Marking Administration in Moodle Assignment

Using Marking Workflow

Turning on the Marking workflow in a Moodle Assignment sets up a structured grading process where marks must pass through defined stages before they are made visible to students.

Marking workflow:

• Provides greater control and transparency in the marking process

• Allows partial release of marks

• Enables marks to be released while student identities remain hidden

• Ensures marks and feedback are released together

Enabling Marking Workflow

1. Go to the assignment.

2. Click Settings.

3. Go the the Grade section.

4. Change ‘Use marking workflow’ to Yes.

Changing marking workflow state

Once enabled, markers or administrators can choose a marking workflow state from the grading interface:

• Not marked (the marker has not yet started)

• In marking (the marker has started but not yet finished)

• Marking completed (the marker has finished but might need to go back for checking/corrections)

• In review (the marking is now with the teacher in charge for quality checking)

• Ready for release (the teacher in charge is satisfied with the marking but wait before giving students access to the marking)

• Released (the student can access the grades/feedback)

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Bulk changing marking workflow state

To change the marking workflow for more than one student:

1. Go to the assignment Submissions page.

2. Select students you want to allocate. You can select students one by one, or select all by checking the box at the top of the Select column.

3. At the bottom of the screen, click More and select Change marking state.

4. Click Change marking state again to confirm.

5. Select new marking workflow state from the drop-down menu.

6. Click Save changes.

Anonymous marking

Anonymous marking hides the identity of students from markers.

For Moodle assignments, anonymous marking is enabled by default. To change this, go to the Grade section of the assignment settings.

Student names will be hidden from Tutors and Non-editing tutors. Course Administrators can still view student identities with this setting enabled.

Anonymous marking settings are locked once a submission has been made or grade provided.

By default, the grader identity will also be hidden, so students can’t see who marked their work.

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Allocating markers

Allocate using Marking Workflow

Markers can be allocated when Marking Workflow is enabled. This is useful for smaller cohorts, since you can allocate one by one.

1. Go to the assignment Settings.

2. Ensure Marking Workflow and Use marking allocation is set to Yes.

3. Click Save.

4. Go to the assignment Submissions page.

5. Select students you want to allocate. You can select students one by one, or select all by checking the box at the top of the select column.

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3. At the bottom of the screen, click More and select Allocate marker

4. Click OK to confirm you wish to continue with allocating markers.

5. On the next screen, select the allocated marker from the drop down list and click save changes.

6. The marker names will now appear in the Marker column on the Submissions page.

7. If the marker has the non-editing tutor role, they will only see the students allocated to them, for other roles, the marker can filter students allocated to them from the Submissions page by clicking Advanced > Marker.

Allocate using Groups

Another way to allocate markers is by using marking groups. This approach is particularly helpful for large cohorts. Once established, the same groups can be reused in future assessments, potentially saving time in the allocation process.

Step 1: Create a Group for Each Marker

1. Go to the course Participants page.

2. Create a separate group for each marker.

3. For detailed guidance, refer to M13 - Groups and groupings.

Step 2: Allocate Students to Marker Groups

1. Assign students to the marker groups you have created.

2. You can:

• Allocate students manually, or

• Use the auto-create groups option to distribute them randomly.

Step 3: Create a Grouping

1. Go to Settings > Groups > Groupings.

2. Create a new grouping. We recommend creating a separate grouping for each assignment and naming the grouping the same as the assignment to keep everything clear and organised.

3. Add all the marker groups to this grouping.

Step 4: Link the Grouping to an Assignment

1. Open the relevant assignment.

2. Go to Settings > Common module settings.

3. Set Group mode to Separate groups.

4. Select the grouping you created from the Grouping dropdown menu.

5. Save your changes.

Step 5: Marker Access

1. The marker groups are now linked to the assignment.

2. Markers can go to the assignment submissions page and filter by their group name to view only the students assigned to them.

Open/blind double-marking and moderation

Guidance for different marker approaches in Moodle assignment can be found here: Different Marking Approaches in Moodle Assignment. However, you may want to consider using the Moodle Coursework plugin rather than Moodle Assignment if multiple markers are to complete their marking independently: Moodle Coursework (plugin).

Managing Extensions

Automated Extensions

For students with Reasonable Academic Adjustments (RAAs), Extenuating Circumstances (ECs), or Delayed Assessment Permits (DAPs), extensions can be applied automatically to Moodle Assignments through the Moodle–SITS extensions integration.

