Overview
Moodle allows you to ask for student submissions (such as essays, presentations, or projects) by using the ‘Assignment’ activity. Once the deadline for the submission point has passed and you are ready to mark the uploaded files, you can then select between two main methods to add your grades and feedback:
- Online, using the ‘Grade’ button
- Offline, downloading all the student submissions and the grading worksheet
In this article, we will show you how to grade student submissions offline by downloading the uploaded files and the relevant grading worksheet from Moodle.
Please note, the downloaded student submissions will be organised into a ZIP folder. First, you will need to extract this folder to your machine in order to access its content which will include each student submission in a separate folder (with the participant numbers generated by Moodle, for example, ‘Participant_12556284’ or the student names if the submission point is not set to anonymity) where you can add your feedback as additional files or directly inside the student submission as annotations, whichever method you prefer.
Please also note, you could potentially download all submissions not being separated into folders within the ZIP folder, however, we do not recommend using this method as this can confuse the DLE if you want to upload back separate feedback files for each submission.
You will also need to download the grading worksheet which is going to be an Excel spreadsheet where the grades will need to be entered.
Once the marking process has been completed, you will then need to upload back all the files to Moodle, including the grading worksheet and the annotated scripts/feedback files as a ZIP folder (you will need to compress it into that file extension).
Access the submissions
First, you will need to navigate to the Grading table of the submission point by opening the activity in your browser and then clicking on the ‘Submissions’ menu in the secondary navigation bar.
Bulk download the submissions
Download the submissions
Once you are in the Grading table, you will need to download the student submissions. This is what we call ‘bulk download of files’ in Moodle. To do this, please follow the steps below.
Before you download the submissions, please ensure the ‘Download submissions in folders’ box is ticked.
If you used marking allocations or group submissions for the submission point, you will need to select the relevant group first depending on the method you used to set this up – the ‘Select separate groups’ drop-down list or the ‘Marker’ filter option under the ‘Advanced’ drop-down list. This will then download only the relevant group submissions to your machine.
- Please select the student submissions you wish to download (if you want all of them, please tick the box next to the ‘Select’ column) and then click on the ‘Download all submissions’ option from the ‘Actions’ drop-down list (top-right corner). Alternatively, you can click on the ‘Download’ button at the bottom of the page and then confirm your action. Please note, we recommend using this alternative method if not all submissions you wish to download; otherwise, please use the ‘Actions’ drop-down list.
Extract the ZIP folder
- The ZIP folder containing the student submissions (each in a separate folder) will be downloaded to your machine (usually it lands in the ‘Downloads’ folder which you can access in your File Explorer). The name of the ZIP folder will contain the name of the module and the submission point. Please note, the folders (with the name of the students or the participant numbers generated by Moodle, for example, ‘Participant_12556284’) and the files (that would be the student submissions) will need to be extracted to your machine from the ZIP folder in order to access them.
If you do not have a separate tool for extracting and compressing ZIP folders, you can then right-click on the ZIP folder and select ‘Extract All…’ from the pop-up window. You will also need to select a location where the folders and files will be extracted to.
Download the grading worksheet
Once you downloaded all the student submissions and extracted the ZIP folder to your machine, you will also need to download the grading worksheet in order to add the grades to your students. This file is going to be an Excel spreadsheet. To do this, please follow the steps below.
- Please navigate back to the Grading table of the submission point by clicking on the ‘Submissions’ menu in the secondary navigation bar and then click on the ‘Download grading worksheet’ option from the ‘Actions’ drop-down list that appears at the top-right corner.
- The grading worksheet will be downloaded to your machine (usually it lands in the ‘Downloads’ folder which you can access in your File Explorer). The name of the Excel spreadsheet will contain the name of the course and the submission point. You will not need to extract the file.
Mark the submission
Provide feedback
Once you downloaded all the necessary files, you can then open each student submission to access the content. Please note, each student submission will be located in a separate folder whose titles will be identical to the participant numbers provided by the DLE/Moodle, for example, ‘Participant_12556284’ (if the submission point is set to anonymity) or the name of the students (if the submission point is not set to anonymity). As such, your feedback can be added:
- Inside the student paperwork by opening each submission and then adding the annotations as needed – in this case, please make sure you only save the file but not save it as a new file so that the file extension will remain the same
- Outside the student paperwork by creating additional files in each student folder which can be Word documents, PDF files, presentations, and many more.
