how to create assignment on blackboard

Creating Assignments

Assignments are created in Content Areas, but can also be added to Learning Modules, Lesson Plans, and folders. Any instructions and file attachments that students need to complete the assignment are provided at the time of creation. You can deliver assignments to each student individually or as collaborative work for groups of students.

As assignments are created, you will work in Edit Mode ON. Edit Mode ON allows you to view all of the instructor functions.

The easiest way to collect assignments, papers, or files from your students is to create an Assignment in Blackboard.

• In Edit Mode ON click the Assignments link on your course’s homepage.
• Click on Assessments.

• On the Create Assignment page, enter a Name for your assignment.  This is required.
• In the Instructions box, add the instructions for the assignment–if desired. This is optional.

• If you are going to accept late submissions, select and set the Due Date and time.  If you are not going to accept late submissions, leave this section blank.
• Scroll down and enter the Points Possible.
• For Number of Attempts, we strongly recommend that you either allow unlimited attempts or allow a certain number of attempts rather than allowing just a single attempt.  Experience shows that at least one of your students will accidentally submit the wrong file or accidentally submit an assignment with no file attached.  If you set Number of Attempts to Allow Single attempt, that student will be locked out of the assignment and you will need to manually clear his or her assignment attempt in your Grade Center before the student will be able to submit the correct file.  However, choosing to allow 2 attempts gives your students one “do-over” if they need it and it and won’t impact your grading at all because, by default, Blackboard shows you the student’s most recent submission (although there is an option to view and download a student’s previous submissions.)
• Select the checkbox to Make the Assignment Available. This makes your Assignment available to students, although you can choose the date and time that students can see or not see this Assignment under Limit Availability.
• Select and set Display After for the date and time you will start accepting student submissions and select and set Display Until for the date and time the assignment is due.  This prevents students from submitting assignments after the deadline.

Blackboard will display a green success box telling you that you assignment has been successfully created.  To see what your assignment looks like from a student’s point of view, turn Edit Mode off.

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Online Assignments in Blackboard

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You can create assignments within Blackboard and provide feedback using rubrics and annotations. Blackboard assignments offer greater support for group submissions and delegated marking than Turnitin assignments but have more limited annotation tools.

→ Click on the titles below to view information and guides on using Blackboard assignments.

Online assignments allow students to submit essays in Blackboard and provide you with the functionality to give detailed feedback to your students using annotations, rubrics and text. Click on the video below for a brief overview of how you can use rubrics in Blackboard assignments to provide detailed feedback to enhance student learning. A separate page is available for  Turnitin in Blackboard assignments .

If you are planning to use the Blackboard Assignments tool for summative online exams, we have an overview page on online exams giving general advice on using Blackboard Assignments, Tests and Turnitin for exams.

Notice regarding the SafeAssign Similarity Score : You can enable SafeAssign when creating a Blackboard assignment - this allows you to check a student's submission against the SafeAssign database of papers. The similarity score in the SafeAssign report is not a measure of plagiarism within a piece of work but represents where there are similarities to other sources (journals, essays, books etc.). A submission with a high similarity score might be satisfactory once the bibliography, cover sheet etc. are accounted for whereas a submission could have a low score but could be heavily paraphrasing other sources without citation.

You can use online assignments to:

Quick Guide 1: Creating an Online Assignment

This Quick Guide gives IT Services' recommended settings for creating a standard individual or group assignment in Blackboard.

Quick Guide 2: Grading Student Submissions

This Quick Guide gives IT Services' recommended settings for grading individual or group assignment submissions in Blackboard.

Quick Guide 3: Releasing Assignment Results

This Quick Guide gives IT Services' recommended settings for releasing results for an assignment in Blackboard.

Webinar Recording: Assignments in Blackboard (Oct 2022)

This webinar recording covers how to create and grade individual or group assignments in Blackboard and the Bb Annotate tools for providing feedback.

Webinar Excerpt: Weighted Total Column

This brief excerpt from the Assignments in Blackboard webinar covers how to set up the Weighted Total column in your Blackboard module.

