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How do I create a custom scale in Moodle?

Note: It is not possible to attach a custom scale to your assignment, once you have already started marking and grades have been allocated to students.

Example: In the example below, we will be creating a custom Fail/Pass scale, which can be used to mark student work in a Moodle or Turnitin assignment.

Moodle provides a set of standard scales which can be used for evaluating students performance or marking student work. When these don’t fit in your marking workflow, you can create custom marking scales for your courses.

Step 1: Create a custom scale

To create the scale within Gradebook:

  1. From the left side Navigation Drawer, click Grades.
  2. From the Grader report dropdown menu click on View under Scales.
  3. Click Add a new scale from the bottom of the page.
  4. In the Name field type a name for your scale. For example, Fail/Pass.
  5. In the Scale field type Fail, Pass.
  6. Click Save changes.

Video shows Step 1 in action.

Important: When you use qualitative custom scales then the most negative feedback should come first as it corresponds to the lowest numeric grade, e.g. Fail = 0, Pass = 1 etc.

Step 2: Attach a custom scale to an assignment

When you create an assignment that uses a Pass/Fail scale, you will also need to specify which scale will be used in the settings of the assignment. For Turnitin:

  1. Edit the assignment settings.
  2. Scroll down and expand the Grade section.
  3. Change the Type to Scale.
  4. Change the Scale to Fail/Pass.
  5. Enter 1 in the Grade to pass field.
  6. Under Assignment Part 1, enter 1 in the Max Marks field.
  7. Click Save and display.

Video shows Step 2 in action.
Updated on June 9, 2022

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