moodle assignment time limit

Swarthmore College – ITS Blog

How to allow extra time on exams, quizzes and assigments in Moodle (Moodle Accessibility – Part 1)

Faculty are frequently asked for extra time on quizes, exams and written assignments. In some cases, these requests are to accommodate a disability that impacts a student’s speed in completing such work. Fortunately, it’s easy to manage extra time with Moodle’s quiz functionality and in Moodle assignments! What’s more, you can allow extra time for as many students as appropriate with all the same time allowance, and you can have separate time allowances for students with different needs.

From our Knowledge Base article ( Extended time on quizes ): It is possible to give specific students (or groups of students) a different time limit on quizzes and assignments.  This is useful for students that need extended time.  It is also possible to modify the quiz or assignment start and end dates in case students need an extension or provide an additional attempt for the work if a student needs a retake.

Instructions:

To make these changes follow the steps below.

• Click the “ Turn Editing On”  button at the top right of your Moodle course page.
• Enter the quiz or assignment by clicking on its title.

• Select the student(s) from the list.
• You may set a password to access the quiz or assignment
• The “Time limit” option allows you to set the length of time allowed for the student
• Set the number of attempts under “Attempts allowed”

• These overrides will be listed on the User overrides page
• User overrides need to be set independently for each applicable quiz or assignment in the course

While this works for both the built-in Moodle quizes and assignments, I would note that it is not available for Turnitin Assignments nor for Questionaires or Google Assignments, as those tools both use external plug-ins that don’t have this functionality. And in general, external plug-in tools will not have the same flexibility for accommodating students needs as the built-in tools.

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Documentation

• Assignment FAQ
• Assignment settings
• Using Assignment
• 1.1 I get a blank screen when trying to annotate online text or uploaded Word/LibreOffice submissions
• 1.2 I can’t annotate directly on the students’ submissions
• 1.3 Can I record my feedback to students?
• 1.4 I don’t see the submit button when testing my assignment as a student
• 1.5 Can I grade work that’s been done offline outside of Moodle?
• 1.6 Can I grade assignments on my tablet/mobile/iPad?
• 1.7 Can I specify which files my students can submit?
• 1.8 What’s the point of the Due date?
• 1.9 How can I have a timed assignment?
• 1.10 Can I have different dates for different groups or individuals?
• 1.11 How can I find assignments I haven’t yet graded?
• 1.12 How can I grant extensions to individual students (or groups in group assignments?)
• 1.13 How can I be notified when students submit work?
• 1.14 How can I stop being notified for some submitted assignments?
• 1.15 Can I delete a student’s assignment?
• 1.16 Can I download assignments to view them offline?
• 1.17 I can’t edit the grades for assignment submissions
• 1.18 What’s the difference between ‘Revert submissions to draft’ and ‘Allow another attempt?’
• 1.19 I see submissions closed even though the dates are in the future
• 1.20 How can a selected outcome be removed from an assignment?
• 1.21 How can I export the rubric levels and criteria along with students' submissions?
• 1.22 Can I use assignments for teaching and assessing music?
• 1.23 What is a good procedure to issue a certificate based on a face-to-face final test?
• 1.24 Is there a tool on Moodle where groups can collaboratively draft a document and I can see what they are doing in real time or near real time, before they save their work?
• 2.1 How do I change assignment defaults?
• 2.2 How do I set up Ghostscript?
• 2.3 How do I set up unoconv?
• 2.4 How do I list all assignment files for a user and/or a course
• 3 Any further questions?

I get a blank screen when trying to annotate online text or uploaded Word/LibreOffice submissions

The most likely reason for this is that your Moodle site does not have a Document converter installed which converts submissions to PDF so the teacher can annotate them.

You can still grade these submissions, but you can't comment directly on them. You can collapse the blank screen by clicking icons at the bottom right:

I can’t annotate directly on the students’ submissions

Check with your administrator that your site has Ghostscript and one of the Document converters enabled.

Can I record my feedback to students?