To enable this, follow the instructions in the guide: Automated Extensions on Moodle.

Manual Extensions

If you are not using automated extensions, they can be granted manually using User Overrides. You can apply an extension to an individual student or create a group and grant the same extension to all students in that group.

1. Go to the Moodle Assignment.

2. Click More then select Overrides

3. Select user or group from the drop-down menu. For guidance on creating groups in Moodle, see M13 - Groups and groupings.

4. Click Add user override

5. Search for and select a student name (or select the group).

6. If required amend the Allow Submissions from date

7. Enter the required Due Date.

8. If required, amend the Cut Off date.

9. If required, amend the Time limit.

10. Click Save

Feedback types

Feedback can be delivered in several ways. By default, all feedback types are enabled. If you want to view or change available feedback types, go to the Feedback types section in the assignment settings.

• Feedback comments - Marker can leave feedback comments for each submission.

• Annotate PDF - Marker can create annotated PDF files when marking submission. This allows them to add comments, drawings and stamps directly on top of the students work. The annotating is done in the browser and no extra software is required.

• Feedback files - Marker can upload a feedback file. These files may be, but are not limited to, marked-up student submissions, documents with comments or spoken audio feedback.

• Offline grading worksheet - marker will be able to download and upload a worksheet with student grades when marking the assignment,

Grading Methods (Rubrics & Marking Guides)

There are several grading methods. If you want to view or change grading method, go to the Grade section in the assignment settings.

• Simple direct grading - The default, fastest method for grading assignments or forums, allowing instructors to directly enter a numerical grade and feedback for each student.

• Marking guide - A simpler version of a rubric, where the marker enters a comment per criterion and a mark up to a maximum. Can build a bank of frequently made comments. For more information, see: Moodle Assignment Marking Guides

• Rubric - Rubrics provide a structured, grid-based method for consistent, transparent, and efficient grading. For more information, see: Moodle Assignment Rubrics

Ensuring marks are hidden from students

By default, marks and feedback are revealed to students one by one as they are saved them. Hiding grades until you're ready to release requires active management.

• We recommend using Marking Workflow to manage the release of grades.

• If not using Marking Workflow, you need to go to the Grader Report and hide the corresponding item. See Grading hiding (Moodle doc).

Late submissions and locking submissions

Students who submit after the assignment due date will have their submission marked as late. Please note that Moodle does not automatically apply late penalties.

To prevent submissions after the permitted late submission period (typically one month), you can set a cut-off date in the assignment settings. After the cut-off date, students can no longer submit a new submission or edit an existing submission.

By default, students who submit before the due date can still edit or delete their submission after the due date, up until the cut-off date (if one has been set). If you want to prevent any changes after the due date, you should lock submissions.

To lock submissions:

1. Open the assignment and select Submissions.

2. Filter the submissions by Status: Requires grading.

3. Select the submissions.

4. Click Lock at the bottom of the page.

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Exporting marks to SITS

Marks can be transferred from Moodle to Portico using SITS Marks Transfer.

You can access this option from the More drop-down menu on the Moodle course page.

Detailed guidance on how to use this tool can be found in this guide: SITS Marks Transfer

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Releasing Marks and Feedback

There are three different ways to release marks to students in a Moodle Assignment:

1. Use Marking Workflow and change the marking state to Released

2. For anonymised submissions, go to Actions > Reveal student identities

3. Manually hide or unhide the item in the Gradebook

Digital Education strongly recommends using Marking Workflow to release marks.

How to Release Marks Using Marking Workflow

1. Open the Assignment.

2. Click the Submissions tab.

3. Select the students whose marks you want to release by ticking the box next to their names.

   • To select all students, tick the box at the top of the Select column.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and open the drop-down menu.

5. Click More, then select Change marking state.

6. Change the marking state to Released.

7. Click Save changes.

Downloading grades

1. Click Submissions.

2. Click Actions and View gradebook.

3. Select Export from the drop-down menu.

4. Tick the assignment(s) that you want to export.

5. Click Download.

Next Steps

Marking a Moodle Assignment

Offline Marking and Uploading Feedback

M77 - Feedback tracker

Further Support

If you have a specific question please contact the Digital Education team.