Creating Assignments in Moodle

Students can submit work for a course via the Assignment Activity in Moodle.

Adding an Assignment to a Course

1. Open the Moodle course and turn editing on by sliding the Edit Mode toggle to the on position. (Those using the Classic Theme in Moodle can click the Turn Editing on button.).
2. Move to the section of the course where you wish the assignment to appear and click the Add an activity or resource button.
3. Select Assignment.

General Settings

Under the General heading, enter an Assignment name and Description for the assignment.

You can also add Activity Instructions, which will appear when the student opens the assignment.

Availability Settings

Under the Availability heading, set the Allow submissions from date.

• If enabled, the Due date means that any assignments submitted after the date will be marked late.
• If enabled, the Cut-off date means that students can no longer upload assignments after the entered date.
• Most people set a Due date, but only set a Cut-off date if you are sure that you won’t allow late submissions.
• Time limit is useful when using an Online text box rather than a File submission. When enabled students have a specified amount of time to enter material into the Online box.

Submission Type Settings

1. Under the Submission types heading, choose the Submission types.
   • Most people choose File submissions.
   • You could choose Online text if you wanted students to enter text or to paste a URL to a video presentation hosted on YouTube.
2. You can also set the Accepted file types, if you want to prevent students from uploading file types you may not be able to read, such as a Pages document.

Feedback Types Settings

Under the Feedback types section, check the Feedback types you would like to use.

• Feedback comments lets you type comments into a comment box.
• Annotate PDF converts the file to a PDF and then lets you mark up and comment directly on the PDF file.
• Feedback files lets you download the Word document, comment on it, and re-upload it to the system.
• Checking the Comment inline turns the document into a text box where you can comment inline with the text.  (Only useful for short assignments.)

Submission Settings

Under the Submission settings heading:

• Require students to click the submit button = Set to Yes. Otherwise, if students forget to click submit you will see files that say “draft.”
• Require that students accept the submission statement = The submission statement is a message regarding Gettysburg College’s honor code.  If you want students to read this before submitting their files, select Yes.
• Attempt reopened  = Usually set to Manually, which allows the instructor to reopen an assignment so a student can re-submit it if there is a problem.
• Maxium attempts  = If you set it to two, you allow students to upload a second file if they make a mistake.  They do not have to contact you to do so.

Group Submission Settings

The Group Submission section allows one person from a student group to upload a presentation file for everyone in the group.  The downside to this setting is that if set to yes, you can’t grade each person in the group individually.

Notifications Settings

The Notifications section includes options to send emails to the instructor when a new submission arrives or if it is late.  You can also send automatic notifications to students when the item has been graded.

Grade Settings

• Type = Point is the most common option, but can set to None or Scale.
• Grading method = Simple direct grading is the most common and provides a place to enter the grade and a comment box.  Can also setup checklist, marking guide, or rubrics.
• If you have created categories in your gradebook, you can choose your Grade category.
• Grade to pass = This option isn’t necessary, but might use if using Mastery Grading or setting Access restrictions
• Anonymous submissions = When you grade the assignments, Moodle will hide the students’ name until finished grading.
• Hide grader identity = Used by large schools where a class my employ several TAs.
• Use marking workflow = Used by large schools where several people may mark an assignment.

Common Module Settings

Under the Common module settings section, you can set the Group mode to a specific group so that only members of that group can access the assignment. (To use this setting, you first must setup your groups in your course.)

The Force language option allows you to set the language for the individual assignment rather than the entire course.

Restrict Access Settings

Under the Restrict Access heading you can limit access to the assignment in numerous ways.

• Date = usually people use the dates set under the Availability section.
• Grade = used often with Mastery grading schemes
• Group = can limit to a certain group
• User profile = can limit to a specific person
• Release code = can set a pass code

Completion Conditions

If you have enabled Completion Tracking for the course, you will see a Completion Conditions heading under the Assignment settings. You will not see this setting if you have not enabled Completion Tracking for the course.

More Information About Moodle Assignments

• Moodle.org: What is the Assignment Activity?
• Moodle.org: Assignment Settings

Video: Creating Assignments in Moodle 3 (recording of live Moodle training)

This video explores how to create and use the Assignment Activity in Moodle 3 using the Classic theme.

The default theme for Moodle as of the Fall 2023 is Boost. Courses made prior to this time used the Classic theme.

How to access this video’s table of contents

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