LearnDash Gradebook

With the starting settings, an unfinished lesson does not lower the grade

One student finishes a lesson and leaves the rest unopened. Her lessons grade shows 100%. Another completes almost the whole course, fails a quiz and ends up lower. Anyone reading the report card sees the opposite of what happened.

A final grade measures what your rules decide to count, and those rules are worth writing down before the first report card. With Gradebook for LearnDash, lessons and topics count by default only on completion, and then they are worth 100%. What is pending does not subtract. It is a reasonable option for following progress, and it can give a misleading picture if the grade has consequences.

Gradebook is the LearnDash add-on that brings quizzes, assignments, lessons, topics and manual grades into a grade book with a report card for each student.

Components, weights and each student's grades

• Gradebooks by course: each one covers one or several courses, or all of them.
• Named components: group quizzes, assignments, lessons and topics. The All toggle includes current and future items.
• Optional weighting: off by default. Once on, component weights must total 100%.
• Letters or percentages: shows letters by default, and you can edit the scale and its colors, though not the order of the letters.
• Manual grades: for what LearnDash does not grade on its own, such as participation or projects.
• Report card: shows the overall grade, the grade per component and, when expanded, each score.

Three settings that change who passes

These decisions matter more than the report card design:

• Only count on completion: the default. Lessons and topics count only on completion, at 100%.
• Fail until completion: each uncompleted lesson or topic counts as 0% until the student marks it complete.
• Mark as Incomplete until completion: quizzes and assignments show as incomplete until finished. That status appears on the report card, though it does not alter the grade.

If you allow quiz retakes, you must also choose whether the most recent grade or the best one counts. And assignments are worth 100% unless you modify them. Test your combination with a fictional student before publishing grades.

Who sees the grades and what to watch when editing them

By default, administrators and group leaders can view the gradebook, and only administrators can create and edit it. You can grant those permissions to other roles in the settings.

For people who should not enter the WordPress dashboard, there are three shortcodes:

• [ld_report_card gradebook="1"] shows a gradebook's report card. Without an ID, it shows all gradebooks relevant to that user.
• [ld_overall_grade] shows only the overall grade and requires a gradebook ID.
• [ld_gradebook] offers most of the dashboard gradebook on any page.

Manual grades apply as soon as you save them, and removing them cannot be undone. A manual grade marked as Incomplete stays out of the final calculation. On quizzes and assignments you can set a status, but you do not change the score from here.

Correcting is not among its features: Gradebook gathers and calculates grades, while content and assessments stay in LearnDash.

Creating the gradebook and checking it with a fictional student

You need LearnDash installed. To email a manual grade notice, add the notifications add-on.

1. Go to LearnDash LMS, Gradebook, Manage Gradebooks, and click Add New.
2. Enter a title and choose the courses.
3. Add components and decide what each one grades.
4. Choose weighting, completion rules and scale.
5. Create the report card with the shortcode and review it with a test account.

Add-ons that cover other questions

LearnDash ProPanel answers a different question: how the course is doing overall, with completion, quiz and activity reports. LearnDash Notifications sends the manual grade notice to your students. LearnDash is the base plugin this add-on runs on.

Grades, scales and report cards: short answers

Can I give exams more weight than lessons?

Yes. Turn on Enable Gradebook Weighting and assign each component a percentage. The total must reach 100%.

Can each student see their report card?

Yes, if you place the [ld_report_card] shortcode on a page or post.

What counts if they retake a quiz?

You decide: the most recent grade or the best one.

Does it replace my course reports?

It covers grades per student. To analyze the course overall, ProPanel handles those reports.