MOODLE HOW TO GUIDE Series

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How to add an Assignment

The assignment is one of the most basic evaluation tools in the Moodle environment. An assignment sets the students a task, which is normally subject to a deadline. Typically, an assignment requires students to carry out a task (write a text on-line, or write off-line and upload it, or another off-line task) for the teacher to scrutinise and comment on. As such it can be a very valuable evaluation tool.

They are, however, not very interactive and a course made up of only assignments will not appeal to many students! In addition, assignments usually require a lot of work from a teacher, so that it is wise, especially in courses with large numbers of enrolled students, to limit the number of assignments and to schedule time for their correction.

Assignments should preferably be visually linked to the study material they refer to (if any), so they should be placed in the same topic/week as those resources (For instructions about moving activities and resources see the booklet about Resources and Activities).

Alternatively, assignments can be placed in chronological order in their own separate topic. This option is useful when the course materials are organised in way that does not allow for easy insertion of modifiable assignments (e.g. image maps).

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Adding an assignment

Assuming you have turned on editing and have clicked the drop down menu in the topic or week, in which you want to add the assignment.

The setting Assignment type allows you to choose the kind of activity you wish to comment on and grade with the assignment tool:

In the Advanced uploading of files assignment type both you and the students can upload multiple files (the number is set by you). This assignment type can also include an online text box.

The Online text type requires the students to write their task in Moodle (using the Moodle editor, not MS Word). This type is suitable for most common writing tasks (as long as students are informed that they should avoid copying and pasting to the editor) and the inline commenting is a convenient option (provided the teacher likes to check and grade work on-line).

The Upload a single file type is good for documents that require a specific lay out, like business letters or memos (since students will be better able to recreate the lay out with their word processor than with the Moodle editor) or for other file types like presentation slides or spreadsheet files.

  

The Off-line activity is meant for activities outside of Moodle, for example, a presentation delivered via a third party. Even if you do not want to give a grade, it allows you to set a deadline and give comments.

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Advanced uploading of files

The Advanced uploading of files assignment type is the most flexible of the four assignment types, but because of that also a little more complex.

You would choose this type for assignments where you wish to supply different students with different files with which they must work, or if you want to respond to a student uploaded file with a version of your own, or for process writing in which students will upload consecutive drafts of a document to which you can respond with feedback or response files.

When you select the Advanded uploading of files assignment the following settings pages opens:

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Online Text

If you select the online text assignment, you will see the following settings page:

Late submissions

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If you do not prevent late submissions, students can submit and resubmit their file until the teacher gives feedback (or until the teacher hides the assignment from student view)!

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Upload a single file

The Upload a single file type gives the following settings page:

With the Allow resubmitting setting the teacher can allow students to resubmit their work after the teacher has given feedback. This allows the students to improve their work following the comments of the teacher, who will then grade their work.

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Offline activity

Note that you should avoid mentioning deadlines and dates in the assignment description, or any other information that you will have to edit every time you run the course (i.e. just describe the task)! Make sure that the task instructions are as clear and unambiguous as possible.

Other guides in this series include:

Adding Resources and ActivitiesAdding Static ResourcesAdding forums & ChatAdding Glossaries

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Produced by the Resource Based Learning Team © 2008