Submission Guide for Your Students

An online guide for students is also available to help them with the submission process. Refer your students to the 'Student Help' tab in Blackboard (top right of the screen after logging in) to access this and other guides on using Blackboard.

Blackboard Vs Turnitin Assignments

This interactive guide gives an overview of the pros and cons of using Blackboard or Turnitin assignments.

Procedure: if a student has issues submitting we would advise them to contact the module instructor so there is a record of this and because the instructor would need to make a determination as to whether to allow an additional attempt based on the different circumstances. Clearing/resetting attempts needs to be done by the instructor of a particular module in the first instance. We also strongly recommend that if there are submission issues due to account/access problems etc. with an individual student, please accept the submission via email as proof of submission until the issue is resolved. If an instructor cannot resolve the issue themselves, the instructor can contact us for advice via [email protected]. We recommend therefore when you create an assignment to allow more than one attempt. More details on granting an additional attempt are available on the Blackboard website.

Video Guide:

Below is a video guide covering the steps required to create a Panopto Student Video Assignment. You can also find a text version of the instructions on this page below the video.

Instructions: Create a Panopto Student Video Submission Assignment in Blackboard

• Choose a Location:
• Navigate to your Blackboard module, then select a folder in the left-hand menu where you would like to add the Panopto Student Video Submission Assignment (you could create a folder called Assessments and include it there if you do not already have one).
• Set Up the Assignment:
• Go to the menu bar within the folder and select Assessments > Assignment .
• Give the assignment a clear and descriptive name and enter instructions (refer to our Blackboard Assignments page for general advice on creating an assignment and the available options).
• Enable Panopto Submission:
• In the < Instructions > field, click the < + add content > button in the editor bar.
• An < Add Content > pop-up window will appear. Scroll down and select the < Panopto Student Submission> option. Important Note: This will open the Panopto Student Submission window, which creates an assignment subfolder within the module's Panopto folder. Students can use this subfolder to create and edit their video recordings before submitting them. Students cannot see each other's work in this folder. When the student is ready to submit, their recording is moved from the assignment's subfolder to a Student Submissions subfolder for review and marking via the Blackboard grade centre.
• Information for Students for recording: Student Submission
• Students will use the Panopto Student Submission tool to record their videos.
• They can save drafts of their work in their personal " My Folder " location within their Blackboard Panopto account to revisit the video and make edits.
• Once they are happy with their video, students will submit it through the Panopto Student Submission tool, which will move the final version from the interim Assignments subfolder (their own my Panopto folder) to the "Student Submissions" folder. Why not show the interim subfolder? The assignments subfolder may not be visible to students as it's a subfolder of the module's parent Panopto folder, which the lecturer may have hidden as the Panopto parent folder contains the lecturers' lecture recordings, which they may not want students to see. It's recommended that students use their " My Folder " for drafts to avoid confusion.
• Finalize the Assignment Settings:
• Close the Panopto Student Submission window by clicking on the X button to close and the Add Content window.
• Add any additional instructions for students in the instructions field in the assignment window. We advise that you insert the URL link to the Instruction Guide for Students Submitting their Video Assignments.
• Set the due date, point marks (always mark out of 100 if you are using Grades Journey), and <submission details> (allowing one attempt is recommended).
• Decide on your < marking options > and < display of marks > settings.
• Define when the assignment will be available and for how long with the availability settings.
• Click the Submit button to create and save the student video assignment, completing your setup.
• Grading Submitted Videos: Grading
• When students submit their video assignments, they will be stored within the Panopto folder (your Panopto link in the left-hand menu) –> Module Assignments –> Student Submissions Folder.
• Review in Blackboard: The easiest way to review submissions is via the Blackboard grade centre. Clicking on the student's video assignment in the grade centre will open the video player. You click on the student video to play it back and add your points, marks, and comments to record it in the grade centre for that student's attempt. The Blackboard grade centre will be updated with your marks for the student's video assignment.
• When drafting their submission, students create their videos in their My Folder (private to them) and can continue to edit this until they click on Submit. Once they submit their video, the file gets copied into a Student Submissions subfolder within your module's Panopto folder, thus preventing further editing. Important Note: We recommend they instead save their work-in-progress video recording to their own Panopto "My Folder" location until they are finally ready to submit the video assignment. The added advantage is that the student keeps a copy of their video recording in their My Folder Panopto account for future reference.
• Students can only see their own submissions - not each other's by default within the Student Assignment subfolder in your module's Panopto folder. 
• The best way to grade student submissions is using the Grade Centre, as you would with a standard Blackboard assignment.
• Steps for your students are available in the Student Help tab . There is also an  Instructor Guide: How to set up a Student Video Submission Assignment in Blackboard  available to download above to attach to the assignment.
• Please consider the type of content students are asked to create and be mindful of potential risks associated with video assignments. Generally, the Panopto Student Video Submission option allows students to create recorded presentations. Consequently, there can potentially be data protection (GDPR) or privacy-related issues if students are asked to record videos involving themselves or third parties. Students should always be provided clear guidance and instruction before content creation. For example, avoid tasks leading to students creating videos containing sensitive or confidential information. Instructors should give students specific instructions regarding recording confidential data or special categories of personal data. Essentially, this type of data should not be recorded. For further information, please see this page on Special Category Data on the Data Protection website .
• If a student video assignment contains personal data of other individuals (e.g., a visual or audio recording of a person or other identifiable information), the student should obtain permission/consent from relevant individuals before recording. Permission should be obtained in a recordable format and retained on file.
• Caution should always be exercised when recording video assignments, and it may be a good idea to have students run their ideas past you if they are different from a standard presentation. Moreover, staff should review content and delete unnecessary, excessive or inappropriate data if included in a video assignment.
• Further information is available from the College Data Protection Officer - [email protected] or via the College Data Protection website - https://www.tcd.ie/dataprotection/ .
• Not all students will be comfortable creating and editing videos of themselves, so you should consider alternative assessments for those students who may not feel able to create a video.
• The Student Video Submission tool is provided by Panopto as part of their video hosting solution - if College ever changes to another video hosting provider (for example, as part of a tender process approximately every five years), we cannot guarantee that the new video hosting provider will have an equivalent assignment feature - however, staff would be notified well in advance of any change and workarounds may still be possible. 

