how to write an assignment on moodle

Moodle help faster than you can drink a cup of coffee

Add an Assignment

How can we help.

The assignment activity allows teachers to collect work from students, review it, and provide feedback, including grades. The work students submit is visible only to the teacher and not to the other students unless a group assignment is selected. Using Moodle for assignments is a great way to make assigning, collecting, and grading student work more efficient.

An assignment can also be used to remind students of "real-world" assignments they need to complete offline, such as artwork, presentations, and "field" work. In such cases, you can disable all submission types and indicate in the assignment description that students are not expected to upload anything for the assignment. Even if no files are collected, grades and feedback can be given, including advanced grading methods like rubrics.

Make sure to Turn editing on before getting started with this guide.

Video Overview

Part 1 Add the assignment activity

• In the week you want to add the assignment to, click Add an activity or resource .
• From the list of available activities, select Assignment and click Add .

Part 2 Edit the assignment settings

• Enter a "Name" for the assignment and put assignment instructions in the "Description" area. You may also attach any resources for your students in the "Additional files" area.
• In the "Availability" section, set the date you want the assignment to open ("Allow submissions from") and the date you want the assignment to close ("Due date"). Also decide if you will allow late submissions by setting a "Cut-off date." If a cut-off date is enabled, students will not be able to submit after the cut-off date has passed. If you do not enable a cut-off date, students will be able to submit late work indefinitely, although it will be time-stamped and marked as past due.
• In the "Submission types" section, select the kinds of media you want students to submit. The default is a File submissions (Word or PDF document, Powerpoint, spreadsheet, or other digital file). Online PoodLL allows students to submit audio or video recordings. Online text lets students type directly into the Moodle assignment. This is useful if you want students to submit links to their work.
• In the "Grade section," set-up grading for the assignmen. You'll probably want to keep the "Type" setting at the default Point , but change it to None if you are collecting ungraded files like contracts, agreements, or consent forms. In the "Maximum point" filed, add how many points you want the assignment to be worth (the default is 100). You can also choose a "Grade category" for the assignment. If you don't have grade categories set up, this will default to uncategorized.
• Click Save and return to course . You should now see the assignment in your course.

Moodle Tutorials: Creating Assignments

• Linking Your Course to Moodle
• Navigating in Moodle
• Beginning of Semester Checklist
• Setting up the Layout of Your Course Site
• Editing Your Moodle Profile
• Copying Course Materials from Another Site
• Using Meta Link (combining enrollments from multiple course sections into one site)
• Quick-Start Video Guides for Moodle 4.2
• Adding an Announcement
• Uploading a File
• Creating and Editing Folders
• Managing Groups: Creating Groups and assigning student to them
• Adding Text and Images to Your Course Home Page
• Adding a Web Link
• Hiding and Revealing Items
• End-of-Term Checklist
• Adding a user to your course
• Bulk Update Dates
• Setting up a Forum
• Enabling Groups in a Forum
• Setting up Whole Forum Grading

Creating Assignments

• Grading Assignments
• Using Rubrics for Assignments
• Creating a Quiz
• Quiz Settings
• Adding Questions to a Quiz
• Using the Question Bank
• Adding Safe Exam Browser
• Adding a User Override
• Adding a New Column (Grade Item)
• Rearranging Columns (Grade Items)
• Entering and Editing Grades
• Creating Categories in the Grade Book
• Adding Extra Credit
• Exporting Grades Into Excel Spreadsheet
• Importing Grades from an Excel Spreadsheet
• Accessing Moodle
• Taking a Quiz in Moodle
• Uploading an Assignment to Moodle
• Participating in Discussion Forums
• Viewing Grades on Moodle
• Safe Exam Browser
• Adding H5P Interactive Content
• Embedding Google Drive Videos
• Embedding YouTube Videos
• Embedding Box Videos

The assignment feature in Moodle makes it very easy for students to submit their assignment files to instructors. It includes excellent features that make it easy for instructors to receive, manage, and return those files back to students along with the feedback.

1. In the upper right-hand corner, click the  "Edit Mode"  on the top right:

  2. Next click Add an activity or Resource on the course front page within a topic or a week field: Select Assignment .

3. Add a title in the assignment name box and add the assignment details in the description box:

4. Select appropriate for your assignment values in the Availability block. These settings will determine when students will be able to submit the assignment, due dates, etc. You can find the full description of each component for   Moodle under Assignment Settings .

5. Next block called Submission Settings controls how students will submit the assignment: whether they submit an independent file or type their assignment directly into Moodle, etc. Full description of Submission Settings for Moodle.

6. The block called Feedback Types controls how instructors will give feedback to students. Full description of Feedback Settings for Moodle.

7. Determine how the assignment will be graded in Grade . Full description of Grade Settings for Moodle.  

8. The last two blocks, Common Module Settings and Restrict Access , give you the ability to turn on group submission and create some restrictions for students accessing the assignment. Full descriptions of  Common Module Settings and Restrict Access are available.

9. Once all appropriate settings are selected and set, click "Save and Return to course."

• << Previous: Assignments
• Next: Grading Assignments >>
• Last Updated: Sep 16, 2024 1:43 PM
• URL: https://pacificu.libguides.com/moodle

Copyright © Pacific University, all rights reserved

2043 College Way, Forest Grove, Oregon, 97116

[email protected]   |   503-352-1400   |   Staff Directory

Formatting an Assignment in Moodle

© J. Francois Barnard – August 9, 2021

In this post, I would like to describe how I format assignments in Moodle. These are all suggestions, and no one has to do what I do, but I have a good track record in doing assignments, and perhaps it will help some get better grades.

