Assignment Troubleshooting: Grading Assignment Activity

Blank First Page

If you have the assignment submission types set to both Online text and File submissions you will have a blank first page in the Review Panel.

Use the page navigation controls (top left of the previewed document) to advance to the next page.

Missing Student Responses or an Empty Template

If the Review Panel displays what appears to be your original assignment file without the student’s work, it is possible that the student used an application that isn’t compatible with some PDF readers. This is frequently seen when students use Preview (on an Apple device) to modify and save their work.

To grade the assignment, you will need to download and open the PDF file outside of Moodle. You can then use the Grade Panel to enter the student’s grade, provide Feedback comments, and upload an annotated PDF to the Feedback files area.

To prevent this issue from occurring in the future, encourage your students to follow these directions:

1. Expand the File menu in Preview.
2. Select the Export as PDF… option near the bottom of the menu.
3. Save the file.
4. Submit the exported PDF to Moodle.

Review Panel Blank

If the Review Panel is blank and you see the message Some of the files in this submission can only be accessed by direct download, the student has likely uploaded a file that the PDF Annotator cannot convert.

To grade this assignment, you will need to download and open the file outside of Moodle. If you cannot open the submitted file type, we recommend that you ask the student to save the file as one of the following: .doc, .docx, .rtf, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .html, .odt, .ods, .txt, .png, .jpg, .gif, .pdf. and resubmit the document for grading.

If you wish to regularly use the PDF Annotator for grading, we recommend that you modify the Accepted file types setting when creating an assignment activity.

Inline Annotation Buttons Missing

This is typically due to insufficient space or a screen that is too small.

• Resize the window (if possible)
  or
• Use the Collapse grade panel button in the bottom-right corner of the page to allow the Annotation area to fill the window.

Can’t View or Grade all Students

Filters can allow you to see specific users based on their name, groups, or submission status. However, sometimes you need to view all students in the course and you may need to reset these settings.

1. Enter the assignment in question.
2. Click Submissions option from the secondary navigation.
3. Click the Filter by name drop-down and ensure both have All selected.

NOTE: If you still can’t see all the students for the course verify the Status and Groups are also set to All.