This article by Rebecca Barrington, author of Moodle Gradebook Second Edition, teaches you how to add assignments and set up how they will be graded, including how to use our custom scales and add outcomes for grading.

(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

As with all content within Moodle, we need to select Turn editing on within the course in order to be able to add resources and activities. All graded activities are added through the Add an activity or resource text available within each section of within a Moodle course. This text can be found in the bottom right of each section after editing has been turned on. There are a number of items that can be graded and will appear within the Gradebook. Assignments are the most feature-rich of all the graded activities and have many options available in order to customize how assessments can be graded. They can be used to provide assessment information for students, store grades, and provide feedback. When setting up the assignment, we can choose for students to submit their work electronically—either through file submission or online text, or we can review the assessment offline and use only the grade and feedback features of the assignment.

Adding assignments

There are many options *within the assignments, and throughout this article we will set up a number of different assignments and you'll learn about some of their most useful features and options. Let's have a go at creating a range of assignments that are ready for grading.

Creating an assignment with a scale

The first assignment that we will add will *make use of the PMD scale

Click on the Turn editing on button.
Click on Add an activity or resource.
Click on Assignment and then click on Add.
In the Assignment name box, type in the name of the assignment (such as Task 1).
In the Description box, provide some assignment details.
In the Availability section, we need to disable the date options. We will not make use of these options, but they can be very useful. To disable the options, click on the tick next to the Enable text.

However, details of these options have *been provided for future* reference.
- The Allow submissions from section* is mostly relevant when the assignment will be submitted electronically, as students won't be able to submit their work until the date and time indicated here.
  The Due date section* can be used to indicate when the assignment needs to be submitted by. If students electronically submit their assignment after the date and time indicated here, the submission date and time will be shown in red in order to notify the teacher that it was submitted past the due date.
  The Cut off date section* enables teachers to set an extension period after the due date where late submissions will continue to be accepted.
In the* Submission types section, ensure *that the File submissions checkbox is enabled by adding a tick there. This will enable students to submit their assignment electronically. There are additional options that we can choose as well. With Maximum number of uploaded files, we can indicate how many files a student can upload. Keep this as 1. We can also determine the Maximum submission size option for each file using the drop-down list shown in the following screenshot:
Within the Feedback types section, ensure that all options under the Feedback types *section are *selected.
- Feedback comments enables *us to provide written feedback along with the grade.
- Feedback files enables us *to upload a file in order to provide feedback to a student.
- Offline grading worksheet will *provide us with the option to download a .csv file that contains core information about the assignment, and this can be used to add grades and feedback while working offline. This completed .csv file can be uploaded and the grades will be added to the assignments within the Gradebook.
In the Submission settings section, we have options related to how students will submit their assignment and how they will reattempt submission if required.

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- If Require students click submit button is left as No, students will upload* their assignment* and it will be available *to the teacher for grading. If this option is changed to Yes, students can upload their assignment, but the teacher will see that it is in the draft form. Students will click on Submit to indicate that it is ready to be graded.
- Require that students accept the submission statement will provide students *with a statement that they need to agree to when they submit their assignment. The default statement is This assignment is my own work, except where I have acknowledged the use of works of other people.
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The submission statement can be changed by a site administrator by navigating to Site administration | plugins | Activity modules | Assignment settings.
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- The Attempts reopened drop-down list* provides options for the status of the assignment after it has been graded. Students will only be able to resubmit their work when it is open. Therefore this setting will control when and if students are able to submit another version of their assignment. The options available to us are:
  Never: This option should be selected if students will not be able to submit another piece of work.
  Manually: This will enable anyone who has the role of a teacher to choose to reopen a submission that enables a student to submit their work again.
  Automatically until pass: This option works when a pass grade is set within the Gradebook. After grading, if the student is awarded the minimum pass *grade or higher, the submission *will remain closed in order to prevent any changes to the submission. However, if the assignment is graded lower than the assigned pass grade, the submission will automatically reopen in order to enable the student to submit the assignment again.
  Maximum attempts: The maximum *attempts allowed for this assignment will limit the number of times an assignment is reopened. For example, if this option is set to 3, then a student will only be able to submit their assignment three times. After they have submitted their assignment for a third time, they will not be allowed to submit it again. The default is unlimited, but it can be changed by clicking on the drop-down list.
In the Submission settings section, ensure that the options for Require students click on submit button and Require that students accept the submission statement are set to Yes. Also, change the Attempts reopened to Automatically until passed.
Within the Grade section, navigate to Grade | Type | Scale and choose the PMD scale. Select Use marking workflow by changing the drop-down list to Yes.
Use marking workflow is a new feature of Moodle 2.6* that enables *the grading process to go through a range of stages in order to indicate that the marking is in progress or is complete, is being reviewed, or is ready for release to students.
Click on* Save and return to course.

Creating an online assignment with a number grade

The next *assignment that we will create will have an online* text option that will have a maximum grade of 20. The following steps show you how to create an online assignment with a number grade:

Enable editing by clicking on Turn editing on.
Click on Add an activity or resource.
Click on Assignment and then click on Add.
In the Assignment name box, type in the name of the assignment (such as Task 2).
In the Description box, provide the assignment details.
In the Submission types section, ensure that Online text has a tick next to it. This will enable students to type directly into Moodle. When choosing this option, we can also set a maximum word limit by clicking on the tick box next to the Enable text. After enabling this option, we can add a number to the textbox. For this assignment, enable a word limit of 200 words.
When using* online text* submission, we have an additional feedback option within the Feedback types section. Under the Comment inline text, click on No and switch to Yes to enable yourself to add written feedback for students within the written text submitted by students.
In the Submission settings section, ensure that the options for Require students click submit button and Require that students accept the submission statement are set to Yes. Also, change Attempts reopened to Automatically until passed.
Within the Grades section, navigate to Grade | Type | Point and ensure that Maximum points is set to 20.
Click *on* Save and return to course.

Creating an assignment including outcomes

The next assignment that we will *create will add some of the Outcomes:

Enable editing by clicking on Turn editing on.
Click on Add an activity or resource.
Click on Assignment and then click on Add.
In the Assignment name box, type in the name of the assignment (such as Task 3).
In the Description box, provide the assignment details.
In the Submission types box, ensure that Online text and File submissions are selected. Set Maximum number of uploaded files to 2.
In the Submission settings section, ensure that the options for Require students to click submit button and Require that students accept the submission statement are amended to Yes. Change Attempts reopened to Manually.
Within the Grades section, navigate to Grade | Type | Point and Maximum points is set to 100.
In the Outcomes *section, choose the outcomes as Evidence provided and Criteria 1 met.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on Save and return to course.