The gradebook

The gradebook is every student’s results on one course, in one grid: a row per student, a column per question.

Opening it

On the course page, Manage → Gradebook. Like the register, it loads its contents when you open it rather than with the page.

If there is no Gradebook link, the course has it switched off — that is a setting in the course’s Features, and turning it off hides the screen without stopping anybody’s work from being recorded.

Who appears

Students. Instructors, assistants and contributors do not, because they are not taking the course — if you have been clicking through it yourself, you will not find your own row, and that is correct rather than a fault.

What the numbers mean

Each cell is that student’s score on that question. The totals count every question in the course, so somebody who has answered nine of eleven sees nine of eleven rather than a figure that quietly leaves out the ones they have not reached.

On a course that releases modules over time, the total still counts the whole course. A learner who has done everything available is shown as up to date rather than as finished, and the number climbs as more opens.

Finding the work that needs you

Written answers need a person, and those are the cells to look for — they show as waiting rather than as a score. Marking a written answer covers the marking itself.

You can also take one question and walk through every student’s answer to it in turn, which is usually faster than opening twenty students one at a time. Choose the question’s heading and page through from there — it works for every question type, not only written ones.

Reading answers that are not words

An ordering or matching answer is stored as positions, and the gradebook renders it as the actual items in the actual order the student chose. You should never see a row of raw numbers; if you do, tell us, because that is a bug and not a feature.

Changing a mark

Any mark can be overridden, including one Grapevine awarded automatically. See Overriding a mark — it is the right tool for a blank somebody answered correctly in different words.