Create an Assignment Activity

These instructions cover some of the more common and suggested settings with explanations of what each does for teachers new to using or modifying an assignment activity. This is by no means a perfect way of doing an assignment activity but it has tips ideal for instructors new to the tool.

Enable editing from the top-right corner of the page, toggle Edit mode into the On position (if you haven’t already).

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

Scroll down to the section/week/topic where the Assignment activity should appear.

Click the + Add an activity or resource link.

Select Assignment.

Populate the General Section:

  • Assignment Name: this is how students will identify the activity. NOTE: You may choose to add the word: “Submission” after the name, which may help less tech-savvy computer users understand its purpose.
  • Description: (OPTIONAL) add assignment instructions or clarifying reminders of what needs to be submitted.
    • We suggest including:
      Desire File Type(s),
      A list of desired files,
      Examples of good work/formatting for students to match so your students have a clear idea of what they will be turning in here.
  • Display description on course page: (OPTIONAL) if checked, will display the Description text indented and below the assignment name on the course’s main page.
  • Activity instructions: (OPTIONAL) The actions you would like a student to complete for this assignment. This is only shown on the submission page where a student edits and submits their assignment.
  • Additional files: (OPTIONAL) Add any extra files here that perhaps you want students to download, fill out and re-submit or similar.

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 to view your handiwork.