Terms of Use:

Please refer to our Terms of Use document   for further guidelines and information on the Data Proctection aspects of using the Panaopto Student Video Submission Assignment option.

Below are external links and additional resources to help you get started with Blackboard Assignments.

If you are new to using online assignments we would recommend that you create a standard online assignment as above before using some of these features as options like Delegated Marking can add significant complexity to the marking workflow.

• Official Blackboard Assignments Hub Page
• Rubrics Guide
• Creating Weighted Total Columns
• Anonymous Grading
• Navigating the Grade Centre
• Viewing Grade History
• Creating & Managing Groups
• Delegated Grading

Latest Updates:

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• Creating an Assignment in Blackboard

These instructions will show how to create an assignment drop box in Blackboard.  SafeAssign is an optional tool for checking student submissions for

Creating an Assignment

Log into your Blackboard course, and go to the content area you would like to add the assigment to.  At the top of the page, click on the Create Assessment button and choose Assignment.

Setting up Assignment Information

Assignment Information allows you to enter a description for the assignment.

• Name and Color: Enter a name for the assignment here, and use the color selector to change the color of the assignment link.
• Instructions: Enter a description for the assignment using the provided textbox.

Attaching Files to the Assignment

Assignment Files allows you to attach a file to the assignment, for example assignment guidelines or a sample assignment.  To attach a file, click on the Browse Local Files to attach a file from your computer, or click Browse Course Files to attach a file that has already been added to the course content collection. Users can also drag a file from their computer into this area to upload a file.

Setting up the Assignment Due Date

Due Dates allows users to set a due date for the assignment.  To set a due date, check the box and use the date and time pickers to set the due date.  The due date will be recorded in the students' To Do module, and will create a calendar entry for the student.  If students submit an assignment past the due date, the system will mark it as late.

Setting up Grading Information

The Grading section allows you to specify the point value for the assignment.

