
   

Ratings

Ratings were originally designed to be a quick way of providing a rating to a forum post and push that rating into the gradebook to keep a record. Ratings were never really intended to be a grade, but due to the lack of alternatives was the only way to push a grade into the gradebook from a forum directly. This feature is most effectively used when providing quick feedback to a student as to the quality of their post, and is best used with non-numeric and custom scales.

Aggregate types

Ratings use their own internal math to combine together all of the ratings a student receives in the forum to be reported out to the gradebook as a single grade.

• Average of ratings
  • Takes all of the ratings in a course and averages them into a single grade
• Count of ratings
  • How many times a student has been rated. Note that this is simply a count of the number of ratings. The rating selected has no impact on the grade, only the number of ratings received
• Maximum rating
  • The highest rating a student received on any post in the forum
• Minimum rating
  • The lowest rating a student received on any post in the forum
• Sum of ratings
  • The sum total of all of the ratings received in a forum

Note: Not all rating types make sense when used with scales! Sum of ratings, in particular, will yield strange results when used with scales as scales have no numerical value.

To set up ratings

1. Select the forum link on the course page where you want to enable ratings
2. Under Ratings select how you want ratings to be calculated from the Aggregate type menu
   
   
3. Form the Type menu, select whether you want to use Scales or Point
4. If using points, enter the maximum point value for each rating in the Maximum grade field. If using scales, choose the scale instead.
   
5. Select Save and display

To enter a rating

1. Navigate to the forum where you want to enter a rating
2. Select a student's post
3. From the Rate drop down menu select the rating you wish to give
   

For additional assistance, contact Academic Technology: (415) 405-5555, at@sfsu.edu, LIB 80