Creating a Moodle assignment
This guide explains how to create and configure a Moodle Assignment.
1. Turn ‘Edit mode’ on
Go to your Moodle course page and use the toggle switch on the top right corner of your screen (within the UCL banner / menu) to begin editing the course.
2. Add the Assignment activity
Hover your mouse over the area of the course where you would like to add the assignment and click the + button that appears. Alternatively, click the + Add an activity or resource button located at the bottom of each course section. Then select the Assignment activity to be taken to the assignment configuration page.
3. Input assignment details
Enter an assignment name.
Select whether it is summative, formative or neither (dummy activity). Summative activities can be mapped to SITS for transferring marks. For guidance on this, see SITS Marks Transfer.
Description – Text entered here will be displayed at the top of the assignment page, and is always visible to students unless the assignment has been hidden.
Important: Include important information for students in the description. Assignments are accessible directly from Moodle’s homepage without navigating the course area, so students may miss guidance provided elsewhere.
Activity instructions – Text entered here is only shown on the submission page where the student submits and edits their assignment.
Additional files – You can upload files for students to use in completing the assignment, such as answer templates or guidance documents. You can also choose whether these files are available throughout the assignment, or only displayed on the submission page.
4. Configure settings
Availability
Allow submissions from – Students will not be able to submit before this date. If disabled, students will be able to start submitting straight away.
Due date – This is when the assignment is due. Submissions are still allowed after this date but will be marked as late.
Cut-off date – If enabled, submissions will not be accepted after this date without an extension. If disabled, submissions will always be accepted.
Note: If a cut-off date has not been set, you can Lock submissions to prevent new submissions being made. For further guidance, see Marking and Feedback in Moodle Assignment.
Submission types
File submissions – Enabled by default. Students can upload one or more files as their submission.
MyPortfolio Mahara – If enabled, students are able to submit MyPortfolio (Mahara) pages and collections for assessment. For further guidance, see MyPortfolio (Mahara) Assignment in Moodle.
Online text – If enabled, students type their responses directly in Moodle using a text editor.
Note: For video assignments, follow instructions in this guide: How to create a Panopto Video Assignment.
Submission settings
Allowed attempts – The default is 1. An attempt is a gradable submission. Enabling multiple allowed attempts lets students submit again, with each attempt having the potential to receive a unique grade and feedback instance. For summative assignments, keep the allowed attempts at the default of 1.
Require students to click the submit button – If enabled, students will need to click a Submit button to declare their submission as final (otherwise it will appear as a draft). Once the student has clicked the Submit button they will be unable to make further changes or resubmit unless an instructor reverts their submission back to a draft.
Important: The Require students to click the submit button setting should only be used if you have good reason, since there's a tendency for students to overlook the Submit button and assume that uploading is the same as submitting.
Group submission settings
Students submit in groups – If enabled, students will be divided into default or custom groups. A group submission will be shared among group members and all members of the group will see each others' changes to the submission. For further guidance, see: Group Submissions using Moodle Assignment.
Grade
Grade type – This must be set to point or scale for grades to be published to students.
Anonymous marking – Student names will be hidden from Tutors and Non-editing tutors. Course Administrators can still view student identities with this setting enabled.
Student identities may be revealed to tutors at any time by clicking on the Reveal student identities option from the Action drop-down menu on the Submissions page. Revealing identities will automatically make grades and feedback available to students, but it will not push grades to students or gradebook if Marking Workflow is enabled.
Hide grader identity from students – Enable this setting to hide the grader name from students.
Use marking workflow – If enabled, marks will go through a series of workflow stages before being released to students. This lets you keep grades and feedback hidden until you are ready to release them. It is also useful if you want to show your progress in grading, or co-ordinate multiple markers. For more information, see Marking (grading) workflow (Moodle doc).
Digital Education strongly recommends using Marking Workflow as:
It provides greater control and transparency in the marking process
It allows partial release of marks
It enables marks to be released while student identities remain hidden
Use Marking allocation – If enabled together with marking workflow, markers can be allocated to particular students.
Allow partial release of grades while marking anonymously – This option is available on an anonymous assignment after enabling Marking workflow. This sub-option is required in order to stagger grade release on an anonymous assignment, while maintaining anonymity for markers throughout the process.
Hiding grades – By default, marks and feedback become visible to students individually as soon as you save them. If you want to release all grades at the same time, you will need to manage their visibility manually.
We strongly recommend using Marking workflow to control when grades are released. For further guidance, see Marking (grading) workflow (Moodle doc).
If you are not using Marking workflow, you must manually hide the relevant grade item in the Grader report. Refer to Grading hiding (Moodle doc) for instructions.
Multiple markers – Careful coordination is essential, particularly if one marker is grading downloaded submissions offline using a marksheet. Before re-uploading marks, ensure you communicate with any other markers to avoid overwriting grades or feedback.
Offline marking – Markers who prefer offline marking can download student submissions, review and annotate them on their device, then upload feedback and grades back into Moodle. For detailed guidance, see: Offline Marking and Uploading Feedback.
Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings
Enable Turnitin – Turnitin compares submitted work against a large database of academic publications, web content, and previously submitted papers, and generates a similarity report highlighting matched text and providing a similarity score. For further guidance, see: Using the Turnitin Plagiarism Plugin on a Moodle assignment.
When using a Moodle assignment which has Turnitin similarity enabled, grades and feedback should be entered in the Moodle assignment. Grades and feedback should not be entered within Turnitin Feedback Studio. Turnitin should only be used for access to the similarity report.
5. Save the assignment settings
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and Display.
Next steps
Marking and Feedback in Moodle Assignment
Offline Marking and Uploading Feedback
Different Marking Approaches in Moodle Assignment
Moodle Assignment Marking Guides
M09e6 - Releasing grades and feedback
Note: Further guidance on the Moodle Assignment activity is available from Moodle.
If you have a specific question about the tool please contact the Digital Education team.