3.1.5 Using ratings in forums

Forum ratings allow users to evaluate posts in a forum, which use Scales to standardize the reporting of performance. A forum rating can be included as part of a student's grade. The ratings must be allowed and the potential rater must have role permission. The list of roles may be amended via the permissions link in the administration block. The Teacher role, by default, has this ability and is also able to give permission to a Student role in a specific forum to be able to assign a rating to a post.

An Aggregate type can be chosen which defines how all the ratings given to posts in a forum are combined to form the final grade in the Gradebook for each post and for the whole forum activity. 

Available aggregation methods available are explained below:

• Average of ratings - The mean of all the ratings given to posts in that forum. This is especially useful with peer grading when there are a lot of ratings being made.
• Count of ratings - The number of rated posts becomes the final grade. This is useful when the number of posts is important. Note that the total can not exceed the maximum grade allowed for the forum.
• Maximum - The highest rating is returned as the final grade. This method is useful for emphasizing the best work from participants, allowing them to post one high-quality post as well as a number of more casual responses to others. 
• Minimum - The smallest rating is returned as the final grade. This method promotes a culture of high quality for all posts.
• Sum - All the ratings for a particular user are added together. Note that the total is not allowed to exceed the maximum grade for the forum.

The teacher can allow only posts within a certain date range to be rated. This is useful if the teacher wants to keep students focused on the most recent content and maintain a specific pace within the forum or course.