• Points Possible: Enter the point value for the assignment.  If you are setting up the assignment for extra credit, enter 0.
• Associated Rubrics: If you have created an interactive rubric, click the Add Rubric button to add the rubric to the assignment.
• Submission Details: Click on Submission Details to expand this section to set up parameters related to the submission of the assignment
• Grading Options: Click on Grading Options to enable options related to anonymous grading and delegated grading.
• Display of Grades: Click on Display of Grades to determine how grades will be displayed to students.

Setting up Assignment Submission Details

After clicking on Submission Details, the screen will expand to show the following options:

• Assignment Type : Choose the type of assignment submission ( Individual Submission, Group Submission, or Portfolio Submission )
• Number of Attempts: Select the number of attempts to allow students to make (Single Attempt, Multiple Attempts, Unlimited Attempts).
• Maximum Attempts: If you selected multiple attempts, enter the maximum number of allowed attempts here.
• Score Attempts Using: If you selected multiple or unlimited attempts, select the desired option for reporting graded attempts to students ( Last Graded Attempt, Highest Attempt, Lowest Attempt, First Graded Attempt, or Average of Graded Attempts) .
• Plagiarism tools: Check the box for the option labeled Check Submissions for plagiarism using Safe Assign to check students for plagiarism.
• Allow students to view Safe Assign Originality Report for their attempts : Check this checkbox to make the safe assign report visible to student.
• Exclude Submissions: Check this option to exclude student papers from SafeAssign's databases.

Assigning the Assignment to Groups

To assign the assignment to groups:

• Select the Group Submission option under Assignment Type.
• Items to Select: Select the groups from the left column you wish to assign the assignment to.
• Click the right-facing arrow button to select the groups and move them into the Selected Items column:
• Selected Items : Groups to which the assignment has been assigned will appear here.

Modifying Grading Options

Note regarding the Delegated Grading feature: Users with TA or instructor access to your course can already grade assignments, use delegated grading only if you wish to assign grading responsibilities to multiple other instructors or TAs, and if you wish to approve provisional grades before being posted to the grade center.

To modify grading options, click on the link labeled Grading Options:

• Enable Anonymous Grading: Check this option to hide usernames when grading students' attempts. After checking this option, users will be given the option to disable grading on a specific date, or after all items have been graded.
• Enable Delegated Grading: Check this box to enable delegated grading, which allows instructors to assign users to grade students' attempts.
• Show: Use this dropdown menu to show All Possible Graders, All Assigned Graders, and All Unassigned Graders.
• Grader: A list of all eligible graderes will appear here.
• Submissions to Grade: Use the dropdown menu next to each grader to assign grading responsibilities. Graders can be assigned to All Submissions , a Random Selection of graded attempts, or specific student Groups.
• View Settings: Check the checkbox to allow the grader to view other graders' scores, feedback, and notes.  This option is checked by default for users with a role of Instructor .
• Reconcile Grades: a +/- icon will indicate that the user has permission to reconcile items graded by other users.  Instructor users have this permission by default, while the ability to reconcile grades must be assigned to other users with Grade Center access (e.g. TA's, graders).

For more information on Delegated Grading, please review the following guides:

• Delegated Grading Information
• Reconciling Grades

Modifying Grade Display Options

Clicking on the item labeled Display of Grades allows you to change how the results are displayed to students:

• Display Grade As: Primary: Use the dropdown menu to show how grades are displayed to students and in the Grade Center:  The available options are S core, Percentage, Letter, Text or Complete/Incomplete.
• Display Grade As: Secondary: Use the dropdown menu to show a secondary grade display in the Grade Center.  The secondary display is not shown to students.  The available options are Score, Percentage, Letter, Text, or Complete/Incomplete.
• Include in Grade Center Grading Calculations: Check this box to include assignment scores in the Grade Center calculations.
• Show to Students in My Grades: Check this box to show the results to students. Uncheck this box to hide the results from students.
• Show Statistics (average and median) for this item to Students in My Grades: Check this box to show the average and median grades to students.

Setting up the Assignment Availability

The Availability section allows you to edit the assignment's visibility to students.