Moodle is an online platform - a content management system (CMS) similar to WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. CMSs allow you to create websites without prior knowledge of HTML, PHP, CSS, or MySQL. Moodle will enable you to format your content to look professional and presentable, and while you also do not need prior knowledge of PHP, CSS, or MySQL, knowing a little bit of HTML can help.

Many years ago, I familiarized myself with HTML by using HTML Goodies and W3 Schools to teach me HTML coding basics. Please visit these sites, and see if you can learn how to make paragraphs, divisions, horizontal lines, and formatting in bold, italic, and underline. The Moodle editor can do most of it, but once you know the basics, you will also understand how to apply other tricks and tips.

Like with all CMSs, the Moodle platform has a template that determines the website's "look and feel." Students using this platform have no control over the template and CSS styling. Therefore, you can get around it if you know a bit of HTML code.

APA 7 th Edition

Presently, UoPeople ascribes to the APA 7 th edition guidelines for assignment formatting. Please refer to Dr. Green's writing guide: Instructor-developed resource & reference [1] for excellent information on formatting your assignments for academic submissions. Undergraduate students will do the UNIV 1001B Online Studies course, covering much of the same material. The university assumes that graduate students know how to write assignments and are familiar with APA 7 th Edition formatting.

Sadly, my experience is that many of my peers in graduate school cannot write academic papers well, and many do not know how to format a document according to the required APA guidelines. Many get poor grades simply because they do not adhere to the rules.

The Assignments

There are three assignment types in Moodle:

• Discussion Forum
• Written Assignment
• Portfolio Activity (aka Learning Journal during my undergraduate studies)

§1. Discussion Forum

The first step in writing my discussion forum assignment is to create an MS Word document for it. As my research develops, I record my sources, formatting them in a reference list.

I do not write the content of the assignment immediately in the MS Word document. I write it in Grammarly first, ensuring that my English grammar and spelling are correct. My mother tongue is Afrikaans, and Grammarly is a great tool to help you write better. I prefer the stand-alone Grammarly application above the MS Word add-on of the same product.

Once I am satisfied with the content, I copy and paste it into my MS Word document. Here, I double-checked my references and in-text citations.

By now, I am ready to publish the document.

I log into the Moodle server, browse the discussion forum, and click on the Reply link below the instructor's post. Moodle gives you an editor box with the words "Write your reply..." but below it are three links: Submit, Cancel, and Advanced. I click on Advanced.

The Advanced Editor screen opens, and I click on the left button.

It opens an extra row of advanced features, and I click on the HTML button on the right. Clicking on this button toggles between the HTML Editor and the Advanced Editor mode.

All the formatting buttons are then greyed out, and you are ready to paste your assignment.

According to the APA rules, the assignment should have a cover page, but we only do it for Written Assignments, and some instructors require it for Portfolio Activities too. We ignore the cover page for the Discussion Forum and start with a heading. The heading should be in bold and centred on the page. It is here that I use the HTML notation:

I never use the H1, H2, H3, etc., heading formatting because they are far too large (overpowering) and do not comply with APA.

APA requires the first line of each paragraph to be indented. If you had control over the website's style sheets (CSS), it would have been possible to use the spanning command to style it correctly. But now, you do not have that control, and you have to create an indent manually. To do it, I open the paragraph and insert four spaces using the following notation for a space:

If you toggle the HTML button at the top, you can see the results of your formatting. Take note of the indent at the start of the paragraph:

But I hardly ever toggle back and forth on that button because the Moodle editor has a bug that will insert spaces and line breaks you never intended to have. You can see it when you click on it again:

It is not a significant problem, just an irritating bug. I always toggle back after I formatted the document in full.

As per Dr. Green's APA guide , headings are left-aligned and in bold. Sub-headings are left-aligned, in bold and in italics.

APA requires a page break before the Reference List, which you cannot do in the Moodle Editor. Therefore, I insert a horizontal line using the following HTML notation:

We should order the reference list alphabetically. It is not indented but makes use of a "hanging indent." That means that the second line is indented. Again, I insert four spaces after a line break:

Moodle does not automatically hyperlink website URLs - we have to force that. The easiest way to do it is to toggle back to the Advanced Editor, highlight the URL, press [Ctrl-C] to copy it, and click on the hyperlink button:

Paste the URL, checkmark "Open in new window," and click on the [Create link] button:

Repeat this for every referenced item and in the Advanced Editor mode. The hyperlinks will be coloured in pink:

If I want to emphasize a point by quoting some great orator like Winston Churchill, I use the blockquote command:

<blockquote>I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly - <i>Sir Winston Churchill</i></blockquote>

The result in the Advanced Editor will look like this:

To create tables, you can try and paste them from Excel or Word in the Advanced Editor, but I have found that pasting from a Microsoft document causes a lot of unnecessary code to accompany the action. To edit it can be a nightmare.

It might be better to click on the Table Tool in the Advanced Editor:

The default theme is not to have any borders, and this last term, I have seen how students use this tool without creating borders, and the result was somewhat confusing. If you change the theme, you can specify your borders.

Here is the result:

Another way to do it is to use the table commands in the HTML Editor:

Another way to insert tables is to format them perfectly in MS Excel and copy and paste them with the Snipping Tool or a "screen grabber" - whatever works for you. I would save the image to a JPG file and upload the file in the Advanced Editor.

