Grading in LifterLMS

In LifterLMS, quizzes and assignments can contribute to a student’s lesson and course grades. To use assignments, you need the LifterLMS Assignments add-on. You attach quizzes and assignments directly to lessons, where they can be used to assess student work and control progression through the course.

LifterLMS calculates grades from the scores students earn on quizzes and assignments. By default, graded items use equal weighting at their respective level. You can change Lesson Weight, Quiz Weight, Assignment Weight, and question Points to make specific items contribute more or less to the resulting grade.

This guide explains how grading settings work and how LifterLMS calculates scores. If you want to learn how to review and grade individual student submissions, read our guides on grading quizzes and reviewing assignments.

LifterLMS uses point values to calculate percentage grades. Enter a positive whole number for an item that should contribute to grading, or set its value to 0 to exclude it from the calculation.

The course builder uses points instead of strict percentages to make grade setups much simpler. When you use percentages, changing one item forces you to recalculate every other item so that the total always equals 100%. Using points allows you to change individual values without rebalancing the entire course.

For example, imagine a quiz with eight questions where each question is worth 1 point. In this setup, each question represents 12.5% of the quiz grade. If you want the final question to carry more weight, you simply increase its point value. You do not need to adjust the point values of the other seven questions.

To adjust grading weights, open the Course Builder and follow these steps:

• Open the Course Builder in your WordPress dashboard.
• Locate the lesson you want to configure and click Settings to open the lesson settings sidebar.
• Open the Lesson, Assignment, or Quiz tab, depending on the item whose weighting you want to change.
• Enter your preferred value in the relevant Lesson Weight, Assignment Weight, Quiz Weight, or question Points field.

The weighting controls work at different levels. Lesson Weight determines how much a lesson contributes to the overall course grade. Quiz Weight and Assignment Weight determine how much each activity contributes to its lesson grade. Individual question Points determine how much each question contributes to the quiz grade.

Lesson weight determines how much a single lesson impacts the overall course grade relative to other lessons. By default, LifterLMS sets every lesson weight to 1 point. A lesson with a higher point weight carries more influence on the student’s final grade.

For example, if you offer a course with four standard lessons and one final exam lesson, you might want the final exam to account for half of the total course grade. You do this by giving the final lesson a higher weight. With a total weight of 8 points, configure the lesson weights as follows:

• Set Lesson 1 to 1 point (12.5% of the total grade).
• Set Lesson 2 to 1 point (12.5% of the total grade).
• Set Lesson 3 to 1 point (12.5% of the total grade).
• Set Lesson 4 to 1 point (12.5% of the total grade).
• Set Lesson 5 (Final Exam) to 4 points (50% of the total grade).

If a lesson does not contain a quiz or an assignment, LifterLMS assigns it 0 points and excludes it from all grade calculations automatically.

You can configure the weight of a lesson within the lesson settings in the Course Builder. Once the lesson Weight is entered into the text field, the percentage value is automatically calculated and displayed in a tooltip.

When you include both a quiz and an assignment in a single lesson, you can control how much each item contributes to that specific lesson’s grade.

By default, LifterLMS sets both the quiz and assignment weights to 1 point. This default setting makes the quiz and the assignment each worth 50% of the overall lesson grade.

To adjust these settings, follow these steps:

• To adjust the quiz weight, navigate to the Quiz tab and edit the “Quiz Weight” field.
• To adjust the assignment weight, navigate to the Assignment tab and edit the “Assignment Weight” field.

You can also assign different point values to individual questions within a quiz. Each question has its own “Points” setting in the quiz builder.

At the top of the quiz settings sidebar, LifterLMS displays a “Total Points” sum. The system automatically updates this total whenever you change the points of any question in that quiz.

You can exclude an item from grade calculations by setting its weight or Points value to 0. This applies to Lesson Weight, Quiz Weight, Assignment Weight, and individual question Points. For example, to use a quiz as an ungraded practice activity, set its Quiz Weight to 0.