• Make the Assignment Available: Check this box to make the assignment visible to students.
• Limit Availability: Check the boxes and use the date and time selectors to limit the availability of the dropbox.
• Track Number of Views : Check this box to enable statistics tracking on the item.
• When finished, click the Submit button to create the assignment.

If you have an assignment setup for your course, you might want to provide the following link that gives students step-by-step instructions on how to make an assignment submission. http://utlv.screenstepslive.com/s/student/m/23191/l/237264-submitting-an-assignment

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• Assessment & Feedback

How to create an Assignment in Moodle

Published on: 03/08/2023 · Last updated on: 03/09/2024

Before you start

Note: We strongly recommend that you never re-use pre-existing assignments as this can cause lots of problems when it comes to grading, release of grades and grade transfer. Create fresh submission points for each assignment. 

The steps below outline the basic steps to create an  Assignment activity in your unit. Please also see our recommended approaches to creating formative and summative Individual, Group and offline Assignments

If you are instructing your students in how to submit their assignment, you can refer them to this guide: Moodle 4.1 Getting Started: An introductory guide for students

Create an Assignment

• From the relevant Moodle space,  Turn editing on .
• Within each topic or week, click on the  Add an activity or resource  link to display the  Activity Chooser  (see below)
• Select  Assignment  from the menu that appears and click on  Add

You can now give your assignment a clear and meaningful title and description, and modify the settings as appropriate.

How to manage the availability of an Assignment

• Where possible, do create submission points that are open for more than 24 hours.
• The  allow submissions from  setting specifies the date from which Moodle will allow students to submit their assignment
• The  due date  should reflect the assignment deadline
• Ensure that all due times/dates fall between  9am and 5pm BST  during the working week.

Note:   Students will still be able to submit after the due date has passed but these submissions will be clearly labelled as having been submitted late.  If you want to prevent students from submitting after a specific date, you will also need to specify a  cut-off date .  Moodle will not accept submissions made after the  cut-off date.  

How to restrict access to an Assignment

Access restrictions can be used to manage student access to activities and resources including an Assignment. One of the most common restrictions needed is for date/time as shown below:

• In the Assignment settings, expand  Restrict Access.
• Click  Add Restriction

To add a date/time restriction:

• Click on the green  Date  button
• Enter the date and time that you want your Assignment to become visible to students. (In the example shown below, students will only be able to see the Assignment after 12.00pm on the 13th July 2023).

• Scroll to the bottom and click  Save and return to course .
• REMEMBER  to make sure that you then make the Assignment visible using  Availability > Show on course page:
• It is safe to  Show on course page  the Assignment, as visibility is now controlled by the access restriction.

Other settings and considerations

See below for some common queries about Assignment creation.

How to include the Assignment question

• Use the  Description  box to provide details of the assignment question and hand in dates. 
• Take time to make sure the assignment requirements and parameters are clear for students
• Do provide clear guidance to students on what they need to do.
• Do Help Students keep track of Assessments
• Do signpost your students to the support resources (e.g.  Skills Portal ,  Mitigating Circumstances ,  Academic Integrity  and  online resources ).
• Do not assume students will know what to do, and where they can get support and guidance.
• If you already have the assignment details in electronic form, or you have a template that you’d like the students to work with, you can attach the file using the  Additional files  setting: Drag and drop your file onto the blue arrow, or click on it to open your file browser to browse for the file. 

Add a label to describe a ‘hidden’ Assignment

Example paragraph text. Do not amend this font / style unless you are creating an individual exception.

• If you have added a restriction to hide your assignment submission point prior to the assessment window opening, it is good practice to add a label to your Moodle course page to provide your students with summary information for the forthcoming assessment(s).
• Turn editing on  then select  Add an activity or resource  at the bottom of the relevant course topic

• Select  Add  and choose the Text and media area  option under Resources :

• Enter text to provide any summary information 
• You can highlight sections of the text then choose the  Link  button in the toolbar to include hyperlinks to additional guidance (e.g. online submission guidance), or insert media as needed

• Choose  Save and return to course . Your text and media area will appear at the bottom of the relevant topic:

• If you hover your cursor over it an icon of four arrows will appear, indicating that you can hold down the left mouse button to move the text and media area up or down the page.