Here I inserted tables saved on JPG files into my assignment:

§2. Written Assignment

Dr. Green's writing guide: Instructor-developed resource & reference covers all of what you need to know about Written Assignments. He requested that students submit MS Word documents and not PDFs. His reason for doing so was to check for plagiarism, which he found difficult with PDFs. Most instructors accept PDF documents, but most students do not know how to remove personal details from the document properties and lose their required anonymity in the process.

Although it is possible to enter your Written Assignment in the text editor and submit it, you will get a poor grade for not adhering to APA requirements. Hence, I always write something in the editor like: "Please find my assignment attached hereto in PDF format."

When you create an MS Word document and you save it, the properties page will show your identity, which is a breach of the anonymity requirement:

To remove it, click on [File], and then on [Check for Issues], and after that on [Inspect Document]:

Uncheck all items except for "Document Properties and Personal Information." Then click on [Inspect].

Click on [Remove All] and then on [Close].

Your MS Word document no longer displays your identity:

If you want to submit a PDF document instead (like I usually do), you click on [File] and [Save as]. Select PDF and click on [Options]:

Uncheck "Document Properties," click on [OK] and then on [Save].

The PDF will contain no document properties that can reveal your identity, and you can safely submit it to Moodle.

§3. Portfolio Activity

We edit the Portfolio Activity precisely the same way as the Discussion Forum mentioned above. However, some instructors require that the Portfolio Activity has a "cover page" as we have for the Written Assignment.

The text on the cover page is all centered, and I, therefore, create a centered division. The heading is in bold and usually starts a third from the top of the page. You only enter a few line breaks to create a space above the title because you do not have a full-page as on a written assignment. Below is what it looks like in the HTML editor. Take note of the horizontal line to indicate the end of the cover page:

When you toggle back to the Advanced Editor, the result looks like this:

While the topic of plagiarism has to do with the content of the assignment and not formatting, I still feel I should mention that it is a real problem in all universities today and at UoPeople. The university has partnered with Unicheck earlier in 2021, which means that the instructors have free access to its plagiarism checker.

Students can register with Unicheck and buy 100 pages for $15. You can submit your document to Unicheck to ensure that you have not broken any rules. Grammarly also has a built-in plagiarism checker, but Unicheck's checker is by far superior.

Writing good academic papers requires well-researched and well-written content, original work, and formatted according to the university's rules.

[1] Green, R. K. (June 15, 2021). Dr. Green's writing guide: Instructor-developed resource & reference     [Reference]. Fielding Graduate University.

By using sandvelder.com, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience. I understand

Niall McNulty

A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your First Moodle Course

Introduction

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on setting up your first course on Moodle . As an innovative Learning Management System ( LMS ), Moodle offers a rich and versatile platform for course creation. Whether you are an educator seeking to bring your curriculum to life or a corporate trainer looking to upskill your team, Moodle’s vast array of features will cater to your specific needs.

In this guide, we’ll journey through Moodle’s course creation process, shedding light on its core functionalities and practical applications. From initiating a course and setting up your gradebook to managing your course post-launch, we will demystify each step, ensuring you have a clear roadmap for your Moodle exploration.

So, are you ready to dive in and craft your first Moodle course? Let’s get started on this exciting journey together, equipping you with the knowledge you need to leverage Moodle’s potential to the fullest.

Navigating Moodle

Before we dive into course creation, let’s familiarise ourselves with Moodle’s layout and critical functionalities. Think of Moodle as a digital campus where each feature and tool uniquely facilitates a vibrant learning environment.

Upon logging into Moodle, you’ll land on the dashboard, your interface into the Moodle universe. Here, you can see your courses, upcoming activities, and messages. Your dashboard can be customised to best suit your needs, offering quick access to the information and tools that are most relevant to you.

Now, let’s navigate where our course will come to life – the course creation area. Start by clicking ‘Site home’ on the navigation drawer on the left of your screen. This area is like your Moodle control room, providing a birds-eye view of all the courses you can access.

Find and click the ‘Create a new course’ button, typically located at the bottom of the ‘Site home’ page. If you don’t see this option, you may need to confirm that you have the necessary permissions to create a course. Once you’ve accessed the course creation area, you’re ready to begin crafting your first Moodle course.

However, before we jump into that, take some time to familiarise yourself with the rest of the Moodle interface. On the left, you’ll find the navigation drawer, providing quick access to different areas of the Moodle site. You’ll find links to your dashboard, calendar, private files, and more here. At the top, you’ll see the navigation bar, which helps you trace your steps back to previous pages.

Remember, Moodle is an exceptionally customisable platform that adapts to your needs. The more comfortable you navigate its interface, the more effectively you can leverage its various features. So, take a few moments to explore and customise your Moodle environment, laying the groundwork for seamless course creation.

Our next section takes our first step into course creation, initiating a new course and setting its basic parameters. As we move forward, remember that each step brings us closer to a transformative learning experience for your future students.

Setting Up Your First Course

Having familiarised ourselves with the Moodle environment, we’re now ready to begin creating your first course. This stage is about laying the foundations and defining the basic parameters that will shape your course’s structure and identity.

Start by clicking the ‘Create a new course’ button. You’ll be taken to a page titled ‘Add a new course,’ where you’ll fill out the basic details of your course. Let’s go through these fields together.

