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How to upload exam grades using Moodle Assignment

Overview

For assessment methods that take place outside of the DLE such as paper-based exams, live presentations, and many others. There are two methods can be used to upload the marks to UNIT-e and S4:

  1. If you are the Module Leader or Program Administrator for the School/Faculty Office, you will have the required access, and be able to directly enter the marks to Markbook in UNIT-e. Once the marks have been uploaded to the student record system, they should automatically transfer across S4. Please note, you may need to request an account setup for Markbook which is handled by the Student Record team.
  2. The second method is if you’re the Module Leader, you will be able to create an empty submission point as a placeholder in the DLE (Moodle). This submission point can be used to upload the marks, and transfer them across UNIT-e by using the ‘Link to UNIT-e’ setting. As it is an empty submission point, its settings would block students from uploading files to this activity. Students could only view the results once you released them as per usual. For more information about how to set up an empty submission point for this purpose, please visit the following supporting material.

These methods can be used if you know the student names in advance at the time of receiving the student results. However, there are circumstances (such as paper-based exams) where the student names are not received but you only have the student reference numbers and provided grades. If it is a small cohort (for example standing from 10-20 students), it may be easier to directly enter the marks in UNIT-e (Markbook) and identify the students based on student reference numbers. However, if the cohort stands from more students where identifying students based on reference numbers can be time-consuming, you may be able to use an Excel spreadsheet to automatically cross-reference and match student data (such as student names, e-mail addresses, reference numbers, and grades), upload the results to Moodle and automatically transfer them across UNIT-e and then S4.

In this article, we will show you how to do this.

Export student data from S4

Please note, your S4 access may look different, depending on your role at the University. This supporting material was produced for the Module Leaders and covers their usual access to the system.

To export the specific student data (class list) from S4, please follow the steps below.

  1. Please navigate to S4 through the ‘Tools and Resources’ menu in the DLE (Moodle) and log in with your UoP credentials if needed.
  2. Once you are there, please navigate to the module where the exam grades are need to be uploaded. You can either search for it using the Search box at the top of the page or click on the ‘My Modules’ menu.
Screenshot of the search box and ‘My Modules’ button (highlighted) in S4.
  1. Once you are on the module page, please click on the arrow button pointing down at the top-right corner and select ‘Enrolment List’ from the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can click the ‘Class List’ button at the top-right corner which will bring you to the list of students. On that list page, please select ‘Enrolment Report’.
Screenshot of the ‘Class List’ and arrow buttons (highlighted) to navigate to the ‘Enrolment List’ in S4 under a module page.
  1. Regardless of which option you selected, you will end up on the ‘Enrolment Report’ page where you will need to click on the ‘Export’ button at the top-right corner.
Screenshot of the ‘Export’ button (highlighted) under a module class list in S4.
  1. A new window will pop up where you will need to select ‘Details Only’ from the ‘Export View’ setting. The ‘Format’ should be ‘Comma Delimited .csv’. To finalise your action, please click on the ‘Export’ button. This will download the needed Excel spreadsheet to your machine which will contain information about your students, such as engagement and attendance status code, student reference number (SRN), name, e-mail address, programme name, enrolment status, and many more.
Screenshot of the export options/settings (highlighted) under a module class list in S4.

Please make sure you do not change anything on this spreadsheet as we will need to copy-paste this information into the Excel template you can download below.

Set up an empty submission point in Moodle

You will need to set up an empty submission point in the DLE (Moodle) as a placeholder where the grades can be uploaded from the Excel template we will create (see instructions below). Once the grades are uploaded, you can then release them to your students as usual (see instructions below).

This submission point can be visible to the students as based on its configuration, we will not allow students to submit files (this can be configured in the settings of the submission point). For more information about the process, please visit the following supporting material.

This submission point should not use anonymous submissions, as you will need to see the names of students in advance to upload back the grades to the DLE (Moodle). If you forgot to do this at the stage of setting up the submission point, you will be able to reveal the student identities but this will need to happen before you upload back the results.

You will also need to set up a timeframe for the submission point, even if it is fictional. If you do not set up this timeframe then the grades may fail to automatically transfer across UNIT-e and S4.

Download the grading worksheet from Moodle

Once the empty submission point is set up, please download its grading worksheet as usually you would do if you graded the submissions outside of the DLE (Moodle)/offline using the bulk download/upload method. For more information about how to download the grading worksheet from a submission point, please visit the following supporting material.

Fill out the Excel spreadsheet template

The next stage is to fill out the Excel template with the information we collected previously. This spreadsheet is the location where we will cross-reference and match student information, such as student names, e-mails, reference numbers, and grades. You can download the grade mapping template here.

