How to set up a timed assessment in Moodle

Overview

Many modules need to set up a timed assessment in the DLE/Moodle using the Assignment’ activity. These submission points need to be set up to appear automatically at a certain release date set by the Exam Office and allow a 24 or 48-hour time for students to submit their work after which the submission will lock.

Please note, this help material only focuses on submission points. If you wish to use a ‘Quiz’ activity for this purpose, please contact Digital Education.

You can also share the following help materials with your students, so that they will know how to submit files to the DLE.

Stage 1: Setup of the submission point

When setting up an ‘Assignment’ activity for timed assessments, most settings should be configured the same way as for a regular submission point, however, some settings may need to be different which we are highlighting below.

General

In this section, all settings will remain the same as for a regular submission point unless you wish to upload an exam paper with instructions to the assessment for which purpose you can use the ‘Additional files’ box.

Availability

In this section, most settings will remain the same as for a regular submission point but the time frame (’Allow submissions from’ and ‘Due date’) needs to specifically cover the 24/48 hours. Additionally, the ‘Cut-off date’ for these assessments need to be configured and set to the same date as the ‘Due date’ which is the deadline.

Other settings

Restrict Access

Restrictions are crucial for timed assessments in the DLE. As such, please set up the following date conditions and ensure the eye icons are ticked. This means that the assessment will be only shown from the start date of the assessment to the end date of assessment. For more information about restrictions, please visit the following help material.

• ‘Student [must] match [all] of the following’:
  • ‘Date [from] [start date and time of the assessment]’
  • ‘Date [until] [end date and time of the assessment]’

Please note, if you have a MAP student (student with Modified Assessment Provision) who is entitled to a longer time than the original time window defined for the assessment, you need to ensure the end date of the restriction counts them in. For example, if you have a timed assessment running for 24 hours but a MAP student is entitled to 48 hours, this means that:

(1) Everyone will have 24 hours to submit their work (this can be configured in the ‘Availability’ section, see above)
(2) The MAP student will have 28 hours due to the added User override (please check this help material for further information)
(3) The restriction end date should be set to 48 hours (not 24 hours), otherwise, the assessment will become hidden again after 24 hours, not giving the full time allowance for the MAP student.

Stage 2: Marking and Feedback

There are a number of ways you can mark and give feedback when you have used an online submission point in the DLE/Moodle. This can include:

• Using Moodle’s marking tools, such as:
  • Marking submissions online with different marking strategies (e.g. numerical values in the range from 0 to 100%, Pass/Fail scales, DLE/Moodle Rubric, etc)
  • Marking submissions offline
• Using Turnitin’s marking tools in Feedback Studio, such as:
  • Annotation’s tools and Feedback summary
  • Rubrics or Grading forms
  • Quickmarks

Please note, most of these marking tools will need to be configured before submissions are received.

Stage 3: Releasing Grades and feedback

Once you have completed your marking, feedback and internal moderation processes, you will then need to release the marks and feedback to students. To do this, please follow the steps outlined in the following help material.