Electronic Submission, Marking

and Feedback via Moodle 2. Bob Ridge-Stearn (contact details on last slide) MoodleMoot 2012 Dublin

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MoodleMoot 2011

Implementing electronic submission and marking

with Turnitin’s Moodle Direct plugin

MoodleMoot 2012

Electronic Submission, Marking and Feedback

via Moodle 2.

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Background to eSMF at Newman

• Drivers • Feedback turnaround times • Quality / richness of feedback • Amount of paper stored in Exams & Assessments • Student Expectations • Flexibility • Uniformity of experience

• Electronic Submission Working Group • Academics • Student Union • Quality Office • Exams & Assessments • E-learning • Inclusion/Disability

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Electronic Submission Working Group

• Rejected the Moodle – Turnitin integration. • Liked submission process • Disliked marking process (GradeMark)

• Asked for further trials –

• Moodle Advanced Uploading of Files Assignment Activity • Feedback via Word.

• Asked for more information about

• current practices across the University College • Opinions and experiences of staff and students

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Report.

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External Consultant (Andy Birch) commissioned to produce a report. Bought to our attention the great variety of assessment types in use, that many tutors already used electronic assessments and submission and also that some tutors were apprehensive of the idea of marking online.

Some of the Report Recommendations.

1. After a system is devised, this is clearly disseminated and training materials produced.

2. A daytime submission deadline is adopted.

3. Moodle Advanced Assignment tool is adopted as the submission method

4. Change Management approach is adopted.

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Learning & Teaching Committee Nov 2011.

• Proposal • Introduce ES in Sept 2012 - not include marking and feedback

• Concerns

• Who would print off the assignments? • Who would cover the cost of this? • Would this have an impact on turnaround times? • Would resources be available in Exams & Assessments? • Use of home PCs • Health & Safety • Training • Cannot separate submission from marking/feedback

• Rejected

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Learning & Teaching Committee Jan 2012.

• New Proposal • A phased approach - Introduce ES in Sept 2012 in only certain level 4

modules • Submission AND electronic feedback/marking included

• Not a roll out – a further pilot.

• Agreed.

• New working group formed - eSMF Implementation Group • Added IT Services and Health & Safety to existing members of Working

Group. (Does not replace Working Group) Implementation Group is focussed on delivering the goods within a timescale.

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New technical procedures mean…

New policies and procedures.

• Stakeholders affected.

• Quality Office • Exams & Assessments • IT Services • Academics • Students • External Examiners • Senior Academic Support Tutors

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• Processes affected

• Submission • Marking • Feedback • Disputes • Lateness • Moderation • Second Marking

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Example screenshot from the project task list.

Moodle.

• Sometimes we had to adapt the VLE to our existing policies and procedures.

• Sometimes we had to adapt policies and procedures to the technology.

• Each time any adaptation (i.e. compromise) was required it involved explanations and negotiations with stakeholders. Sometimes apparently minor decisions took longer to resolve than anticipated as the context as seen by different stakeholders was more complex.

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Examples of adapting Moodle to fit with

policies/procedures.

• Blind Marking / Anonymous marking.

• Create all assignments automatically with set defaults

• Standardization of experience – just one Assignment type

• Enable email receipt for students

• Provide students with uniform assessment information across all

courses/modules

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Moodle – Blind / anon marking.

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We achieved this by changing the Moodle code in the Assignment Module. We didn’t need to modify the database as we just populated the ID # field , which previously contained the student name with the student ID number. Strictly speaking this isn’t 100% anonymous but we can live with it.

Moodle – Blind / anon marking.

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Moodle – Blind / anon marking.

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Anonymizing the Reports part was tricky so we simply removed the reports that were difficult to anonymize and left only the Grader Report. This shouldn’t cause too much inconvenience as this function isn’t widely used at Newman as grades are more often analyzed in SITS.

Moodle - Standardized Assignments

1. Limit types of assignment

2. Create all assignments

the same

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To standardize the way assignments are set up we now set them up automatically by having an SQL script that takes parameters for things like assignment name, deadline etc from SITS where that info is already stored and creates the assignment and inserts it into the top section of each course. Because not all courses are the same – some need to allow multiple files to be uploaded – module leaders complete a form asking how the Assignments should be set up – we’ll look at that in a minute – and Exams & Assessments staff are trained to EDIT the assignments once created.