Information about supported file submission types

• Although Moodle can accept any file type, we recommend PDF submission (which is the default setting) wherever possible. 
• Should it be necessary for students to submit in other formats, you can allow this by adjusting the  accepted file types  setting:
• Under  accepted file types  click the green  Choose  button to select from a long list. Then scroll to the bottom of the list and  Save changes .
• Please note that if you are using  Ouriginal for originality checking, most word-processed files can be checked by  Ouriginal , but some other file types cannot (The Ouriginal FAQ contains guidance on supported file formats).

How to set a word limit

• This is possible only where students are using online text submission (typing directly into the Moodle interface).  It is  strongly advised against  using this submission type for substantive pieces of work (as any unexpected connectivity issues could result in loss of work)
• Instead, we recommend that students manage the word count in their file submission (e.g. using the word count tool in Microsoft Word), before exporting to PDF and uploading the resulting file to Moodle.

How to allow multiple file uploads

• Use the  maximum number of uploaded files  setting to specify how many files students can submit.
• By default, this setting allows each student to submit up to 20 individual files.  Whilst there is no requirement to do so, you can of course reduce this number if you wish

Information about the 50mb maximum file upload size

• This is a global setting and increasing it at a site wide level would have significant implications for the Moodle service.
• Typically, the only files students may wish to upload, which would exceed the 50mb single file limit, would be video files. These should instead be  uploaded to Panopto  which, unlike Moodle, is a dedicated streaming service which can handle large video files. 
• Please go here for instructions on  setting up an assignment folder in Panopto.

Managing video/voiceover-based submissions

• Moodle has a 50MB upload limit to keep the platform working smoothly for everyone. Instead of uploading to Moodle, it is better to  create a Panopto Student Assignment Folder .
• Please read the guidance for use as part of a formative workflow or a summative workflow   on how to setup the Panopto submission point and also   student instructions   on preparing a presentation.

About feedback options

• Under the  Feedback types  setting all options are ticked by default.  We recommend that you leave all options ticked to provide yourself with flexibility at the marking st. 

• Under the  Feedback types  setting all options are ticked by default.  We recommend that you leave all options ticked to provide yourself with flexibility at the marking stage.
• Feedback comments  provides a small comment box in the Moodle PDF grading window. This is recommended for short summary feedback comments. The comments box also appears in the  Offline   Grading Worksheet .
• Annotate PDF  refers to Moodle’s built in grading interface. If a student submits a PDF (which is the default setting), you will be able to  read and annotate the file online (without having to download it). 
• Feedback files  allows you to upload comments as a separate file. Typically, many staff ask students to submit files as PDF documents, which can then be downloaded in a zip file, and annotated offline using Word’s comment/review functions. The files can then be added to a new zip folder and re-uploaded into Moodle (provided that the filenames are not changed).
• Offline Grading Worksheet  (and  Bath version ). These are typically used where an internet connection is likely to be unavailable or otherwise unreliable.  They provide a downloadable .csv file (which can be opened and edited with Excel) with student names and grading and feedback columns, allowing for entry of grades and feedback whilst offline. It can then be re-uploaded to Moodle when a network connection is next available, and this will in turn populate all student Grade columns within Moodle. The  Bath version  is almost identical to the  offline grading worksheet  (and works in the same way) and differs only with the inclusion of University of Bath student numbers and the anonymisation of student names, which will be automatically replaced by Moodle with a  Participant number  unique to the assignment. 

Configuring Submission settings

We recommend that you  do not change these settings , as although they can be useful within particular contexts, they aren’t necessary for most assignments.

• Require students to click the submit button.  Not recommended as students can sometimes ‘forget’ to click it, leaving the submission visible to markers, but still in draft.
• Require that students accept the submission statement  means students must agree to a short statement confirming they are submitting their own work etc.  Students will be required to accept a statement confirming that they are submitting their own work when taking Alternative Assessments.  This will be set as the default,  do not change this setting . 
• Attempts reopened.  Recommended setting is  manually  which allows you the discretion to allow another attempt for individual students if necessary.

