Setting up an
Assignment Activity
The assignment activity provides a space into which students can submit work for teachers to grade and give feedback to. This saves on paper and is more efficient than email. It can also be used to remind students of 'real-world' assignments they need to complete offline, such as art work, essays, term papers and etc. Student submissions are together on one screen of your course. You may require them to submit one or several files and/or to type text essays. It is possible to have them submit work as a group as well and you can also choose as a teacher to grade their work 'blindly'. In other words, you will not see the identities of those who have submitted assignments. Assignments can have deadlines and cut off dates - which you can also extend if necessary. Follow the steps below to guide you on how to setup an assignment.
Part I. Accessing the Assignment Activity
To begin, from your course homepage, [1] select the Turn editing on button beside the gear icon.
Next, [2] click the Add an activity or resource button on the section you want the assignment activity to be added. In this case, the assignment will be added under the General section.
A window similar to the image on the right will then appear. Now from the list, [3] choose the Assignment activity.
You will be then redirected to the Adding a new Assignment page. The pertaining functions and description of the fields are described on the image below. Click the information button (i) to know more about the settings.
Part II. Setting up the Assignment Activity
This section will guide you on setting up a basic assignment activity. Other assignment setups are provided on the Setup Tips of this page.
On the Adding a new Assignment page, [1] set the name that would identify your assignment.
Next, [2] type the instruction or description on the field. You may include details such as points and the grading criteria.
Then, [3] tick the textbox on the Display description on course page to display the description or instruction on your course.
Under the Availability settings, [4] set the date on the Allow submissions from and [5] the Due date. You may also add a cut-off date in case you strictly won’t allow submissions beyond the due date.
On the Submission types, [6] choose the types of submission you will accept. Online text is ideal for submissions that do not require uploading. For instance, students may just paste the link of their outputs from YouTube or from any source from the internet. Otherwise, select File submissions.
Then don't forget to [7] limit the Maximum submission size for File submissions.
Under the Submission settings, [8] set Require students to click the submit button to Yes. This would disallow the students to make changes on their submitted assignment or output once submitted.
On the Grade settings, [9] set the grading type you will use. By default, the Point type is selected to manually input the score when grading. Then [10] input the maximum grade for this particular activity.
Next, [11] select the Grade category of which this activity belongs from your Gradebook. If the Gradebook has not been set up yet, it will automatically select the Uncategorised category. Although this can be changed later once the Gradebook has been set up.
On the Activity completion, [12] select Show activity as complete when conditions are met from the Completion tracking then select the activities below it that must be satisfied first before completion.
Finally, [13] click one of the Save buttons to save and create your assignment activity.
Part III. Grading an Assignment Activity
This section will guide you on setting up a basic assignment activity. Other assignment setups are provided on the Setup Tips of this page.
To begin, from your course homepage, [1] open the Assignment activity that already have submissions from your students.
You will be then redirected to the Grading summary page. From this page, [2] click the Grade button.
You will be then redirected to the Grading an Assignment dashboard. The pertaining functions and description of the fields are described on the image below. Click the information button (i) to know more.
To grade a submission, [3] input the mark of the students on the Grade field provided. You may add comments, notes, marks, etc also.
Once done, [4] click one of the Save buttons to save the changes you made.
Part IV. Setting Up Turnitin for Originality Report
Turnitin is a 'text-matching' software which is designed to educate students regarding appropriate citation and referencing techniques. Turnitin does this by comparing a student submission against an archive of Internet documents, Internet data, a repository of previously submitted papers, and subscription repository of periodicals, journals, and publications. Turnitin then creates an 'Originality Report' which can be viewed by both lecturers and students, which identifies where the text within a student submission has matched another source.
To enable the Turnitin feature, in once of Assignment activity, [1] scroll down and click Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings.
The Turnitin settings will then showup. The pertaining functions and description of the fields are described on the image below. Click the information button (i) to know more.
On the Turnitin settings, [2] set the Enable Turnitin to Yes. You may leave other settings as it is.
Once done, [3] click the Save button to save.
Part V. Viewing Turnitin Originality Report
It may take a while for the Turnitin to generate a report once your student submitted their output. To check this reports, [1] open one of Assignment activity.
One the Grading summary, [2] click View all submissions button.
Then on the page, [3] click the pencil icon or the percentage report below the document submitted by one of your students,
The Turnitin feedback studio will then show up as shown on the image below. The pertaining functions and description of the fields are described on the image below. Click the information button (i) to know more.
Part VI. Setting up Assignment Tips
This section will guide you on setting up a assignment activity with specific scenarios. On top of your created assignment activity, change its settings based on the provided scenario.
- (Specific Scenario)
- Students will not be able to submit after the specific date
- Set the submission of the students as final and not as draft
- Submission in groups
- Restrict submission from a specific group
- Restrict submission from a specific person
- Students must comply various activity first
Part VII. Assignment Activity Basic Guidelines
All tangible output should be graded accordingly. Thus, it is recommended to utilize rubric and other criteria for grading as this serves as a guide for students in terms of the quality of their output. You may opt to use marking guide or rubric as the grading method.
Resources that do not require your students to edit should be converted to PDF before uploading to MOLE. This would also allow the students to easily access the resources who prefer to use their phones since MS Word, PowerPoint, and other resources may not be supported. Remember also that our MOLE only has a limit of 20MB per file/upload.
Instead of directly uploading the files to MOLE, you may also use links of files from your Google drive or other online storage. Although make sure that the sharing is set such that your students can view or download it.
Instead of uploading files, ask your students to just insert links of their documents for their submission.
It is also highly recommended to utilize the G Suite applications (such as Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc.) available in doing activities.