A lesson without a quiz or assignment is also excluded from the overall course grade because its Lesson Weight is automatically set to 0.

There are four different scenarios for a lesson when determining its grade:

1. Lesson without a quiz or an assignment In this scenario, the lesson’s Weight is always 0, and it is excluded from the course grading calculations.
2. Lesson with a quiz only In this scenario, the lesson’s grade is equal to the quiz grade.
3. Lesson with an assignment only In this scenario, the lesson’s grade is equal to the assignment grade.
4. Lesson with a quiz and an assignment. In this scenario, the grades of both the quiz and the assignment are used to calculate the lesson grade:

When a lesson contains both a quiz and an assignment, LifterLMS calculates the lesson grade using the following steps:

1. Add the Quiz Weight and Assignment Weight to calculate the total available points for the lesson.
2. Multiply the quiz grade by the Quiz Weight to calculate the weight-adjusted quiz grade.
3. Multiply the assignment grade by the Assignment Weight to calculate the weight-adjusted assignment grade.
4. Add the weight-adjusted quiz grade and weight-adjusted assignment grade to calculate the weight-adjusted total.
5. Divide the weight-adjusted total by the total available points to calculate the lesson grade.

Example Calculation

Imagine a lesson with a quiz weighted at 6 points, on which the student earned 70%, and an assignment weighted at 4 points, on which the student earned 100%:

1. Calculate total points: 6 + 4 = 10 total points.
2. Calculate weight-adjusted quiz grade: 70 x 6 = 420 points.
3. Calculate weight-adjusted assignment grade: 100 x 4 = 400 points.
4. Calculate weight-adjusted total: 420 + 400 = 820 points.
5. Divide the total score by the total points to calculate the final lesson grade: 820 / 10 = 82%.

There are two different scenarios for assignment grades:

1. Task List assignments are pass/fail. An incomplete Task List assignment has a grade of 0%. Once completed, it is automatically graded as passed with a grade of 100%.
2. Essay and upload assignment grades are entered by the instructor when they review the assignment. The assignment grade is the percentage awarded by the instructor.

LifterLMS calculates a quiz grade from the points available for each question and the points the student earns. Follow these steps to calculate a quiz grade:

1. Add the Points values of all questions to calculate the total available points.
2. Divide 100 by the total available points to calculate the percentage value of each point.
3. Add the points earned by the student across all questions, including any partial points awarded during manual grading.
4. Multiply the total earned points by the percentage value of each point to calculate the quiz grade.

Example

1. Total Available Points: 3 + 3 + 3 + 6 = 15
2. Percentage Value per Point: 100 ÷ 15 = 6.667%
3. Earned Points: 3 + 3 + 0 + 4 = 10
4. Quiz Grade: 10 × 6.667% = 66.67%

LifterLMS calculates the overall course grade from the grades and weights of the lessons that contribute to grading.

To calculate the course grade:

1. Add the Lesson Weight values for all graded lessons to calculate the total available points.
2. Multiply each lesson grade by its Lesson Weight to calculate its weight-adjusted grade.
3. Add the weight-adjusted grades for all graded lessons to calculate the weight-adjusted total.
4. Divide the weight-adjusted total by the total available points to calculate the overall course grade.

Example

Imagine a course with the following lesson weights and grades:

1. Calculate the total available points:
   • 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 4 = 8
2. Calculate the weight-adjusted grade for each lesson:
   • Lesson A: 80 × 1 = 80
   • Lesson B: 75 × 1 = 75
   • Lesson C: 50 × 1 = 50
   • Lesson D: 90 × 1 = 90
   • Lesson E: 85 × 4 = 340
3. Calculate the weight-adjusted total:
   • 80 + 75 + 50 + 90 + 340 = 635
4. Calculate the overall course grade:
   • 635 ÷ 8 = 79.375%