03. Using assignments Contents
3. Using assignments
Moodle makes it easy to assign reports and receive submissions. It may be worthwhile to use Moodle to centrally manage reports. In Moodle, you can check report submission status as a list, as well as set report submission deadlines. It is also possible to give feedback by adding comments to submitted reports and returning them.
3.1 Creating assignments
Click "Launch edit mode" at the top right of the screen, click "Add activity or resource" in the topic area, and click "Assignment" from the list of available activities/resources displayed.
Adding an assignment and adjusting its settings
First, enter the "Assignment name" and "Description". In the assignment description, enter the details of the assignment and any necessary notes.
If you wish to present an additional file related to the details of the assignment or a template for file submissions, upload the file from "Additional files". The uploaded file will be presented to students along with the description of the assignment.
Availability
In the " Availability " field, you can set periods such as "Allow submissions from", "Due date", and "Cut-off date" for an assignment.
The "Allow submissions from" is when students can submit files (please also see "Always show description" below). If it is not set, it will become available immediately after doing so. "Due date" indicates the deadline for submitting assignments. The Due date that you set is what students will see as the deadline for submitting the assignment, so when informing the students of a submission deadline, make sure it is the date and time set as the Due date.
"Due date" represents the submission deadline, while "Cut-off date" represents the final deadline of the assignment (the Cut-off date must be set after the Due date). When the Due date and the Cut-off date are set to different dates and times, students can submit late assignments even if it is passed the Due date, up until the Cut-off date (you can confirm late assignments on the submission confirmation screen mentioned below). If you do not wish to allow late submissions, set the Due date and the Cut-off date to the same values.
If you check "Always show description", the description of the assignment including additional files will be displayed even before the start date and time set above (in such cases, the start date and time will only apply to submissions).
《Due date and Cut-off date 》
When an assignment becomes available, the "Due date" will be presented to students as the deadline for submitting the assignment. Even if the Due date has passed, it will still be possible to submit the assignment up until the "Cut-off date" (late submission). The deadline for late submissions set by the Cut-off date is displayed as "Submissions accepted up to XX" in the "Submission past the submission deadline" field of the grading summary. If the Cut-off date has passed, students are still able to submit an assignment when the teacher enables the "Allow extension" setting.
If you do not wish to allow late submissions, set the Due date and the Cut-off date to the same values. In such case, although you might think that you only need to set the Cut-off date since it is the final deadline without setting the Due date, the Due date is what is displayed as the submission deadline to students, therefore, you must still set both the Due date and the Cut-off date.
Submission types
"Submission types" are for setting the submission method of an assignment.
If you wish to make students edit the text of their assignment directly on Moodle and submit it, check "Online text". On the other hand, if you wish to make them upload a file created in advance in Word format etc. to Moodle, check "File submissions".
Feedback types
"Feedback types" are for setting the method of feedback for a submitted assignment.
You can also allow to students view online comments (feedback comments) and files uploaded by the teacher (feedback files). A feedback file can also be used to correct and return a student's submitted file. In addition, if you have required students to submit the assignment as a PDF file, you can check its contents and give feedback on Moodle by enabling PDF annotations.
Notifications
In "Notifications", you can set whether or not to receive a notification when a student submits an assignment or when the teacher grades it.
If you set "Notify graders about submissions" to "Yes", an email will be sent to the teacher every time a student submits an assignment, so it is likely better to leave the default setting as "No".
"Notify graders about late submissions" is set to "No" by default, but if you wish to be notified, change it to "Yes".
"Notify students" is set to "No" by default.
The default setting for "Notify students" will determine the default setting for "Notify students" on the grading screen. If it is set to "Yes", students will be notified of their assignment has been graded (here, you only decide the default setting, and you can set whether or not to actually notify them on the grading screen).
《Student replacement of submitted reports 》
If you set "Require students to click the submit button" to "Yes", a submission status labeled as "Draft" will be added. An "Edit submission" button will also be displayed on the student screen. When a student uploads a file and clicks "Edit submission", it will be counted as a "Draft". Students will be able to replace their submitted report as itis not yet considered a submission. When the student clicks the "Submit assignment" button, the status will change to "Submitted for grading" and the student will no longer be able to replace the submission.
