Automated Extensions on Moodle

Getting started 

Extension types include Reasonable Academic Adjustments, Extenuating Circumstances and Delayed Assessment Permits.

Firstly, you should check the assessment type is eligible for extensions in Portico. Please note oral presentations are not currently eligible for automated extensions due to departments having differing processes for assessing these on Moodle – we will review this in due course.

In addition, standard adjustments are not provided for groupwork due to the complexities in implementing individual adjustments to a collective assessment.

You can generate a report to show students on a module with approved Reasonable Academic Adjustments, DAPs and EC mitigations. The report shows on screen and can also be exported to excel using the Export to Excel button. Once you feel confident with Moodle extension imports, this will no longer be necessary.

If the assessment type is eligible and there are students with approved extensions on the module, you will need to create a mapping with the “import extensions” checkbox ticked on the Moodle SITS Marks Transfer page.

Creating a mapping and importing the extensions 

Step 1 – go to “SITS Marks Transfer”  

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Screen shot of link to SITS Marks Transfer

 Step 2 – choose “Select source” next to the relevant SITS assessment  

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Screen shot of ‘Select source’ button

Step 3 – select the relevant Moodle assignment or quiz. 

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Screen shot for selecting relevant Moodle assignment or quiz

Step 4 – tick the checkbox “Import extensions” in the Map SITS assessment able then click the “Confirm” button. 

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Screen shot for ticking the ‘Import extensions’ checkbox

Step 5 - Once the mapping has been confirmed, a link to view the generated extensions will appear for direct access to the relevant assessment overrides. Click this “View extensions” link. 

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Screen shot of link to ‘View extensions’

Note: 

We usually recommend assessment mappings are set up in SITS Marks Transfer when a Moodle assignment or quiz is added to a Moodle course at the start of the year, so if you have already set up a mapping to the SITS assessment and the Moodle activity is not yet marked, you will need to go into SITS Mark Transfer again, remove and then re-add the source, with the “import extensions” checkbox ticked, to import the extensions.

Reasonable Academic Adjustments 

For Reasonable Academic Adjustments, once the mapping has been created, any extension data will appear within a few minutes in a group in the “Group overrides” page for the relevant assessment activity. 

This will appear in the following format: RAA-Activity-<Activity-ID>-Extension-<number>day(s)<number>hr(s)<number>min(s) 

To see which students have been given this group override, simply click the group name. 

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Moodle Group Overrides page for Reasonable Academic Adjustments 

DAPs and ECs 

For DAPs and ECs, once the mapping has been created, any extension data will appear within a few minutes on the “User overrides page” for the relevant activity. 

A table of student names with their override type and new assignment due date or new quiz closing time will appear. 

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Moodle user overrides page for DAPs and ECs  

Frequently asked questions 

What if there are changes after the extensions have been imported? 

A scheduled task will run to check for any updates on Portico. Any updates should be reflected in Moodle within 5 mins.  

RAA extensions can be updated up to five minutes before the assignment due date and time, or quiz closing time. If a student has a RAA approved after the deadline, their extension will need to be set up manually. 

ECs extensions can be updated after the assignment due date and time, or quiz closing time. 

What will the student see? 

Once overrides have been generated, students will see their new submission date/time or quiz closing date/time.  

Can you still use marks transfer? 

Course administrators will be able to use marks transfer for these students in the same way as for standard submissions. 

What about combined extensions? 

We are currently investigating this issue. For now, we recommend you delete any automated overrides on Moodle for students who have combined extensions and handle the calculation of combined extensions manually. 

Please be aware that if a RAA extension and a EC or DAP extension exists for the same student, the EC or DAP extension will take precedence.

What if I have already set up my override groups and users on Moodle? 

If you wish to use automated extensions on a Moodle course, we recommend deleting any manual overrides you have created already since Portico should be the source of truth and is continually updated anyway. 

However, if your existing manual overrides are overwritten by imported extensions and you realise you want to revert to them, you can simply remove the mapping in the marks transfer wizard and then re-map without choosing to import extensions. The automated extensions would be deleted and manual overrides would be restored. 

What should I do if there are students missing or incorrect data in the extension import?

In the first instance, check whether the details are correct in Portico. If they are but Moodle hasn’t imported the correct details, please report this to Digital Education Support via MyServices.  We can then investigate the issue further.

What’s next? 

The DLE team will look into: 

• Automated extensions for the Lesson activity 

• Automated extensions for reassessments

• Moving the import extensions button to the main Marks transfer page (to be able to import when assessment mappings have already been created)

• Combining automated extensions with individual manual extensions where there is a temporary issue with Portico data