General Settings

First, you’ll see a section titled ‘General.’ This is where you’ll define your course’s basic details:

• Course full name:  This is the official name of your course, visible to everyone. Make it descriptive but concise, allowing potential learners to grasp what your course is about quickly.
• Course short name:  This is a brief identifier for your course, typically used in navigation and course listings. It might be an abbreviation or an internal code. Keep it simple and unique.
• Course summary:  This is your opportunity to provide a more detailed course description. Highlight what learners can expect, the topics you’ll cover, and any prerequisites or target audience.
• Course start and end dates:  These dates define the duration of your course. They’re essential if you’re running a course with a fixed timeline or if it is part of a learning program with sequential courses.

Once you’ve filled out the general settings, it’s time to set your course’s visibility.

Course Visibility

Under the section ‘Course visibility,’ you’ll find two options: ‘Show’ and ‘Hide.’ Selecting ‘Show’ makes your course available to students, while ‘Hide’ keeps it invisible. This setting is handy when you’re still working on your course and don’t want students to access it yet.

Now that you’ve defined your course’s basic settings, it’s time to select the course format to determine its structure.

Selecting Course Format

Moodle offers several course formats that dictate how your course content is organised. Under the ‘Course format’ section, you can select from formats such as ‘Topics,’ ‘Weekly,’ ‘Social,’ and others.

• The ‘Topics’ format organises your course by thematic sections. This format is ideal for courses where each topic is distinct, and there’s no strict chronological order to follow.
• The ‘Weekly’ format organises your course by week, with each week’s content in a separate section. This option is great for courses with a clear timeline and sequential content.
• The ‘Social’ format bases your course around a single forum and is suitable for highly conversational or discussion-based courses.

Select the format that best suits your course objectives, keeping in mind the nature of your content and the preferred learning path for your students.

Once you’ve selected the course format, you can define the number of sections for your course under ‘Number of sections.’ If you’re unsure, you can always add or remove sections later.

Congratulations! You’ve now laid the groundwork for your first Moodle course. Click ‘Save and display,’ and you’ll be taken to your new course page, a blank canvas awaiting your educational masterpiece.

In our next section, we’ll dive into setting up your gradebook, a vital tool for assessing learner progress and success. As you continue this journey, remember: every step you take brings you closer to delivering an engaging, impactful learning experience.

Setting Up the Gradebook

Now that we’ve laid the foundations for our Moodle course let’s turn our attention to a crucial aspect of any learning journey: assessment . Within Moodle, the guidebook serves as your hub for all things related to grading and evaluation. It’s where you’ll define your grading methods, track learner progress, and provide feedback.

The first thing to understand is that the Moodle gradebook automatically includes any graded activities you add to your course, such as quizzes or assignments. Each activity gets its own ‘grade item,’ forming the building blocks of your grade book.

Let’s walk through the process of setting up your grade book.

Accessing the Gradebook

To begin, click on ‘Grades’ in the course administration block. This will take you to the Grader report, your main overview of students and their grades.

Creating Grading Categories

Before we add individual grade items, we should organise our grade book by creating grading categories. Categories allow you to group related grade items and represent things like units, chapters, or types of assignments.

To add a category, click on ‘Setup’ and then ‘Categories and items.’ Here, you can add a new category, give it a name, and set its aggregation method, determining how grades in this category will be calculated. Once you’ve added a category, it will appear in your Grader report.

Adding Grade Items

Now that we have our categories, we can start adding grade items. As mentioned earlier, any graded activity you add to your course will automatically create a grade item. However, you can also add manual grade items for offline activities.

To add a manual grade item, navigate to ‘Categories and items’ again, and click ‘Add grade item.’ You can name the item, assign it to a category, and set its maximum and minimum grades.

Setting Up a Grading Scale

Moodle allows you to grade items using points, percentages, letters, or a custom scale. The scale you choose will depend on your assessment strategy and the nature of the activity. For example, a quiz might best suit points, while a discussion forum might benefit from a custom scale like ‘Excellent/Good/Average/Poor.’

To create a custom scale, go to ‘Scales’ in the course administration block, and click ‘Add a new scale.’ You can then list your scale items, separated by commas, and give your scale a name.

Remember, the gradebook is not just a tool for assigning grades. It’s a powerful way to track student progress, identify areas of difficulty, and provide timely, constructive feedback. It’s integral to the learning experience you’re creating.

In the next section, we’ll move from planning and organisation to action, exploring how to add content and activities to your course. Each piece of content you add will bring your course to life, forming a rich tapestry of learning opportunities for your students.

Adding Course Content

With your course’s foundations and grading system now in place, it’s time to add content and build the learning journey for your students. This stage of course creation is where Moodle truly shines, offering diverse options to help you deliver an engaging, varied, and effective learning experience.

To get started, navigate to your course homepage and turn on the editing mode by clicking the ‘Turn editing on’ button at the top right corner of your course page. Once editing is enabled, you’ll notice that each section of your course now has an ‘Add an activity or resource’ link.

Adding Resources

Resources in Moodle are content items typically used to present information. They can include files, pages, URLs, and books. Clicking on the ‘Add an activity or resource’ link will open a pop-up window that lists all available resources and activities.

• Files:  You can upload any file type to your course, such as PDFs, Word Documents, Spreadsheets, or PowerPoints. Your students can download these files.
• Pages:  A page resource creates a link to a screen that displays the content created by the teacher. This can include text, images, multimedia, and embedded code.
• URLs:  You can add a URL to direct students to an external website. This can be used to link to resources, videos, or online documents.
• Books:  The book resource allows you to create multi-page resources with a book-like format. This is particularly useful for lengthy passages of information that can be broken down into chapters.