How to make a Group Assignment

• For Group submissions, ensure you have first  created Groups  in Moodle and allocated students. You can  add students manually  or allow students to allocate themselves with the  Group Choice activity.
• Students submit in groups  If enabled students will be divided into Groups based on the default set of Groups or a custom Grouping. (In most instances you will not need to set up custom Groupings).
• A Group submission will be shared among Group members and all members of the Group will see when one member uploads the submission.

Important:  You  must  set up Groups and allocate students to them before creating a Group assignment. Creation of a Group assignment where no Groups have been defined in Moodle, will allow students in different groups to see / overwrite each other’s submissions.

• Require group to make submission.  If enabled, students not allocated to a Group cannot submit. 
• By default a Group submission made by one member of a group will be placed against all members of the group in the Grading Table. Teachers can mark any member of the group. In the grading page for each student is a tick box allowing grades and feedback to be returned to all members of the group.

Configuring Notification settings

• Notify graders about submissions.  We recommend you set to ‘no’ especially if you have a large cohort.
• Notify graders about late submissions  may be useful to set to ‘yes’
• Default setting for “Notify students”.  If set to ‘yes’ individual students receive a notification as soon as comments are uploaded. We recommend setting to ‘no’ and using  Marking Workflow  to manage feedback notifications en masse for any assignment already created.

About Grading options

Below is a brief overview and comparison of the different grading methods available for Moodle assignment:

About Grading scales vs points

• The default, and simplest option for grading is on a points basis out of 100, however you can also use a Moodle defined grading scale or create your own scale.
• Grading must be done out of 100% if you wish to use  Grade Transfer  to transfer grades to SAMIS
• Please see here for more information on advanced grading methods such as Marking Guides and Rubrics

About Grade Transfer to SAMIS

• It is possible to set up an Assignment in such a way that grades can be transferred into SAMIS by the Unit Convenor (who will have Teacher+ access to the course). Grade Transfer can be setup to take place at a pre-determined time, or alternatively, can be completed with a few clicks once marking and feedback have been released to students in Moodle. 
• Full details on setting up  Grade Transfer to SAMIS can be found here .

About Marking Workflow

• If  Marking Workflow  is switched on, it ensures that grades and feedback are not released to students *unless* you set the marking workflow to ‘released’. We recommend that you use it. 
• Marking Workflow  allows individual student submissions to be placed into different stages of the marking process. (These are:  not marked; in marking; marking completed; in review; ready for release;   released ).
• Marking Workflow  may also be a useful tool for keeping track of marking and for managing moderation through Moodle.
• Please  see here for details of how to Release Grades and Feedback using Marking Workflow

Configuring Ouriginal plagiarism detection settings

• Assignments submitted to Moodle can, in turn, be automatically submitted to Ouriginal.
• Ouriginal is an online text-matching service which checks electronic, text based submissions against a large database of material (including journal articles, websites and other student submissions) and produces a scored originality report for each piece of work 
• Originality reports make no judgement regarding plagiarism, they simply highlight matching text fragments, enabling the reviewer to determine whether or not plagiarism has occurred.
• Once an assignment has been uploaded to Ouriginal, the application will produce two things:
• Ouriginal Analysis score  – This number shows how much of a student’s assignment matches content from Ouriginal’s databases.
• Ouriginal Analysis report  – Alongside a copy of the student’s original work, this report gives further detail on the specific sources of matching text.
• Ouriginal is enabled by default. For  further details please see here .

How to grant an assessment extension/allow late submission

• Once the assignment has been created,  clicking on the assignment link  then  View all Submissions  will take you into the  Grading Table  where you will be able to see an overview of all submissions
• By default Moodle will accept submissions after the  due date  up until the (optional)  cut-off date.  (Any submissions received after the  due date  will be clearly marked as late)

To grant an extension for a student, locate the student concerned, and in the edit column adjacent to the student’s name, right click and choose  grant extension  and add the required extra time:

How to apply extensions in an anonymous Assignment

Moodle extensions enable students to submit their assignments after the specified  due date  (without Moodle highlighting the submission as being overdue).  This also enables users to submit files after any  cut-off date  that may have been specified in the assignment.  Combining this feature with Moodle’s  Group  functionality means that staff can apply extensions to select groups of users rather than to individuals – thus retaining the anonymity of the individual.

