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In this series of videos, we’re going to look at the four different kinds of assignments
in Moodle 2.
We will look at the setting up features,
of each kind, the posting features of each kind, and we
will look at the grading features of each kind. Let’s begin.
To begin adding an assignment
you need to click the “Turn editing on” button
in your course.
Then, from the dropdown menu labeled
“Add an activity”, you’ll see “Assignments”.
Notice that there are four different kinds of assignments
Advanced uploading of files, Online text,
Upload a single file, and Offline activity.
Briefly, “Advance uploading of files” allows
a number of files to be uploaded and downloaded, so the student
can submit several drafts, and then a final copy. You can
mark those and return those to the students. So, there can be an exchange of files
between the instructor and the students
“Online text” means no files are uploaded and downloaded
The assignment is
one for which the submission is either
composed directly into the browser window, or copied and pasted into the browser window.
And,
viewed in the browser. There’s no need to upload and download
documents. We’ll take a look at how that actually functions.
“Upload a single file” is exactly what it says:
students can upload a file.
An “Offline activity” is an assignment
for which there are no files submitted. Now, let’s
take a look at each one of these
The first one we’ll look at is “Advance uploading of files”.
When you click on “Advance uploading of files”, this is the window
you’ll be taken to. It has a number of fields that you’ll need to complete
in order to set up the assignment. Let’s take a look at each of these.
The first is the Assignmentment name; the second is
the Description. You can set the
Available dates if you want to, or you can disable them
so that the assignment will always be available
If you do set a due date, you can choose whether
or not to allow late submissions. If you allows late submissions,
you will get an indication that it is in fact late.
The date and time for every submission will be clearly indicated
also, regardless of whether you set it
to “yes” or “no” for late submissions.
The next, set of fields that you need to look at is the
actual way that you are going to grade this assignment.
As with other things in Moodle, you can use Scales,
if Outcomes were setup, you could use Outcomes. You could set it to
No grade, or you could set it to a numerical grade. In this case,
I’m going to leave the grade at 100. The grading method
I’m going to use is a simple direct grading. We’re not going to be
going in-depth on the Rubric grading method in this
workshop, but in upcoming workshops we may take a look at that.
For now, we just leave it as “simple direct grading”.
You’ll remember that, in the beginning of the course, we created categories
in our gradebook. We would definitely want
this assignment to go in the assignment category, where it can then be
weighted. So, we’re going to click “Assignments”. If you hadn’t set up
the gradebook , you wouldn’t have this option. Everything would go into the
uncategorized category. You could move it later
if you created your categories, after you created the item.
Now let’s look at the “Advanced uploading of files
area. You can set the
maximum size of files that you will allow
uploaded to the course.
If you were working with video files, or audio files, you would definitely want the
higher end. If you are not working with video or audio
you could leave it at 1 MB. It’s entirely up to you.
The next option, allows students to delete previously
submissions, as long as they are still drafts.
The maximum number of uploaded files is set by you to determine how many
drafts and other submissions students can set. “Allow notes”
allows students to add little notes with their submissions. Either for themselves, or
you. “HIde description before
available date” is kind of self-explanatory.
It would hide the description of the assignment before the due date.
Email alerts to teachers, would alert you when a student has
submitted an assignment or a draft.
“Enable send for marking button”--if this is set
to “yes” a little button will appear at the bottom of the
submission area for students to send, whatever copies
of files have been uploaded, for marking.
At that point, the student can no longer
edit the submissions. They can not delete any; they can not add any more.
If it is set to “no”, then
students can continue to delete files, add files,
etc until you
mark it. Once you grade the assignment, it is closed
and students can no longer delete or
submit new documents to the assignment.
The remaining settings are common for every activity. Group mode
we’re not going to look at this in this workshop.
Restrictive access allows you to restrict access
to items based on criteria that you set.
And, then, below that is the Activity
completion area. For this, we’re going to
have this marked as complete when I have
set a grade. And now we’re going to
Save and return to course and look at this from the student’s perspective.
I’m logged in as a student, and I’m going to click
the link for the assignment. When I do,
in the window that opens, I can see the instructions
from the instructor on what this assignment is about.
and what’s expected from me. I can also see the due date
Now, in this case, the student has
previously submitted some files
we’re going to
delete some of these.
And upload
some others
So, we’ll choose a file from our desktop
and we’ll add our “resources”.
And we’ll
add our
“data”.
And now, the student has
submitted three documents.
These files are available for the instructor to look at
and comment on.
You’ll notice the student does still have the button to send for marking.
Once the student clicks this button to “send for marking” these files
will no longer be able to be edited. So she can not delete any,
add any. Let’s see how that works.
We’ll click “send for marking”. You’ll notice that I get a
warning that once the assignment is set for marking, I will no longer be able to
delete or attach files. Do I want to continue? Yes, continue. And now,
the documents are ready for grading.
Okay, so now let’s take a look at
this assignment from the instructor’s view when they are ready to grade the paper.
Select the link for the assignment, and
you’re taken to the general area where there is a description of the assignment
and also the due date. It tells me in this upper
right-hand corner, that there are assignments that I can grade. So,
I’m going to click on that. This will take me to the grading area
for this assignment. You’ll notice that it looks very much like the gradebook.
There are these little square icons in the corner
that allow me to collapse the various columns in the gradebook
so I don’t have to scroll back and forth.
And, then you’ll see that it tells me the date
of the submissions for these particular items.
I can click this “Grade” link, right here
And, when I do a window will open
that will allow me to open and look at each one of these documents.
Now, this student submitted it as a final paper, but I
I could revert these back to draft format, if I feel that
she needs to do more work on it.
I can assign a grade.
At which point, it will be graded. So let’s assign a grade.
I can leave very comprehensive feedback on this
assignment for the student.
And I can even add
a file to return back to the student, if I choose to.
Perhaps I will send her an edited copy
send her an edited copy of something.
And I can choose to send her a notification that I
have in fact graded this assignment. I can continue
grading other assignments
by simply clicking “save and show next”
and it will open the next individual’s assignment, which I can grade.
Or, I can just select “save changes” and I will be back
in my gradebook. And you can see that there’s a grade
and there’s my comments, and
last modified grade date, and the final grade on this
Now, if I wanted to do “quick grading”
I can select “allow quick grading”
and if I do that, it allow me to enter
grades quickly instead of going over here and doing it
this way. I could assign a grade,
and put in comments. This is useful for some kinds of assignments
but not particularly useful for this
kind of assignment.
Now, let’s look at what the student sees after it’s graded.
Okay, I’ve logged in as a student. You’ll notice that
there is a checkmark next to this Research Paper item.
That means that I’ve complete it.
If you remember, when we set up this assignment, we set it up that it would be
completed once it’s graded. The student now knows that its
complete. It has been graded. If she clicks on the link
You’ll notice that the submission feedback is right here
along with the grade and the document that
the instructor uploaded for the student to see. In addition to that.
are the submissions that the student had submitted.
The student can go back and review any of these items
and compare them to the instructor’s comments.
Very nice feature. In the next video
we’ll take a look at another kind of assignment.