Adding Activities

Beyond static resources, Moodle also allows you to add interactive activities. These are tools that allow for interaction and collaboration among students and teachers.

• Assignments:  Assignments allow you to collect student work, review it and provide feedback, including grades. The work students submit is visible only to the teacher and not to the other students.
• Forums:  Forums allow asynchronous communication, i.e., communication that doesn’t happen in real time. They can be used in various ways – for course announcements, class discussions, peer support, etc.
• Quizzes:  Quizzes are a powerful assessment tool which can consist of a large variety of question types, including multiple-choice, true-false, and short-answer questions.
• Glossaries:  Glossaries allow students and teachers to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary.

Adding course content is a dynamic process, and you’ll likely want to move, edit, or hide activities and resources as your course evolves. Moodle’s flexible design supports this, allowing you to continually refine your course to serve your student’s learning journey best.

The following section will explore managing your course post-launch, discussing how to interact with students, monitor progress, and adjust based on feedback and performance.

Enhancing Course Appearance

An engaging and intuitive course design is essential for keeping learners interested and on track in the online learning landscape. Here’s how you can make your Moodle course visually appealing and user-friendly.

Course Format

Moodle offers various course formats that determine the layout of your course. You can select a format in the ‘Course format’ section under ‘Edit settings’ in ‘Course administration.’

• Topics Format:  This flexible format organises your course by topic. Each topic can contain activities and resources.
• Weekly Format:  This format manages your course by week, organising activities and resources each week.
• Social Format:  This format is centred around a single forum and is best for more discussion-based courses.

Moodle themes control the visual layout and styling of your site. Themes can be changed at the site level or can be overridden for individual courses or users.

Blocks can be added to your page’s left, right, or centre. They can be things like a calendar, the latest news, or a course completion status.

Enrolling Students

Once your course is set up and looking great, it’s time to enrol your students. Moodle offers several methods for student enrollment.

Manual Enrollment

As a teacher, you can manually enrol students in your course. Under ‘Course administration’, click ‘Users’, then ‘Enrolled users’. Here you can add students by clicking the ‘Enroll users’ button.

Self-Enrollment

You can also allow students to enrol themselves. This can be done by adding the ‘self-enrollment’ method in the ‘Enrollment methods’ section under ‘Course administration’.

Cohort Enrollment

Cohorts are site-wide or category-wide groups. If you have a predefined cohort, you can simultaneously enrol the whole cohort in a course.

Guest Access

For more open courses, you might allow guest access. This will enable users to view your course content without being enrolled.

Your Moodle course is now ready for students to start their learning journey. Remember, as you gain more experience with Moodle, you’ll find numerous ways to refine your courses and enhance the learning experiences you provide.

Managing Your Course Post-Launch

Launching your course is a significant milestone, but your Moodle journey is far from over. The true magic of online learning lies in its dynamic nature – in the ongoing interactions with students, the real-time tracking of progress, and the ability to continually refine your course for optimal learner outcomes. This section’ll discuss how to manage your course after it goes live.

Facilitating Interaction

As an instructor, your role in facilitating student engagement is paramount. Moodle provides several tools to help you foster a lively, interactive learning environment.

• Forums:  Beyond their use for announcements and discussions, forums can be a platform for student questions and peer-to-peer learning. Be active in these spaces, answering queries, providing insights, and encouraging dialogue.
• Messaging:  Moodle’s messaging feature allows for direct communication with students. Use it to provide personalised feedback, clarify instructions, or address individual concerns.
• Comments:  Many activities and resources in Moodle allow for comments. These can be used to gather student feedback, clarify content, or facilitate discussion.

Monitoring Progress

Effective course management involves monitoring student progress closely and intervening when necessary. Here’s how Moodle can assist:

• Activity Completion:  Moodle allows you to set completion conditions for activities and resources (like viewing a resource or submitting an assignment). This provides a clear roadmap for students and will enable you to track progress at a glance.
• Gradebook:  As discussed earlier, the gradebook is your go-to tool for monitoring academic progress. Review this to identify struggling students and adjust your teaching strategies as needed.
• Logs and Reports:  Moodle provides detailed logs and reports that record every action in your course. These can help you understand student behaviour, such as how often they access the course, which resources they use, and when they submit assignments.

Refining Your Course

Your first iteration of any course is unlikely to be perfect. Moodle encourages continual improvement through its flexible design and robust feedback tools.

• Feedback and Survey Activities:  These activities allow you to gather student feedback on your course. Use them to identify what’s working, what’s not, and where you can improve.
• Analytics:  Moodle provides predictive models and analytics to help you identify students at risk of not meeting their learning objectives. This can inform your teaching strategies and help you enhance your course design for future cohorts.

Remember, managing a course post-launch is as essential as its initial setup. It’s about staying connected with your learners, keeping your finger on the pulse of their progress, and being responsive to their needs. As you navigate this phase, take comfort that you’re not alone – Moodle is there to support you every step of the way. Your dedication to providing the best learning experience makes education genuinely transformative.

Course Completion and Beyond

Once your learners have navigated your course, it’s time to wrap things up and start thinking about what comes next. From final assessments and course completions to future improvements and new courses, this last stage of the journey is as important as the first. This section explores how Moodle can assist with this process.

