Moodle Assignment: Marking and uploading feedback/marks in bulk

Moodle Help & Support (Staff)

This refers to Moodle 34 from September 2018 onward.

Please ensure within the Moodle assignment settings that Offline grading worksheet and Feedback files tickboxes have been checked.

In a nutshell, the steps are:

Step 1. Download files from Moodle assignment. Unzip. Keep the files in a specific folder.

Step 2. Use Track Changes in Word or a PDF annotator or similar to add your feedback to the files

Step 3. Zip the files back into a zip folder

Step 4. Upload the zip folder to Moodle

FULL INSTRUCTIONS

Downloading assignments to your computer

Click on the Moodle assignment submission dropbox.
The Grading summary page will load. Click on the View all submissions button.
This will load the student information table for the assignment. Note: If you wish to expand this table then you can do so by pressing the expand icon button which can be found towards the top right of the table.
Check the Select tick box to select all students. If there are some students that have not submitted or you are expecting late submissions then untick those.

From the With selected… dropdown menu select Lock submissions and then press Go.
A pop-up message will appear asking if you want to lock all selected submissions. Press OK.

The submissions will now be locked. This is very important to do because if they are not locked then a student can update their submission.
While at the bottom of the table, also select Download submissions in folders
Scroll back up. Towards the top left click on the dropdown menu called Grading action and select
Download all submissions.

Note: If Groups mode in the assignment settings has been set to Separate groups.
Then you can filter to your particular group using Separate groups dropdown menu. This will mean only the submissions of the members in your group will download.
You will see that a zipped folder has been saved to your computer.
This zip file contains a folder for each student.
The next steps take place outside Moodle, on your computer.

NOTE: If using OneDrive, work offline, and upload at the end of the process.
At the moment we recommend this is carried out on a desktop PC or Mac or a Surface Pro rather than an iPad.
Unzip the folder: extract the files. Move them to an area in your file folders named for your assignment.
Right-click on the folder and select Extract All.
A pop-up window will appear. Press the Browse button. Another pop-up window will appear, this time press the Make New Folder button.
A new folder will appear, in the window requiring a name for it. Enter a name for the folder (we recommend the module code or something relevant). Once named click on it and press the OK button.

Then press the Extract button and the files will extract to that folder.

A folder is present for each student.
Add your feedback files into the relevant folder for the student. They can be in any format and any number of files.

Preparing offline marking
Go back to your Moodle site and from the Grading action drop-down menu again select Download grading worksheet. A .csv file will download to your computer.

Marking assignments

Now that you have downloaded all the submissions and the offline grading worksheet, it is time to mark and provide feedback. Open the folder that contain the submissions and you will see that the students who had submitted have their own folders created. Important: please do not change the naming convention of these folders as this is what Moodle uses to ensure the feedback files are provided to the correct student.
A folder is present for each student.
Go into one of the folders and open the submission. You may wish to add any comments using the Word and PDF commenting tool, or by whatever mechanism you wish to use (by direct annotation using the Android tablets/Surface Pros - see how to annotate on Word using a Surface Pro).
You can also add other documents in the folder, for example a marksheet.
Add your feedback files into the relevant folder for the student. They can be in any format and any number of files.
When you are ready to save the document(s) save back to the student’s folder.
Once you have annotated the assignment or completed any feedback documentation for an individual student, you may wish to enter the mark for the student in the CSV file.
Open the CSV file you previously downloaded; you will see a list of students who are on the module.
In column G of the CSV file called Grade you can enter the marks for the students. You can do this all in one go or spread it out over time as long as you save the CSV to your computer.
For large cohorts you may wish to use the sort data in Excel to help manage the marks and submissions. To do this click on the Sort & Filter button in Excel.

Uploading feedback
When you have finished adding feedback to the assignment you are now ready to upload them in bulk.
Zip up the folder which contains all the assignments and any files you provided feedback.
You can this by right-clicking on the folder and selecting Send to and then Compressed (zipped) folder. If using a Mac right-click and select Compress.
Note, the files must be selected individually - the zip must not contain a folder of files.

A new zip file will be created in the same location as the files. You can rename this folder, just like you would any other folder within windows (Right click > Rename). Once your zip file has been created, the next step is to load all of the feedback files into Moodle.
Go back to Moodle and on the submission information table page and from the Grading action drop-down menu select Upload multiple feedback files in a zip.
A new page will load where you upload the zip file. Either
1. drag the zip file into the large rectangular window or
2. you can browse to and then upload the zip file.
  To do this click Choose a file and select the zip file. Then press Upload this file.
  
  Once the file has been uploaded press Import feedback file(s)
A new page will load which lists what changes you’re intending to make. Click the Confirm button.
The student information table will appear. Scroll to the right and within the Feedback files column you will see the feedback documents have been uploaded to the correct students.

Returning the marks in bulk

Another new page will be loaded which confirms what has been changed. Click the Continue button.
When you have completed adding in all marks on the CSV file click on the dropdown menu in the top left once more but this time select Upload grading worksheet.
A new page will appear. Upload the CSV file by either dragging it into the rectangular window or by clicking Choose a file. If you select Choose a file a pop-up window will appear. Here you will need to press Choose file and select your CSV file before pressing the Upload this file button.
When the file is uploaded you will either see an icon or the name of the file. You will see a check box entitled Allow updating records that have been modified more recently in Moodle an in the spreadsheet. Check this box to overwrite what is already in Moodle. Click the Upload grading worksheet button.
A new page will load which lists the changes that will be made if you confirm them. Check you are happy with the marks and then press Confirm.

Another page will load that states the changes have now been made. Click the Continue button.

You will then be taken to the student information table. In the Grades column you will now see the marks have been added to Moodle.

It is possible that a student may submit late after you have done your marking. You can if you wish use the CSV file method. If this is the case then download the CSV file again and enter the mark for the student who has submitted. Save the CSV file and then upload it once and the mark should be populated. You can also update existing marks by following the same procedure. In practice, it is easier just to click in the text box beneath Grade and enter the mark there.

Releasing all marks to students at once
When you have finished marking and are ready to release all marks to students return to the page that contains the student submission information table. Scroll down to the Options section and ensure that Assignments per page is set to All. This is to ensure all students are selected.

Check the tick box beneath the Select column on the table. This should then check the boxes of all students.
Scroll down a little until you reach the With selected… dropdown menu and select Set marking workflow state, then press Go.

A pop up box will appear asking Set marking workflow state for all selected submissions?, press OK.
A page will be loaded that lists all the students. Below is a drop-down menu called Marking workflow state, from the options select Released.

You can also choose to Notify students in the drop-down menu below by selecting Yes. If you select Yes then the student will receive an email to say the mark has been released. If you would rather email them or post a message in the Announcements forum then leave this set to No.
When you have selected Released and decided whether to notify the students press the Save changes button.
The page that contains all the submission information for students on the module will be loaded. In the Status column you should see that the status has now been changed to Released. This confirms that the marks have been released to the students.