Mark an Assignment using Simple Direct Grading

Overview

This page tells you how to set up and mark a Moodle Assignment that uses "simple direct grading". It covers the quick grading feature and includes instructions for hiding, releasing, locking, and overriding assignment grades.

See also

When to use

Refer to this page when you are setting up or marking a Moodle assignment.

Benefits

Simple direct grading, where the grader provides only a final grade and feedback to students, is the most commonly used grading method for a Moodle Assignment. Rubrics or marking guides are recommended for high-stakes tasks, but simple direct grading is great for smaller assignments. It takes very little time to set up and enables you to grade assignments quickly using the quick grading function.

Guide

Step by step instructions

To see how the following procedures work before any of your students submit assignments, in the Settings block, under Switch role to, select Student, and submit an assignment.

Create an assignment with simple direct grading

Follow the instructions for creating a new assignment, making sure that, on the Add a new assignment page, in the Grade section, at Grading method, Simple direct grading is selected.

Check who has not submitted assignments

  1. On the Moodle course home page, click the link for the assignment.

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  2. On the assignment's page click View/grade all submissions.

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  3. On the submissions page, scroll to the bottom and in the Options section select Not submitted from the drop-down list. The page will refresh, only listing students who have not submitted their assignments yet.
     

Lock submissions

If, on an assignment's Grading page, when you click Grade in the Grade column for a student's submission, the next page displays and the Editing status reads Student can edit this submission, this means that the submission is not locked. Before you mark this assignment, you should lock all student submissions for the assignment, so that students cannot make changes to them.

To lock submitted assignments before marking them:

  1. On the course home page, click the link for the assignment.

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  2. On the resulting page, click the link View/grade all submissions.

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  3. Scroll to the bottom of the submissions summary and, under Options, set Assignments per page to All. This will display all the students on the same page.

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  4. Select the check box in the Select column heading to select all the students in the submission list. Alternatively, select individual students whose submissions need to be locked.

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  5. After selecting the users, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

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  6. Next to With selected, select Lock submissions and click Go.

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  7. To unlock submissions, repeat steps 1 to 6, this time selecting Unlock submissions at step 6.

Hide/release assignment marks

You will probably want to hide assignment marks from your students before you start marking, and release them to students only when you've marked all the assignments submitted. For step-by-step instructions, see the Hide Grades from Students page. Or you may be using a marking workflow - if so, read the Use marking workflow instructions on this page.

View, mark and give feedback on student submissions

This method is useful for when you want to include links, images and formatting in your feedback to individual students.

  1. On the course home page, click the link for the assignment.

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  2. On the resulting page, click View all submissions.

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  3. If you want to download all submissions for offline viewing/marking then on the assignment's Grading page select the "select all" check box at the top of the page (or select individual users).

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  1. Choose selected submission from the With selected drop-down menu and then click Go. A zip file containing the assignments will then download.

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  2. To mark an individual assignment submission online click the Grade button and the assignment interface will open where you can view the submission and complete all marking tasks.

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  3. On the submissions grading section on the right hand side of the assignment interface:
  • You can read any submission comments the student has left for you by clicking the comments link .
  • Download the submission by clicking on the file link
  • Enter a Grade and Feedback (including any links, pictures, tables or other formatting).
  • Attach Feedback files if you need to and they're permitted.
  • Click Save changes, or click on the next button  to move to the next submission for marking.


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To make notes that only you can see regarding individual students, use the Participants list. To view notes that you make go to Navigation -> Participants -> Notes.
 

Annotate a PDF submission

If a student has submitted their assignment as a PDF, Moodle allows you to make annotations directly on the file pages and return the annotated file to the student.

To annotate a PDF submission:

  1. On the Grading page, in the Grade section below the Feedback comments box, click Launch PDF editor.

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  2. In the Annotate PDF window, select tools from the menu at the upper right to mark up and add comments to the text.
  3. When you have finished marking, close the window.

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  4. To save your changes, click Save changes in the Grading page.

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Mark an assignment using quick grading

Note that you can only use quick grading with assignments for which Simple direct grading was selected in the Adding a new Assignment page.

 

To mark assignments using quick grading:

  1. On the course home page, click the link for the assignment.

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  2. On the resulting page, click the link View/grade all submissions.

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  3. In the assignment's Grading page, scroll to the bottom and, under Options, select the Quick grading check box. The page will refresh and the quick grading fields will display.

  1. To mark a submission, enter a mark in its field in the Grade column.

  1. To give feedback, enter it in the Feedback comments column.

  1. To view the submission, click its link in the File submissions or the View submission icon in the Online Text column.

  1. To make longer comments (quick grading comment fields have a character limit) or send feedback files, in the assignment's Grade column click the Grade icon , and in the individual's grading page enter a Grade, add Feedback comments and Feedback files, and click Save changes.

  1. While you quick grade, regularly click Save all quick grading changes at the bottom of the list.

Lock assignment grades

After you've finalised the marks for an assignment, it's a good idea to lock them. Locking grades prevents tutors from making grade changes, and also prevents you accidentally making changes to student grades.

To lock grades in the Gradebook:

  1. In the Gradebook Grader report, click Turn editing on .
  2. Does the Lock (open padlock) icon display directly below the assignment name?
    • If yes, click it. The padlock will close. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update to save your changes.
    • If no:
      1. Click the Edit icon directly below the assignment name.
      2. On the editing page, in the Grade item section, select the Locked check box.
      3. Click Save changes.

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  3. To unlock grades, either click the Unlock icon (closed padlock), or return to the grade item's editing page and deselect the Locked check box.

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Use marking workflow

With the marking workflow enabled you can input grades and feedback over several days, review them in stages, and release them for students to see, in a batch.

When you create an assignment, in the Grade section of the Adding a new assignment page you will find a drop-down Use marking workflow.

This setting allows you to select the marking stage you have reached for each assignment. The stages are as follows:

  • Not marked - The marker has not yet started marking the submission.
  • In marking - The marker has begun marking the submission, but not yet finished.
  • Marking completed - A mark has been assigned for a submission, but is not yet finalised.
  • In review - The marking is being reviewed.
  • Ready for release - The mark has been finalised, but the student cannot yet access it.
  • Released - The student can access the mark and/or feedback.

For example, if you want to release all grades at the same time, you and the other markers would, as you marked each submission, select the workflow state Marking completed before moving on to the next submission. Then, when all grades were ready for release to students, you would select students in the submission list and change their marking workflow state to Released in a single operation.

To implement the workflow, when you are marking the assignment:

  • on the individual grading page select the relevant stage from the Marking workflow state drop-down list, or
  • on the assignment submission list, select the relevant stage from the drop-down list in the student's Status column).
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To release a batch of marks:

  1. On the assignment's submissions page, select the checkbox for each student to whom you want to release marks. (This may mean simply selecting the Select all check box.)


     
  2. Below the list, at With selected..., select Set marking workflow state and click Go.


     
  3. In the confirmation box, click OK.


     
  4. On the Set marking workflow state page, at Marking workflow state, click Released.


     
  5. Click Save changes.


     

Advanced guide

This Moodle Docs page "Using Assignment" provides much more detail about the Assignment tool and its use.

Additional information

Further assistance

If you experience technical or other issues, consult the Where to get help page.