Assessing and Grading

By now, your learners have engaged with your course content and completed various activities. It’s time to assess their understanding and provide feedback.

• Gradebook:  Utilise your gradebook to review all your students’ grades for each activity. This not only gives you a snapshot of your student’s performance but also enables you to give valuable feedback.
• Final Assessments:  You may have a final exam or project, depending on your course design. Use Moodle’s wide range of activity modules, like quizzes or assignments, to conduct these final assessments.

Course Completion

Moodle has a built-in course completion tracking system that clearly indicates progress.

• Setting Up Course Completion:  Navigate to ‘Course Completion’ under ‘Course Administration.’ Here, you can set the criteria that learners must meet to complete the course, such as finishing specific activities, reaching a particular grade, or spending a specified amount of time in the course.
• Tracking Course Completion:  Once you’ve set up course completion, you can track your learners’ progress in the ‘Course Completion’ report.

Certificates and Badges

Consider issuing certificates or badges upon course completion to recognise your learners’ achievements and give them a sense of accomplishment.

• Certificates:  The Custom Certificate plugin can be used to design and issue printable certificates based on predefined criteria.
• Badges:  Badges are a great way to gamify your course and recognise learner achievements throughout their journey, not just at the end. Moodle supports both course and site badges.

Reflecting and Improving

With one course under your belt, it’s time to reflect on the experience, gather feedback, and consider improvements for next time.

• Surveys and Feedback:  Don’t forget to ask your learners for feedback. Their insights can help you understand what worked, what didn’t, and where there’s room for improvement.
• Reviewing Logs and Reports:  Review the logs and reports for your course. These can provide information about how learners interacted with the course and help you make data-informed decisions about future improvements.

The end of a course is just the beginning of a new cycle of course design. Each course you create allows you to learn, improve, and give your students an even better learning experience. As you reflect on your experience and plan for the future, remember that Moodle is a dynamic platform that grows with you.

 Exploring Advanced Moodle Features

You’ve created and managed your first course, but this is just the tip of the Moodle iceberg. As a versatile and powerful LMS, Moodle has many advanced features designed to enhance your online teaching and learning experience further. Let’s explore some of these capabilities that can take your Moodle mastery to the next level.

Groups and Groupings

Moodle allows you to group students, which can be particularly useful for large classes or group work activities.

• Groups:  You can create groups within your course under the ‘Groups’ section in ‘Course Administration.’ Students in the same group can work together on assignments, participate in the same forum discussions, and so on.
• Groupings:  Groupings are a collection of groups. This allows you to assign a particular activity (or a set of activities) to groups rather than to all participants or one specific group.

Competency-Based Education

Moodle supports competency-based education, an approach focused on the mastery of specific skills or knowledge areas.

• Competencies:  These can be defined at the site level and linked to specific courses. Each competency can be rated on a learning plan, providing clear indicators of a learner’s progress.
• Learning Plans:  These are sets of competencies a learner must master. They can be individualised based on a learner’s specific needs or goals.

Mobile Learning

Moodle’s mobile app allows learning to happen anywhere, at any time. The Moodle Mobile app can be downloaded for free and customised to match your branding.

• Offline Access:  Students can download course content for offline access, which can be particularly useful for learners with limited internet access.
• Notifications:  The app supports instant notifications so learners can be immediately notified of course updates, forum posts, or incoming messages.

Integration with Other Systems

Moodle can be integrated with various other systems, expanding its capabilities even further.

• Plugins:  Moodle’s open-source nature means numerous plugins have been developed to add functionality. These range from attendance tracking to plagiarism detection tools.
• External Tools:  You can link to and from different web applications, like Google Apps or Microsoft Office 365, using the LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) standard.
• Learning Analytics :  Moodle can be integrated with learning analytics tools to understand learner behaviour and outcomes better.

Your Moodle journey is one of constant discovery and learning. There’s always more to explore, whether organising learners into groups, implementing competency-based learning, taking your course mobile, or integrating with other systems. As you grow as an educator, so will your knowledge and understanding of Moodle’s vast capabilities. Happy Moodling!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Learning and Teaching

• Assessment & Feedback

How to mark an Assignment online in Moodle

Published on: 31/07/2023 · Last updated on: 03/09/2024

Preparing to grade an Assignment

Before beginning marking in Moodle it’s important to understand how your assignment has been set up, so that you can ensure that you are not showing marks and feedback to students before you are ready for them to see them .

By default, Moodle assignments hide grades and feedback from students through the ‘Marking Workflow’ option.

When you create an Assignment, the ‘Marking Workflow’ setting will be enabled. This automatically hides any marks and feedback that you upload for students until you take specific steps to release the marks and feedback. This is a ‘safer’ option for the requirements of most Teachers .

Guidance on  releasing Marks and Feedback, and sending a notification to students  with a few clicks, using marking workflow can be found below.

If you prefer instead to turn off the marking workflow option you can do so within the Assignment’s settings, under the ‘Grade’ settings.  Note that doing this will mean that any marks and feedback added to Moodle will be immediately visible to students!

If you have turned off Marking Workflow, but you  also  don’t want students to see marks and feedback as soon as they are uploaded, you will need to hide the Assignment link and Gradebook item until you are ready to reveal the marks and feedback.

The guidance below shows how to turn off Marking Workflow (if you wish) and how to hide the Assignment link and Gradebook item:

• Find your Assignment and select Settings

• Scroll down to ‘ Grade ’ settings and expand them
• Set  use marking workflow  to  no
• Save changes

Note: Any marks and feedback you add will now be immediately visible to students!