This function is usually used "When you want to keep track of the reports submitted prior to the submission deadline" or "When you want to be able to send back submitted reports and allow them to be resubmitted". If you want to check submitted reports and start scoring them before the submission deadline, you can use the "Require students to click the submit button" feature to prevent students from replacing a graded report, as submitted files will not be able to be replaced. When requesting a resubmission, you can allow the student to replace the file by clicking the "Return submission to draft" button on the teacher screen. In addition, since the student will not be notified that the status has changed to "Draft", you will need to keep "Notify students" checked and request them to resubmit by updating the "Feedback comments" or sending them a message.
○Precautions
- Sometimes students may forget to click "Submit for grading" and leave the assignment as a draft.
- It is possible to confirm submitted files even if the submission status remains as a draft after the assignment deadline.
- If a student wishes to resubmit, use "Unlock submission" below to unlock the submission (see "Explanation of settings" in section 3.2).
○If "Require students to click the submit button" is set to "No", students can replace their assignment during the submission period.
3.2 Confirming and grading submitted reports
When you click on an "assignment" set for the course, a screen showing the description of the assignment, the number of participants (students), the number of submitters, the Due date of the assignment and the remaining period, etc. will be displayed. Click "View all submissions" under the grade summary to move to the submission status list page. You can check and grade submitted reports from here.
Batch download of submitted files
You can individually check files submitted by students, but it is also possible to download them all at once by using "Download selected submissions" from "Download selected lines..." in the center of the screen. The "Upload multiple Zip feedback files" option for uploading feedback files all at once is displayed when "Feedback files" is enabled in the feedback types explained in section 3.1. Similarly, "Upload (download) grading worksheets" for batch grading of assignments will be displayed when "Offline grading worksheets" is enabled.
《Corruption of file names for submitted assignments downloaded in bulk 》
When downloading submitted assignments in bulk, you can do so as a compressed file (Zip file), but when decompressing the compressed file, if you use the decompression feature provided in Windows or decompression software that does not support UTF-8 character codes, the file name of the submitted assignment may appear corrupt. In such case, you can decompress the submitted assignment file without corrupt characters by using UTF-8 compatible file decompression software (for example, "7-Zip").
Grading
To perform grading (input of grades and feedback), click the blue "Grade" button on the submission status list screen of the previous page (you can also select "Update grade" from "Edit"). If the menu of options such as "Save changes" at the bottom of the screen is not displayed, use the "Change user" button at the top right of the screen to change the user once and the menu will appear.
A : You can change the user.
B : Enter a score in "Grade out of 100".
C : You can give feedback to students here if you have enabled the use of feedback comments and feedback files.
D : To upload a feedback file, drag and drop the file onto the arrow on the screen (see Manual 2 for uploading files).
E : Lastly, don't forget to click "Save changes" at the bottom of the screen to save your editing.
F : You can click here to try out three screen layout patterns and change the screen to make it easier to see and work.
Screen when "PDF annotations" are disabled
Screen when "PDF annotations" are enabled
Quick grading
In addition to the grading method explained in "Grading" above, you can enter grades and feedback comments on the list screen by checking "Quick grading". By checking this option, you are able to enter information into the grade and feedback comment fields, so enter the grade and any comments. After grading, click "Save all quick grading changes" at the bottom of the list to save the grade and feedback comments. To finish quick grading, uncheck "Quick grading".
Batch settings for selected rows
It is possible to change settings for the locking, unlocking, and allowing extension of assignment submissions all at once. The method is as follows. After selecting the user in the selection field at the left end of the list, select the item you want to set from "For the selected row" and click "Go". If you want to adjust these settings individually, you can also set them from "Edit" in the list.
《When grading a submitted assignment, is there a way to only give feedback without notifying students of the grade? 》
Since the grade and the feedback comments are published at the same time, it is not possible to give only feedback without publishing the grade.
For this reason, many teachers do not enter scores in Moodle and instead manage them separately in Excel etc., entering only feedback and uploading files in Moodle when they want to only give feedback without notifying students of the grade.
Explanation of settings
Lock submissions
When you lock a submission, students will not be able to submit (or change) the assignment report. You can use this to prevent the replacement of submissions after they have been graded.
Unlock submissions
Unlocks a locked submission.
Grant extension
Students are not able to submit a report after the Cut-off date. If you select "Grant extension", they will once again be able to submit it.