Assignment Activity (File Submission)

Working with Assignments in Moodle

The Assignment activity is essentially a file drop-box for students to send you files. Often these files are Word Documents or PDFs but you can request any file type from your students and optionally limit what types of files student can submit.

Follow these directions to create an assignment in your course. We have included some the common and suggested settings for this type of activity. You can also refer to the Moodle documentation on the Assignment activity.

Enter your course and turn Edit mode on.

Turn Editing On button is found in the top-right corner of a Moodle page you have permission to modify content for.

Scroll to the section where you want to add a assignment.

Click the corresponding Add an activity or resource link.

Select Assignment from the Activity Chooser.

Set up the basics for your assignment under the General section:

  • Set the Assignment Name. 
  • Enter Description: Give a general explanation of the assignment. May choose to display on course page by using the checkbox below.
  • Enter Activity instructions: Explain in detail the actions students must do to complete the assignment. This is only shown when students go to submit their assignment.
  • Additional files:  Add any files that you want students to download to complete the assignment.

NOTE: if you want students to fill out a form provide that form as DOCX, do NOT give students a fillable PDF as the grading interface in Moodle may not display their responses and would require a manual download to grade.

OPTIONAL: Expand and populate the Availability section:

All availability restrictions are optional and you can enable as many or as few of these as possible.
All times are are set in Military (24 hour clock instead of 12).

  • Allow submissions from: If enable is checked and a date and time (24-hour) is set then this will prevent early submissions from occurring before this time.
  •  Due date: If enable is checked any assignments turned in after this date and time (24-hour) will be marked as late from the grading interface.
  • Cut-off date: If enable is checked and this date and time (24-hour) are set then no submissions will be accepted here after that point

    NOTE: This date and its function is NOT communicated to students. If you want to prevent late work from being submitted ensure Due-Date and Cut-off dates match.

  • Remind me to grade by: If enable is checked and this date and time (24-hour) are set then the instructor will receive a notification and a calendar reminder will be set.

Expand and populate the Submission types section:

This section is all about what students can submit to you.

  • Submission types: 
    • File submissions: Default & Suggested! This will allow students to upload a file to Moodle. Ideal for longer responses, papers, labs, images or otherwise.
    • Online text: This will provide a text box for students to fill out and submit- ideal for short responses.
  • Maximum number of uploaded files: Default value is 20. If you want to limit the number of files as student can submit you may  decrease the value of this setting.
  • Maximum submission size: Default value is 100 MB which is the course upload limit.
  • Accepted file types: If this is left empty then all file types are allowed. If you want to restrict the accepted file types you can enter a list of file extensions, or you can use the Choose button to select them from a list.

Expand and populate the Feedback types section:

This section is all about ways for you to provide feedback to students when grading their submissions.

  • Feedback types: (OPTIONAL)
    SUGGESTED: Both comments and files are recommended. Whatever your preference it can’t hurt to give yourself options for providing feedback. You don’t have to provide anything if you don’t want to.
    • Feedback comments: SUGGESTED! This will give you an editable text area to provide written feedback to a student’s submission.
    • Feedback files: SUGGESTED! This will allow you to download a student’s submission, make edits and resubmit it to them.
    • Comment inline: Only available if Feedback comments are enabled. If set to Yes, the submission text will be copied into the feedback comment field during grading, making it easier to comment inline (using a different color, perhaps) or to edit the original text.

Expand and populate the Notifications section:

This section determines who gets emails about submissions and feedback.

  • Notify graders about submissions: Default is No. If set to yes Teachers enrolled in this course will receive an email every time a student submits a file to this assignment regardless of when the assignment is due.
  • Notify graders about late submissions: Default is No. If set to yes teachers enrolled in this course will only start receiving emails about student submissions after the due-date occurs
    (Due date under Availability must be enabled for this to do anything.)
  • Default setting for “Notify students”: Default is Yes. Before saving changes in the grading interface you can opt to have a student notified that their assignment has been graded. Changing this to No will make the default that students are NOT notified by email when you grade an assignment and may not know they have feedback. Whatever your choice you can change the default one at a time while grading or special circumstances.

Expand and populate the Grade section:

  • Grade:
    • Type:
      • Point: SUGGESTED. Used for assignments to be graded with a numerical value (such as 50 out of 100 points)
      • Scale: Rarely used, will provide a drop-down menu for grading options based on a preexisting scale.
      • None: This assignment will not appear or have any effect on student grades in the gradebook.
    • Maximum Points: ONLY ENABLED IF POINTS IS USED. Set to the maximum value you want this assignment worth.
  • Grading Method:
    • Simple direct grading: DEFAULT, Simple and straight forward with minimal setup. We will cover how to grade with this method later.
    • Rubric: To use a rubric in an assignment additional setup will be required later.
  • Grade Category: (OPTIONAL) If using categories in your gradebook set this to the section you want this assignment to fall under.

Make any other changes desired on this page.

Scroll to the bottom of this page.

Click the Save and display button.

It is important to grade and provide timely feedback to all your students for assignment submissions. The following directions will walk you through how to grade the assignment activity in Moodle.

You also have the ability to grade assignment submissions in bulk offline.

Enter the course you wish to grade in.

Click the Assignment link.

Click the Grade button.

Click the funnel button if you wish to filter the students:

  • No filter: Will show all students regardless of their submission status.
  • Not submitted: Will show students that have not added a submission, as well as students that have their submission saved as a Draft.
  • Draft: Will show all students that have added a submission, but still have their submission saved as a Draft because you require students to click the submit button.
  • Submitted: This will display students who made a submission- regardless of weather you have already graded it. This does not include drafts.
  • Requires grading: Will only display students who have made a submission that has not been graded. This does not include drafts.

NOTE: This is ideal for detecting those who have resubmitted an assignment after you have graded their first submission!

Review the student’s submission:

  • Use the PDF editor (that automatically converts most files into PDF and displays them for your in-line editing)

OR

  • Click the File Submission link to view/download a student’s submission file.

If the view is too narrow you can toggle which pane dominates the screen.

NOTE: On a smaller screens the PDF editor pane will appear at the top and the submission information pane will be below.

Enter a grade in the Grade out of … text box.

NOTE: If you mark down for late work and have Due Dates set in the Assignment Settings there will be notes about the time the work was submitted by the student.

If you wish you provide feedback and have it enabled in your Assignment Settings you can:

  • Upload a file to the Feedback files area.
  • Enter feedback in the Feedback comments area. You can type in written feedback as well as record video or audio feedback using the proper text editor buttons.
  • Add inline comments, marks, stamps, shapes and more via the PDF editing interface.

When satisfied, click the Save and show next button.

NOTE: If you do not want the student to receive an email notification of the grade change un-check the Notify student checkbox at the bottom.

It will automatically move you to the next student.

NOTE: If you have it set to filter the assignments that Require grading you will get an error message when you reach the last student because there are no more students that require grading.

If you need instructions to give your students to guide them in using the Assignment Activity you might direct students to our article on Turning in Homework with Moodle.

A common request from the DRC is added time for students to submit an assignment. If you are asked to extend a due date for a student you can use these steps to accomplish this.

NOTE: These directions are specifically for the Assignment activity. Extensions for Quiz activities are set up differently.

Enter the Assignment you wish to add a Due date extension for.

Click the View all submissions button.

Select the students you wish to give a due-date extension to.

From the With selected… drop-down menu select the Grant extension option.

Click the Go button.

Set the Extension due date to the new date and time.

Click the Save changes button.

Here are some articles to help you troubleshoot some of the common issues faculty have experienced with the Assignment Activity:

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