Please note, you will need to download the file to your machine as it is restricted to a ‘read-only’ view on our SharePoint site, so you will NOT be able to edit it there.

All commands in Excel are set up and therefore, you will not need to do anything manually besides copying the information into the relevant tabs of Excel as shown below. Once it is done, the output will be automatically generated for you which you can upload back to the DLE (Moodle). The Output tab is the grading worksheet/Excel format Moodle supports when it comes to uploading the grades back to the system. This is the tab we will upload back at the end of the process.

Please open the Excel template. You will see four tabs in it. We explained each below.

Roadmap illustration of the Excel spreadsheet template.

S4 Module Enrolment List

Please copy all the information from the downloaded/exported S4 Class List Excel spreadsheet to this tab. You can either manually highlight all the columns and rows by using your mouse and copy-pasting the information to this tab, or you can use the short keys/commands on your Windows keyboard:

  • CTRL and A for highlighting the table in the S4 Class List Excel
  • CTRL and C for copying information in the S4 Class List Excel
  • CTRL and V for pasting information to this tab of the Excel template
Screenshot of copying content to the clipboard (highlighted) in Excel.
Screenshot of pasting content from the clipboard (highlighted) to a spreadsheet in Excel.

Once you copied the information across, this tab should contain the same information as the exported S4 list. Please do not re-organise or adjust the content.

Student Results

If you navigate to this tab, you will see that the student reference numbers are automatically filled in based on the information you copied from the exported S4 list to the ‘S4 Module Enrolment List’ Excel tab. You will only need to manually enter the marks here (from 0 to 100) by manually cross-referencing the results with the student reference numbers.

If a student did not attend the assessment, please leave the field empty. If you add 0, it means they attended it but received 0 as their final mark.

Screenshot of entering assessment grades (highlighted) for students based on student reference numbers in Excel.

DLE Grading Worksheet Template

Please open the DLE Grading Worksheet that you exported from the DLE (Moodle) and copy all the information from that template to this spreadsheet’s tab. You can either manually highlight all the columns and rows by using your mouse and copy-pasting the information to this tab, or you can use the short keys/commands on your Windows keyboard:

  • CTRL and A for highlighting the table in the S4 Class List Excel
  • CTRL and C for copying information in the S4 Class List Excel
  • CTRL and V for pasting information to this tab of the Excel template
Screenshot of copying content to the clipboard (highlighted) in Excel.
Screenshot of pasting content from the clipboard (highlighted) to a spreadsheet in Excel.

Once you copied the information across, this tab should contain the same information as the exported DLE (Moodle) grading worksheet. Please do not re-organise or adjust the content.

Output

If you navigate to this tab, you will see that the output has been generated based on the three tabs we filled in previously. This output follows the format the DLE (Moodle) accepts. Please make sure you save this file on your machine for reference. You can name it as preferred, but please make sure you do not change the file type.

Once that bit is done, you will also need to save the file again but this time as a ‘CSV Comma Delimited’ (.csv) as that is the file type Moodle supports. By doing this, you will lose the first three tabs from the Excel spreadsheet, and therefore, only the Output tab will be visible going forward. That is why we recommend saving the file first somewhere else on your machine for reference.

Screenshot of the Output tab (highlighted) in Excel.

To save the file as ‘CSV Comma Delimited (.csv), please click on the ‘File’ menu at the top-left corner, select ‘Save as’ from the left-hand side panel and then select the location where you want to save the file. Please make sure the appropriate file type is selected. You can change the file name or leave it on default.

Screenshot of saving the Output tab in Excel as a .csv file (highlighted).

Upload the grading worksheet to Moodle

Please navigate back to the empty submission point and upload the grading worksheet to the DLE (Moodle) as usually you would do if you graded the submissions outside of the DLE (Moodle)/offline using the bulk download/upload method. The grading worksheet is going to be the ‘Output’ tab that we saved above as a ‘CSV Comma Delimited (.csv’)’ file type. For more information about how to upload the grading worksheet to a submission point, please visit the following supporting material.

Release the grades to students in Moodle

Once the grades are uploaded back to the DLE (Moodle), you can still moderate them. At this stage, the results are not yet visible to the students. Once you are happy with publishing them, you will need to release them as usual for any submission point. This will ensure your students can access their grades in the DLE (Moodle) and will also automatically transfer them across UNIT-e and then S4. For more information about how to release the grades for this activity, please visit the following supporting material.

This is the assessor/Module Team view.

Screenshot of the Grading table (highlighted) for an empty submission point in the DLE (Moodle).

This is the student’s view.

Screenshot of the Submission Status page (highlighted) for an empty submission point in the DLE (Moodle).
Updated on February 14, 2024
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