Before rating (or grading) forum posts, it is helpful to know how the various forum aggregation methods function.

1. Average of ratings: The mean of all post ratings will count as the forum grade.
2. Count of ratings: The number of rated items becomes the final grade. The total cannot exceed the maximum grade for the activity.
3. Maximum rating: The highest post rating will count as the forum grade.
4. Minimum rating: The lowest post rating will count as the forum grade.
5. No ratings: No ratings will be provided and the item will not appear in the grade book.
6. Sum of ratings: All post ratings are added together. The total cannot exceed the maximum grade for the activity.

Rating Forum Posts

1. Identify and click on the forum needing to be graded from the main course page.
2. Click on the name of a discussion. In this example, the name of the discussion is My Answers.

3. You will see a Rate… box under each post. To the left of the box is a reminder of the forum’s aggregation type. Click the rate box and choose a rating to rate or grade a student’s post. Please note that there is no save button—the grade saves automatically.

4. After you choose a rating, the box will look like the one below. The number in blue is the grade for this post. The number in parentheses indicates the number of ratings this post has received.

Troubleshooting

Please check the Ratings… setting if you are unable to rate a post. This can be found by clicking on Edit settings under Forum administration in the Administration block. Only posts made within the specified timeframe can be rated if this is enabled.