How to ensure that empty grades are 0

There are two main ways to make sure that empty grades in the Moodle gradebook get counted as 0's.

Addressing this issue is important, as otherwise a student whose homework grades are {100, -, -, -, -} would potentially have a 100% homework average, instead of 20%.

Method 1: At the Category level

  1. Click Grades at the top of Moodle, then in the top-left menu, select Gradebook setup:
  2. Assuming you have grades stored in Categories (highly recommended), click the Edit option to the right of your category name, then Edit Settings:
  3. Under Aggregation, click Show more. [I use Weighted mean of grades for my category totals, but other Agreggations are possible, read about them here: Grade Aggregation.]
  4. Uncheck the box "Exclude empty grades" and Save. For example, in a weighted mean of grades, empty grades now count as 0's. (This is also where you can drop, say, the lowest homework.)

Method 2: Bulk enter 0's for empty work for an individual grade item

  1. Click Grades at the top of Moodle, then in the top-left menu, select Single view:
  2. To the right of VIEW BY, click Grade items.
  3. Select your grade item, you can type in some of the name to narrow it down:
  4. If Edit mode is not already on, toggle it on in the very top right of your page.
  5. Under Actions, click Bulk insert grades.
  6. Click that you understand, and then for Empty grades, insert a 0 and save!