You should seek to  create and populate a group  within your Moodle course.  This group should contain those individuals who require an extension and will enable you to differentiate them from the rest of the course participants (whilst still retaining anonymity).

Important note on retaining anonymity and maintaining student privacy :  It’s important to avoid calling the group ‘Extensions’ as students can see Groups and their members from the Participants page. Instead use a generic Group A or Group 1 name.  Also, do not put student names in the name of the groups as this obviously breaks anonymity.

To apply the  Group  functionality to the  Assignment  activity, go to the activity settings, scroll to the section entitled  Common module settings  and select  Separate Groups  within the  Group Mode  field. Once you have done this, remember to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on one of the  Save  buttons.

After applying this setting, extensions can be granted to  group  members as appropriate by visiting the  Assignment  submission overview screen, then selecting the  group  name from the top left-hand corner of this interface (as shown below).

Once the participants have been filtered in this way, members of the  group  can then be granted extensions in the usual way:

Note :  If students have been granted different extensions, you will require more than one  group .

Clearly, true anonymity can only take place if more than one student is receiving an extension in this way.

How to tag an Assignment as Formative or Summative

Under the  Tags  setting type Formative or Summative and add the tag.

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 release grades and feedback in Moodle

Article Contents

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Create Group Assignments

You are viewing Original Course View content

Your institution controls which tools are available in the Original Course View . Assignments are always available to instructors in the Ultra Course View .

Before assigning group work

You don't want students to see group activities as busy work. If group work doesn't enhance your learning objectives and provide value, consider alternative teaching techniques. Only use group work for projects an individual student can't do as well alone and finish in the intended amount of time.

Research shows that students work harder when others rely on them. To encourage this interdependence, create group assignments that require the students to divide the work to meet the goal, question and challenge each other's ideas, and share feedback and encouragement.

Before incorporating group work into your course, consider these questions:

• Will the group work further my course objectives?
• What introductory material or group resource information can I provide to help students succeed?
• How will the groups be formed?
• Will students be involved in planning the groups?
• How will I assess students' learning and maintain individual accountability? Will I require a group deliverable?
• How will I handle concerns and problems?

Source: "44 Benefits of Collaborative Learning." gdrc.org n.d. Web. 3 Jan. 2020.

Create group assignments

To be sure students do collaborate and interact, you can use the groups tool and group assignments to foster an interactive online environment.

More on creating groups

You can create a group assignment and release it to one or more groups within your course. Each group submits one collaborative assignment and all members receive the same grade. You can create a single assignment and assign it to all groups, or create several unique assignments and assign them to individual groups. Only you and the members of a group have access to the assignment.

Before you begin

• A course group must exist before you create group assignments for it.
• Students who are enrolled in more than one group that receives the same assignment will be able to submit more than one attempt for this assignment. You may need to provide these students with an overall grade for the assignment.
• Students who aren't enrolled at the time that a group assignment has been submitted don't have access to that submission. These students only see that the submission occurred.
• Students who you remove from a group can't see the group assignments. They can access their submissions from My Grades .
• If you edit the assignment between creation and the due date, the entire group may lose any work already in progress.
• If you delete a group from the assignment after students have started an attempt but before submission, they'll lose access to the assignment and lose their work.

You create a group assignment in the same way you create an assignment for students to complete individually. When you create a group assignment, a Grade Center item is created automatically. You can create group assignments in content areas, learning modules, lesson plans, and folders. The group assignment appears in the course area where you create it and on the group homepage.

On the Create Assignment page, expand the Submission Details section to deliver an assignment to groups.

• Select Group Submission .
• In the Items to Select box, select the group or groups to receive this assignment. Select the right-pointing arrow to move the selection into the Selected Items box. To select multiple groups at once on a Windows computer, press and hold the Shift key and select each group. To select groups out of sequence, press the Ctrl key and select each group. For Macs, press the Command key instead of the Ctrl key. Use the Select All function if you want to include all groups.
• Select the number of attempts. You can allow more than one attempt on a group assignment.

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