How to Set up an Assignment Activity on Moodle

Owned by Annamaria Souri, created
Last updated: Oct 15, 2020
6 min read

This guide details the steps of how to set up an Assignment activity on Moodle at the end of which you will be able to start accepting student submissions.

For a video overview of the basic options on how to set up an Assignment please view this video: HERE

Step 1

Click HERE or type “UNIC moodle” on your browser in order to log in. If you have difficulties logging in please follow this guide : How to Login to Faculty Moodle

Step 2

Once you have logged in, select the course you would like to set up an assignment on and then click on the right side of the screen the button “Turn editing on”.

Step 3

By clicking on that button you can now edit any activities/resources already existing in the course to set up an Assignment click on “Add an activity or resource” as pointed out by an arrow in the above image.

You can turn editing off on the by clicking on the upper right side of the screen the button :

Step 4

On this dialog box which will appear click on the “Assignment” activity as shown above.

Step 5

Once step 4 is complete you will be directed to this page in which you can customize your assignment to fill your needs and when you are done click on “Save and return to course” or “Save and display” to save.

Note that if you click on “Cancel” it will nullify the process and you will lose all the progress made.

Below you will find instructions for each of the settings available:

Assignment settings

Name: Enter a name for the activity. This name will be displayed on the course page.

Description: You may use this space to provide your students with the actual Assignment Description (if not already provided elsewhere in the course) or additional instructions for the Assignment, e.g. required readings before submitting, paper formatting requirements, etc.

Display description on course page: By enabling this checkbox the text entered in the Description will also be displayed on the course page under the Name.

Additional files: You can add additional files that the students might need to complete the assignment, e.g. worksheets, templates, etc.

Allow submissions from: Enabling this will allow you to set a date & time after which students can submit their assignment.

Due date: Enabling this will enforce a due date which will be indicated to students in the activity. Submission of assignments will still be allowed after this date but these assignments will be indicated as late.

RECOMMENDED: It is best to at least set a due date for each assignment activity to allow your students plan their workloads.

Cut-off date: If set, this will prevent students from submitting after the specified date. Submissions will only be accepted if the specified student is granted an extension. More information on that can be found here: How to Grand an Extension on an Assignment on Moodle

Remind me to grade by: The expected date that marking of the assignments should be completed by. This date is not displayed to students. This date is used only to prioritize your dashboard notifications.

Note regarding times:
Start of the day → set the time to 00:00
End of the day → set the time to 23:59

Submission types: Assignments are set up to accept files by default. You can also choose to accept Online text - where students will type their answer directly in Moodle - by enabling the option.

OPTIONAL: If you request that students write a short passage, approx. 0-300 words, you might consider using Online text.

Maximum number of uploaded files: Default 20 files will be accepted per student. You can reduce this if necessary.

Maximum submission size: Default to the maximum allowed for the course. This is the maximum file size allowed per file. More information to change the maximum allowed file size can be found here: How to Increase the File Size Limit on Moodle

Accepted file types: You can restrict students to only submit specified file types. These can be selected from the list provided, click Choose, or entered in the field provided for anything that is not found on the list. Multiple file types can be accepted.

Feedback types: This indicates what type of feedback you can provide to your students for their submitted files.

  • Feedback comments: Leave short feedback directly within Moodle. Enabled by default.

  • Feedback files: if enabled, you can upload a file with your feedback.

RECOMMENDED: Enable feedback files is a popular option among the lecturers as you are able to use this feature to download the student’s paper make comments via Track Changes or PDF comments and then re-upload this file for the student to review as feedback.

Students submit in groups: If this Assignment will be used as a Group activity then change this setting to Yes. A group submission will be available in the activity for the student group and all group members will see the others' changes to the submission.

Enable Turnitin: If you want the papers in this Assignment to be checked for similarities then keep this set to Yes. Set to Yes by default.

Display Similarity Reports to Students: If set to Yes then the Turnitin similarity report generated for the assignment will be displayed to the student.

Store Student Papers: This setting indicates if you want to store the student papers in the Turnitin repository so that it can be used in future similarity checks by the Turnitin service.

  • No Repository: The papers will not be stored, but the similarity check will still be conducted for papers submitted in this activity.

  • Standard Repository: The papers will be stored for future similarity checks. The similarity check will also be conducted for papers submitted in this activity.

Grade: Select a grading method to be used. By default all assignments are graded out of 100 points.

Use marking workflow: If enabled, you can track preset grading stages for each student's Assignment submission. You can view the workflow status of all student submissions at any time, but grading information is only released to students in the last step. The students will also be aware of which stage of grading their paper is - as set by you. you may use as many or few grading stages. The various stages are:

  1. Not graded: The grader has not yet started grading.

  2. In grading: The grader has started but not yet finished grading.

  3. Grading completed: The grader has finished, but might need to go back for checking/corrections on the graded items.

  4. In review: The marking is now with the instructor in charge of checking quality.

  5. Ready for release: The instructor in charge is satisfied with the marking, but will wait before giving the student access to the marking results.

  6. Released: The student can access the grades/feedback.

OPTIONAL: Use marking workflow to release all the students grades simultaneously for the specific assignment.

Add Restriction: Various restrictions can be added to the activity to determine if students can view this activity.

Completion tracking: This allows you to set how you want the activity to be considered as complete.

RECOMMENDED: Change this option in the dropdown to Show activity as complete when conditions are met. Then select the option Student must submit to this activity to complete it.

 

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