To manually hide marks and feedback from students you will need to hide the Assignment’s  Gradebook item  and the  Assignment link  (which is often not practical where there are late submissions)

To hide the Gradebook item:

• Go to the  Course Homepage  and choose the Grades tab
• From the Grader Report drop-down menu, choose Gradebook Setup .

• In the row for the Assignment that you wish to hide, in the  Actions  column, choose  Edit  then  Hide .

• Save Changes .
• The Gradebook item will now appear to be greyed out to show that it is not visible to students.

To hide the Assignment link from students:  

• Navigate to the Assignment and, from its  Edit  drop-down menu, choose  Hide .

• You can now begin marking.

Note : When are ready to release marks and feedback to students, don’t forget that you’ll need to make the  Gradebook item  and  Assignment  link visible again.

Lock submissions to prevent changes

Before you begin marking it’s a good idea to lock submissions. This will prevent students from making any changes to their submissions once marking is underway. To do so, navigate to your Assignment and View all submissions .

• Tick the box at the top of the ‘select’ column to select all user submissions.
• From the ‘ With selected…’ drop-down menu choose Lock Submissions .

Note: If you have a large number of students you will need to select the option under the table to ‘show all students on one page’.

Moodle grading interface overview

Moodle has a built-in grading interface that allows you to annotate student assignments, add summary comments and award marks. Student submissions are displayed in PDF form and include a link to the Ouriginal similarity report (where activated).

The image below gives an overview of the built-in grading interface:

• Use the next and previous arrows to move to the next page of the student’s document or choose a page from the drop-down menu.
• Add an annotation to comment (with option to choose background colour).
• Use the arrow tool to select, move or delete existing annotations.
• Other tools such as the pen (squiggly line) for free form drawing or writing, shape tools, line, highlighter)
• Stamp tool/x tool.
• Anchor for an annotation (if you hover over it, it expands to reveal the annotation)
• An annotation
• Click the sub-menu icon in annotation (top right corner) to delete or add annotation to a ‘quicklist’ for the assignment).
• Use navigation to see Previous/Next student’s assignment or filter.
• Add grade here in the right-hand pane.
• Summary feedback can be entered here
• Don’t forget to save any changes made!
• Click to cycle through the options for screen layout

The video below provides an introduction to the grading interface, shows how to annotate student scripts, view Ouriginal reports and award marks. It also details how you can lift anonymity (where anonymous marking is being used) at the end of the marking process.

Marking Assignments Online

Marking a Group Assignment

Where one student has uploaded a file on behalf of her Group, the file will appear against all Group members, and any of these can be marked. On the individual student grading page, an option to ‘ Apply grade and feedback to all members of group ’ will appear. If ticked the grades and feedback will be applied to all group members. 

Allocate Assignments to another Marker

You can use the  Marking Allocation  feature to assign student submissions to a specific marker in your Moodle space.

• Marking allocation  – this allows allocation of markers to work after the deadline.  Marking allocation  depends on  Marking workflow  being enabled.

Marking Workflow  and  Marking Allocation  must be enabled in your assignment settings.

Once these have been enabled, you can allocate assignments to a marker.

• Click on your Assignment link
• Click on  View all submissions

• Tick the box to the left of the student whose assignment you want to allocate, then choose  Set allocated marker  and click  Go .
• At the prompt click  Ok , then on the next page select your allocated marker from the drop-down menu and click  Save Changes .

How to lift anonymity in an Assignment

If you are using Anonymous Marking (blind marking) in Moodle, once you have completed marking, it is necessary to lift anonymity in order to release grades to the Gradebook. Please note that lifting anonymity can only be done once, (you cannot return the assignment to an anonymous state once it has been lifted), so ensure that you have completed all marking before going ahead. 

To lift anonymity.

• Click on the assignment link, then click on  View all submissions
• From the grading actions menu choose  Reveal student identities:

This video also shows the process for lifting anonymity: https://uniofbath.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=dbdb18a7-e4f2-40af-a7fe-acd800a3803c&start=0

Lifting Anonymity

Related Articles

• Anonymous marking in Moodle
• Advanced Grading in Moodle
• Moodle Group Peer Review for Teachers
• How to mark a Moodle Assignment offline and upload feedback
• Introduction to Ouriginal
• How to create an Assignment in Moodle

Article Contents

Make assignment annotating and feedback easier to read and access with Moodle 3.3

Teachers, we are pleased to announce that annotating assignments is now enhanced in Moodle 3.3 with the possibility of collapsing and expanding comments!

In previous versions of Moodle, comments teachers provide while annotating assignments would sometimes cover the original text. Of course this makes it hard to read and perhaps also limits how much feedback teachers can provide.

Now, this new (and very useful feature) in Moodle gives teachers the option of writing comprehensive feedback on assignments that can be collapsed so it won’t block over the original text.

This then makes reading feedback easier for students.

Using this new feature is also super simple.

When teachers are grading assignments and are adding comments as feedback for the student, comments are automatically collapsed as they move to a different area.

If they need to see the comments again, the teachers simply need to click on them and the comments enlarge to become readable.

In addition, teachers can also collapse and expand all comments at once through a click of a button.

Thank you to Moodle community member, Tony Butler, for working on this new improvement with us.

Enjoy adding comprehensive comments when annotating assignment submissions and being able to collapse them for greater readability.

