Grade a Forum

How do I grade a discussion forum?

You have the option to grade students' entries in a discussion forum. This allows you to assign a collective grade to posts made across multiple topics.

Note: You must create an item in the Gradebook before you can associate a Forum or Topic with the item for grading.

  1. In the Forums tool, navigate to the forum you want to grade and select Forums Options.

    Navigate to the desired forum and select Forum Options

  2. From the drop-down menu, select Grade.

    Select Grade from the drop-down menu.

  3. Select a student to grade.

    You will be taken to a table where you can view student activity. The table can be sorted by:

    • Student name
    • Number of posts authored
    • Number of posts read
    • Number of posts unread
    • Percentage of posts read

    The table can also be filtered to only show particular groups.

    To view all the posts authored or read by a student within that forum, click the Details link beside their name.

    To enter a forum grade for a student, click the Grade link in their row.

    Select a student from the table to grade.

  4. Select a gradebook item to associate the forum with.

    From the drop-down menu, select a gradebook item for the forum grade to be sent to.

    Note: If you already associated your forum with a Gradebook item in the Forum Settings, you do not need to complete this step. You will instead be taken directly to the grade entry screen. To learn how to associated your forum with a Gradebook item, see How do I create forums and topics?

    Select a gradebook item to associate the forum with.

  5. Enter grade and add comments.

    After associating the forum with a Gradebook item, you can enter:

    1. The student's grade, marked in point value
    2. Any additional comments or feedback

    Note: The maximum amount of points you can give the student will depend on the point settings of the Gradebook item.

    Enter grade and add comments.

  6. Submit grades.

    After you have entered all of the grades and/or comments, click the Submit Grade button to save your changes and send the grades to the Gradebook .

    Submit grade.

How do I grade a discussion topic?

You also have to option to assigned grades by topic. This allows you to grade on a more post-based basis, rather than assigning a grade for an entire forum.

  1. In the Forums tool, navigate to the topic you want to grade and select Topic Options.

    Navigate to the desired topic and select Topic Options.

  2. From the drop-down menu, select Grade.

    Select Grade from the drop-down menu.

  3. Select a student to grade.

    From here, you can follows step 3 onwards in How do I grade a discussion forum

    Select the studen you wish to grade and follow the instructions from the previous section.

How do I view statistics & grading?

  1. In the Forums tool, select Statistics & Grading.

    Select the Statistics & Grading tab

  2. View Statistics & Grading by user.

    By default, statistics will be listed by user. To view statistics for a specific user, click their name in the Name column.

    Select a student to view their statistics.

  3. View student statistics.

    From here, you can view data for messages authored and read by the student. On this page, you can:

    • View the forum and topic titles of the post
    • The date and time the message was read or posted
    • The subject line for authored messages
    • The full text for authored messages

    To grade a student's posts from this page, select the Grade link for the desired post.

    View the student statistics and grade their work.

  4. Enter grade and add comments.

    If you choose to grade the student's work through the Statistics & Grading page, the process will be the same for steps 4 onwards in How do I grade a discussion forum

    Enter grade and add comments as you would if grading directyly through forums of topics.
    Enter grade and add comments as you would if grading directyly through forums of topics.

  5. View statistics by Topic.

    You can also choose to view statistics by topic by selecting Statistics & Grading by Topic.

    This table can be sorted by:

    • Forum title
    • Topic title
    • Date created
    • Total messages received
    View statistics and grading by topic.
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