Assignments
There are 2 assignment types. Both types allow submission to Turnitin for plagiarism checking, although one is more specific to Turnitin. There are pros and cons to each, but we recommend using Moodle's assignment type unless you are familiar with Turnitin's.
Instructional Video
Adding An Assignment
In the top right corner of your course page, click on the Edit mode button to move it to the right, which allows you to edit your page.
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Click on the Add an activity or resource link in the appropriate week or topic.
Click on Assignment under the All or Activities tab.
There are a number of sections under the assignment settings with various settings. We will cover some of the more important and commonly used ones. Click on the appropriate title for more information.
Type in an Assignment name - this will be the named link that the students will click on to access the assignment.
Description allows you to type in a short description of the assignment. When checked, the checkbox named Display description on course page will display the description along with the name of the assignment on the course page. Otherwise, it would only be shown after the students clicked on the assignment name.
Activity instructions is where you can lay out the actions you would like your students to complete for the assignment. These instructions only show up for students on the page where they go to upload their submissions.
Additional files allows you to upload any relevant files for the assignment (e.g. a template for a lab report, extensive instructions for a larger assignment, a PDF file for them to read and respond to, etc.).
When the Allow submissions from, Due date, and Cut-off date values are not enabled (no checkmark beside Enable), assignments can be viewed and submitted at any time.
The Allow submissions from option prevents students from submitting an assignment before the set date and time.
The Due date option is just as it says.
The Cut-off date is the date and time at which submissions will no longer be accepted if the Enable box is checked. If this option is set later than the Due date, students can submit their assignments late.
If Due date is set but Cut-off date is NOT enabled, assignments may be submitted late (forever) but will be flagged in red when you go to mark them.
Remind me to grade by is an option for your benefit that simply reminds you to mark your assignments.
The Always show description checkbox determines whether or not students can see the assignment description before the assignment is available for submission.
The Submission types section allows you to set the type of assignment and related options.
Cloud Poodll allows students to make audio or video recordings to submit as an assignment.
Online Poodll allows students to create their assignments on a whiteboard.
File submissions is probably the most commonly used type and allows students to upload one or more assignments, depending on the number you set in the dropdown list.
Online text requires students to type their assignments directly into an HTML editor like use in Moodle.
File submissions
Maximum number of uploaded files limits the number of files that can be uploaded for one assignment submission, 20 being the maximum.
Maximum submission size limits the size of each file that can be uploaded.
Accepted file types can be used to force students to upload only certain types of files (e.g. Word documents, PDFs, computer code files, etc.
Online text
Online text is typically used for a shorter response and requires students to type their assignments directly into a text area. This option also allows you to set a Word limit. You will need to include this word limit in your instructions so your students are aware. Moodle will not allow the submission of a response with more words than are permitted. Students can use the word count button (#) on the editor toolbar to track their progress.
Cloud Poodll
The Cloud Poodll assignment type allows students to record either an audio or a video file to submit.
The Feedback comments option allows you to leave comments for each assignment.
The Feedback files option allows you to upload marked assignments to students (the Advanced uploading of files assignment type allowed this in the previous version of ACORN).
The Annotate PDF option allows you to mark the assignment online using various mark-up and comments.
The Offline grading worksheet option allows you to download and re-upload a spreadsheet for entering grades.
The Feedback PoodLL option allows you to use audio/video feedback for assignments.
The Require students click submit button should be left as No unless you are working with something like a thesis with ongoing edits (drafts). If set to Yes, the student must click a Submit button in order to mark the assignment as final, thus preventing them from changing it and allowing you to mark.
The Require that students accept the submission statement requires students to check a box before they submit their assignment which essentially states that the work is their own.
Setting Attempts reopened to Never prevents the students from submitting more than once. Manually means that you can allow them to re-submit. Automatically until pass can be used if you just want to allow students to be able to re-upload until the assignment is closed, until they have passed, or until the Maximum attempts number has been reached.
Turnitin plagiarism plugin:
Set Enable Turnitin to Yes and then choose the appropriate options in order to send submitted files of the allowed types to turnitin.com to be checked for plagiarism. Results will show up when you view submitted assignments.
Grade:
Select the Grade out of which the assignment will be marked.
Typically, Simple direct grading will be the appropriate Grading method. Marking guide allows you to assign marks according to different criteria that you set up in a guide. And Rubric allows you to set up and use, you guessed it, a rubric.
The Grade category option allows you to list your assignment an already created category in the Grader report.
Blind marking, if set to Yes, prevents you from seeing the identity of the student when you mark the assignment. Once a submission or grade has been made, this option is locked.
Common module settings:
Here you can Show or Hide the assignment, assign an ID number for more complicated marking options, and select your Group settings when needed.
Restrict access:
In this section, you can use various settings to restrict access to your assignment based on things like dates and times, and grade conditions. You can also select whether students can either see the assignment greyed out or not see it at all when conditions are not met.
Notify graders about submissions should be left set to No unless you want to receive an email every time an assignment is submitted.
Notify graders about late submissions is similar but will only send an email when a late submission occurs.
Default for 'Notify student' should be left set to Yes so that students get emails confirming their assignments have been submitted.