Watch our step by step guide to see how the assignment collapsible comments in Moodle 3.3 works.

Assignment collapsible comments

• Download Moodle 3.3 or contact a Moodle Partner for upgrading assistance
• Download the Moodle 3.3 assignment collapsible comments explainer poster
• Read the Moodle 3.3 release notes

Subscribe to Moodle news

First Name*:

Last Name*:

Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Republic Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia DR Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Macedonia Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St Kitts and Nevis St Vincent and Grenadines Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland

If you want more information about Moodle, its software products and services, recommendations and promotions subscribe to Moodle's monthly newsletter. You can always unsubscribe if you change your mind.

Register for Moodle Moot 2024

MoodleMoot Italia 2024: Why Viterbo is the place to be for educators

Connecting Latin America’s EdTech leaders: Join the LATAM Moodle Partners at MoodleMoot Global 2024

Empowering educators with Moodle Certified Integration Nolej

Swarthmore College – ITS Blog

Grading Assignments in Moodle with the Built-in Annotation Tool

Using the built-in assignment grader tool.

Did you know new improvements have been made to Moodle’s built-in Assignment Activity grading interface? The new interface will convert student submissions to PDF so that you can view and annotate assignments on your desktop in addition to entering grades and feedback.

The built-in grading function in Assignments allows the grader to:

• Make annotated comments directly into the file, which Moodle automatically converts to a pdf
• Give short, general comments in the Feedback Comments text box
• Upload feedback files into the proper feedback box
• Grade the submission

Using the Built-in Annotation Tool

The top left of the banner allows you to navigate back to the course site page or assignment description page. The top center displays the current student’s name and email information. The top right of the banner allows you to navigate to other student submissions.

Right Column

The right column of the annotation tool displays a link to the assignment submission file in its original file format. It also contains a feedback comments text box, and the feedback files upload box.

Center Area

The center area displays the PDF document to be annotated. Use the annotation toolbar to mark up the submitted PDF document. You can use the highlighter, comment box, and pen tool from the top menu bar.

Footer Area

At the bottom of the screen there are three options: Notify Students, Save, and Reset.

• Notify students will send the current student an email notifying them that their assignment has been graded. Uncheck this box if you do not want the student to receive a notification
• Save changes is required to complete grading the assignment of the current student selected
• Reset will clear all feedback comments

If you’d like to learn more about the different ways to grade Assignments in Moodle take a look at the video below. Or feel free to reach out to the Academic Technologist team at [email protected] . We’d be happy to go over this tool or any other Moodle question with you at anytime.

Share this:

• Request Info
• Academic Support
• Admission and Aid
• Student Engagement
• News and Events
• MyBCC Login
• Apply for Free!
• Request Information

How to Submit an Upload File Assignment in Moodle

Knowledge Base

• Search BCC's Knowledge Base
• BCC Technology
• Microsoft Office and Teams
• General Tips and Questions
• Help Request Form

Many classes at BCC, especially online classes, will require you to submit your student work electronically through our Moodle Learning Management System. Submitting work is easy, the steps below will show how.

Note: Make sure you are logged into your Moodle course and have navigated to the assignment before beginning these instructions. If you need help logging into your Moodle course, please see our article on How to Log Into Moodle .

• The Assignment screen will appear showing instructions and your Submission status (date submitted, grade, etc.) for this assignment. Read the assignment instructions as each assignment may be different and you don't want to miss important information from your professor.
• Open a word-processing program such as Word, type your assignment as your professor instructed, and save it to your computer.

Note: If you are submitting the assignment late the " Add submission " button may not appear as some instructors do not accept late assignments. If this is the case contact your instructor to discuss next steps.

• Click on Upload a file , then click Browse .

Note: Keep going! Your work is not submitted quite yet!

You may click the Edit submission button to add or replace uploaded files before finalizing.

Note: Once you click "Continue" you will not be able to make any more changes.

Search the Knowledge Base:

Contact us and online help.

Sometimes we all need a little assistance, especially with technology.

Online Help Request Form Monday – Friday: 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Monday – Thursday: 4 – 7 p.m. (when evening classes are in session) Phone: 413-499-4660, ext. 6501

BCC Student Technology Support Email: [email protected] Phone: 413-236-2166

BCC IT Help Desk Email: [email protected] Phone: 413-236-3004, or ext. 3004 on campus

Note: The Digital Commons and BCC IT Help Desk can only directly support college owned equipment and software. Limited support is provided to personally owned devices such as laptops, cell phones and tablets.

Make it your BCC

• Apply Today
• Request Program Info
• Give a Gift

Documentation

Note: You are currently viewing documentation for Moodle 2.2. Up-to-date documentation for the latest stable version is available here: Assignment module .

Assignment module

• Managing activities
• External tool

The assignment module allows teachers to collect work from students, review it and provide feedback including grades. The work a student submits is visible only to the teacher and not to other students.

• Assignment settings
• Using Assignment
• Assignment FAQ

Students can submit any digital content (files), including, for example, word-processed documents, spreadsheets, images, audio and video clips. Assignments don't necessarily have to consist of file uploads. Alternatively, teachers can ask students to type directly into Moodle using an online text assignment. There is also an offline activity assignment which can be used to remind students of 'real-world' assignments they need to complete and to record grades in Moodle for activities that don't have an online component.

Assignment types

There are 4 types of assignments:

• Workshop module allows peer to peer evaluations
• Using Moodle single file upload vs. advanced uploading forum discussion
• Activity modules