Moodle - Standardized Assignments

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These are the sort of things we wanted to standardize because without standardization we have students who can delete submitted files on one module but not on another, who have to press ‘send for marking’ on one, but not etc.

Moodle – email submission notifications

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In our trials of Moodle 2.0 in Semester 1 2011/12 we had a big problem with providing a date stamp for students . This arose for two reasons. 1. A date stamp is produced even if the submission process is incomplete. 2. Students thought they had uploaded because they had chosen and uploaded a file but the file is not actually uploaded until a Save Changes button is pressed.

Moodle – email submission notifications

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So our solution was to change the code to send emails to students as well as tutors when this setting was changed. The circled area is non-standard. Normally only teachers receive emails. We will deal with tutors’ displeasure by educating them about creating email rules to filter their inbox.

Moodle – uniform information required across

courses

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From next semester all our Moodle courses will carry Module, Course and Institutional Information on them. This change was made for two reasons. 1. Last year (March 2011) we completed a QAA institutional audit. One of the recommendations was that we should ensure a complete, consistent and synchronized publication of programme specifications and handbooks. 2. By September 2012 all HEIs have a legal obligation under new Public Information requirements to publish Key Information Sets (KIS) for every “course” they offer (this is overseen by HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency)). This information will also be available off Moodle – on mynewman (?) and available to prospective students and existing students who need information to choose future modules.

Moodle – uniform information in iframe

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Data is on SITS and published to a static html file in a virtual directory on the Moodle server. Formatted by CSS Editable by Staff in Quality Office only

Moodle – uniform information in iframe

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We couldn’t have Module Data Sets in every course as we have courses that do not relate to academic modules, e.g. Subject Areas have their own Moodle pages. Also meta courses that take enrolment from multiple SITS courses do not have their own module Data Sets so we named all meta courses with – META after their name and all other non-SITS courses we named with NO MDS and these Moodle courses receive different info at the top of their pages.

Moodle - uniform information - Assignment Brief

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To provide consistent information about assessment we will upload an assignment brief to every Moodle course. These will present the information in a uniform way and in the same place on each Moodle course. This is different to information in the MDS as it is specific to the instance of the module – for example the deadlines will change each time the module runs. To collect this information we ask all module leaders to provide it and this process has involved a lot of negotiation and explanations as to why it is necessary but we have now got a form (see left) that is being trailed this semester. This is used whether the module uses ES or not.

Moodle Assignment info.

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If, when completing the Assignment Brief form , the module leader says Electronic Submission is used, he/she completes this Moodle Assignment form to inform the creation of the Moodle Assignment. All assignments are created automatically with defaults so this info is only used to edit the assignments once created and then only if a default is not to be used.

Examples of adapting policies and

procedures to the technology

• Text box feedback. (Tutors must provide comments and a grade for students to see response files.)

• Separate Late assignments (because Moodle doesn’t allow 2 deadlines nor can you restrict access by the hour/minute in Restrict Access feature)

• Audio feedback process altered in Moodle 2.0 (you cannot upload a file to a folder and embed a player. You need to attach audio file as a response file. SoundCloud may be a solution for others who do not need feedback file on their own server).

• 12 hr clock (cannot be altered to 24h – issue with noon/midnight) • Moderators and External examiners now access all submissions • External Examiners needed login ID (we have single sign-on)

• Opportunity to redesign the exisiting A4 paper feedback form.

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Moodle – test on each upgrade

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The submission process is a critical process. Be careful when upgrading Moodle to ensure that it all works after the upgrade. Recently we upgraded to 2.2.2 and saw this issue. ‘No attempts’ is recorded even with a submission. It affects students and tutors. A patch is available but it reminds one to test it.

Moodle – Mahara

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In MoodleMoot 2012 I had no time to talk about Mahoodle but we are also introducing this integration from Sept 2012.

Bob Ridge-Stearn = @BobRidgeStearn = Bob.Ridge-Stearn@Newman.ac.uk

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