Any course assessments that are created will default to being mandatory and can be changed to optional in the Curriculum Manager module.

Mandatory assessments affect the marking rules engine as follows:

• Any assessment marked as mandatory must have a mark. This mark must not be 0, otherwise the course outcome grade will be set to either:

  • The marked Not Complete Grade in the COURSE grading scheme that is attached to the course that the assessment is linked to

  • Null, if no grade has been marked as a non-complete grade in the COURSE grading scheme that is attached to the course that the assessment is linked to

Any course assessments that are created have a must pass value of false by default, which can be changed in the Curriculum Manager module.

Must pass assessments affect the marking rules engine as follows:

• Any assessment marked as must pass that has been marked must have a passing grade, otherwise the outcome grade will be set to either:

  • The marked Default Failed Grade in the COURSE grading scheme that is attached to the course the assessment is linked to

  • Null, if no grade has been marked as a Default Failed grade in the COURSE grading scheme that is attached to the course that the assessment is linked to

Unlike mandatory assessments, any unmarked assessments will not be taken into account when determining if any must-pass assessments have been failed.

For course occurrences with no additional marking scheme rules configured, the system uses the result and the grading scheme associated with the assessment to derive a numerical value for each assessment. This is achieved for different grading scheme sub-types as follows:

• Grade - the numerical value is the maximum mark that maps to the given grade in the grading scheme.

  If no mapping can be determined, the numerical value is set to 0

• Percentage - the actual percentage value that is entered as the assessment result is the numerical value

• Marks out of - the numerical value is the result/out of (for example: 25/40)

• Pass or fail - a pass results in a numerical value of 100 and a fail results in a numerical value of 0

• Aggregate - a value that is compared against the aggregate mapping, as specified in the Grading Schemes reference data

Each numerical value is then multiplied by the assessment weighting to provide the weighted numerical value.

The weighted numerical values are then added together to provide the course outcome numerical value.

The course outcome value is then converted to a grade for the course outcome from the grading scheme associated with the course. This is done by using the grade associated with the minimum and maximum mark range in which the course outcome value falls. This is either the specific grading scheme associated with the course or the default course grading scheme.

For courses with additional grouped marking scheme rules, the system calculates a numerical value for each group of assessments that are included in a grouped marking scheme rule.

For each marking scheme rule where the rules are successfully achieved, a single rule assessment with a numerical value of 100 is assumed for course outcome calculation purposes.

• For rule assessments where the rules are not successfully achieved, a numerical value of 0 will be assigned.
• For rule assessments, the weighting is the weighting of all the assessments that comprise the rule assessment added together.
• The rule assessments and any remaining assessments that are not included in a grouped marking scheme rule are then used to calculate a course outcome grade.

The aggregate mark of the group is displayed on the Academic History tab for the learner.

For the calculated course outcome grades where the course occurrence specifies a maximum grade when there are assessment resits and one or more assessments have a resit, the course outcome is set to this maximum grade if the previously calculated grade is higher than this maximum grade.

Otherwise, the course outcome grade is set as the originally calculated grade.

For courses that have a linked final exam-type assessments, course calculations are made depending on the aggregate weighted percentages of all other assessment types/marking schemes and the final exam result.

If a learner fails the final exam but the weighted percentage of all other assessments that contribute to the course outcome is equal to or greater than the Failed Final Percentage institution setting, the course outcome grade is set to the grade that is flagged as the Is Failed Final grade in the Grading Schemes reference data for the grading scheme linked to the course outcome.

If resits are allowed for the final exam, as specified on the final exam assessment curriculum record, any new grade acquired by a learner for a resit and applied to the final exam assessment outcome causes the course outcome to be automatically recalculated, with the resulting grade applied to the course outcome grade and the previous failed grade applied to the Failed Final Grade field on the course outcome.

As assessments are marked, the marking progress of the course outcome is populated to reflect the percentage of assessments that have been completed and marked, based on their course weightings.

The course outcome grade is also calculated and the current grade based on the assessments marked is displayed on the course outcome record.

On marking the final exam-type assessment, the course outcome grade is fully calculated and in the case of a failed final exam where the weighted percentage of all other assessments has met or exceeded the Failed Final Percentage institution setting, the actual grade is set to the one flagged as Is Failed Final against the grading scheme to which the course outcome is linked.

If the learner then resits the final exam and the new grade is added to the assessment, the previous fail grade is moved to the Failed Final Grade field on the course outcome and the Actual Grade field is populated with the new grade. Any subsequent resits only change the Actual Grade field.