Please note, the name of the student submission folders and the student paperwork files have to remain the same as it is displayed in Moodle. Otherwise, these folders and files cannot be uploaded back to the submission point. However, the additional feedback files you add to each student submission folder can be named as preferred.
Add the grades
Once you provided feedback to each student submission (inside the files or as additional feedback files), you will also need to enter the grades in the grading worksheet. For this, you will need to open the downloaded Excel spreadsheet where in the ‘Grades’ column you can then enter the appropriate grades.
Please note, the name of the grading worksheet and any added information to it has to remain the same as it is displayed in Moodle. Otherwise, the file cannot be uploaded back to the submission point. However, you can enter the appropriate grades as needed.
- If the columns in the grading worksheet are not properly displayed, please highlight the entire table (shortcut CTRL + A), and then click on the ‘AutoFit Column Width’ option from the ‘Format’ drop-down list which will expand the size of each column for a better view.
Once you entered the appropriate grades, you will need then just simply need to save it without creating a new file, as the Excel spreadsheet has the correct file extension that can be uploaded back to Moodle.
If you accidentally changed the file type, please change it back to the ‘CSV (Comma delimited)’. You will be able to select this file type once you save the grading worksheet as a new file on your machine. It is recommended that the files are also stored (the file can be copied and pasted) either on your desktop or saved to your One Drive so that they can be easily accessed.
Bulk upload the feedback
Once you have completed the entire marking process, you will need to upload back the provided feedback, including the student submissions. This is what we call the ‘bulk upload of files’ in Moodle. To do this, please follow the steps below.
- Please navigate to the folder on your computer where you have been saving the submissions and feedback. Right-click on the main folder, select the ‘Send to’ and then the ‘Compressed (zipped) folder’ options from the pop-up window.
Please note, the name of the student submission folders need to remain the names as it is originally displayed in Moodle. However, the main folder where all these folders are located can be named as preferred.
- To check the file size, right-click on the compressed ZIP folder, and then select the ‘Properties’ option from the pop-up window. A new window will open where you can check the ‘Size’ of the file.
Please note, the compressed ZIP folder cannot exceed 256 MB. If it does, you will need to separate out the main folder into two sub-folders (for example, Feedback and Submission 1; Feedback and Submission 2), compress both of them, and then upload them back to Moodle.
- Once you compressed the folders and checked the file size, please navigate back to the Grading table and then select the ‘Upload feedback files in a zip’ option from the ‘Actions’ drop-down list.
- You can then either choose the zip file(s) using the File picker of Moodle or drag and drop these file(s) into the ‘Upload a file’ field. To finalise your action, please click on the ‘Import feedback file(s)’ button.
- The next screen will show you the number of files uploaded/updated where you will need to click on the ‘Confirm’ button to complete the process. You may also need to click on the ‘Continue’ button after it.
- You will be directed back to the Grading table where the feedback files should appear under the ‘Feedback files’ column.
Upload the grading worksheet
Once you have completed uploading back the student submissions and feedback, you will also need to upload back the grades that are entered in the grading worksheet. To do this, please follow the steps below.
- Please navigate to the Grading table by clicking on the ‘Submissions’ button and then select the ‘Upload grading worksheet’ option from the ‘Actions’ drop-down list.
- Just as before, you can then either choose the Excel spreadsheet by using the File picker of Moodle or drag and drop the file into the ‘Upload a file’ field. Once the file is selected, please make sure you use ‘UTF-8’ for ‘Encoding’, ‘Comma’ for ‘Separator’ and you also tick the box where it says ‘Allow updating records that have been modified more recently in Moodle than in the spreadsheet.’
- To finalise your action, please click on the ‘Upload grading worksheet’ button.
- The next screen will show you the number of grades uploaded/updated where you will need to click on the ‘Confirm’ button to complete the process. You may also need to click on the ‘Continue’ button after it.
Final look
Once you have completed uploading back all the necessary files, the Grading table should include the added grades and feedback. If the grades have been already moderated, the next step would be to release this information to your students.