Yes! See the video Assignment feedback enhancements

I don’t see the submit button when testing my assignment as a student

This feature is intended for teachers so that they can see how their course appears for students. It isn't a reliable view however, as some features do not display correctly when viewed by a teacher who has switched their role to a student. For that reason it is always preferable where possible to have a "test" student log in to use.

Can I grade work that’s been done offline outside of Moodle?

Yes. Just untick all submission types when setting up the assignment and just use it for grading.

Can I grade assignments on my tablet/mobile/iPad?

Yes. Try it!

Can I specify which files my students can submit?

Yes! When you set up the assignment, you can make this selection in the Submission settings. See Assignment settings for more information.

What’s the point of the Due date?

The Allow submissions from and Due date settings are useful for keeping learners on schedule. Using the Allow submissions from setting will make it possible for learners to preview upcoming activities, while at the same time, prevent them from finishing the course in the first week and not returning for additional activities or information. Likewise, the Due dates help keep the learners from lagging too far behind and decrease the likelihood that the learner will become overwhelmed by having to complete several weeks worth of work at once.

How can I have a timed assignment?

Ask your administrator to enable the time limit feature from Site administration > Plugins > Assignment settings > Enable timed assignments and you will then have the option from the Availability section.

Can I have different dates for different groups or individuals?

You can use the assignment override feature accessed from the assignment settings as mentioned in Using Assignment .

How can I find assignments I haven’t yet graded?

Click on the assignment and then click 'View all submissions'. Click the 'Grade column and it will sort the submissions, with already graded ones at the top of the list.

How can I grant extensions to individual students (or groups in group assignments?)

See Using_Assignment#Granting_extensions (direct link to that section.)

How can I be notified when students submit work?

When setting up or editing the assignment, set the 'Notify graders about submissions' dropdown to 'Yes'.

How can I stop being notified for some submitted assignments?

If you want ALL teachers to stop receiving notifications for a particular assignment then simply set 'Notify graders about submissions' to 'No' in the assignment settings.

By default, teachers and non-editing teachers have the capability Capabilities/mod/assign:receivegradernotifications . If you don't want either teachers or non-editing teachers to receive notifications for a particular assignment, then from the Permissions link in the Administration block of that assignment, set this capability to "prevent" for the role in question.

Can I delete a student’s assignment?

Yes, if the admin has given you the capability Capabilities/mod/assign:editothersubmission .

Can I download assignments to view them offline?

Yes. You can either download all assignment submissions by clicking 'View all submissions' and then 'Download all submissions' OR you can tick the boxes of certain submissions you wish to download and then, from under the list of students, choose 'With selected...Download selected submissions'.

I can’t edit the grades for assignment submissions

If you edit assignment grades directly in the gradebook, an "overridden" flag is set, meaning that the grade can no longer be edited from the Grading summary page. If required, the flag can be removed by turning editing on in the grader report , then clicking the edit grade icon, unchecking the overridden box and saving the changes.

What’s the difference between ‘Revert submissions to draft’ and ‘Allow another attempt?’

'Revert submission to draft' is basically an 'undo' for students who have incorrectly submitted an assignment - it allows them to go back and change the files before submitting again. 'Allow another attempt' saves the submission and the feedback into the submission history and allows them to create a new submission (optionally based on their original submission), which will have its own feedback associated with it.

I see submissions closed even though the dates are in the future

This message will appear if you are trying an assignment as an administrator without actually being enrolled in the course, even thought the dates might look correct. Try with a student account of someone enrolled in the course.

How can a selected outcome be removed from an assignment?

• Follow the Grades link from the Course administration block.
• On the Grader report page, select the Categories and items tab.
• Locate the assignment for which the outcome is to be removed. The outcome is listed directly below it.
• Click the delete icon opposite the outcome.

How can I export the rubric levels and criteria along with students' submissions?

This is not yet possible. If you'd like this functionality, please vote for MDL-32089 . (You need to create a tracker account and to log in to be able to vote.)

Can I use assignments for teaching and assessing music?

For music notation, chord charts, & even "Grigson grids," MuseScore , (free & open source of course) is a richly featured, flexible, & relatively easy to use addition to students' digital tool kits. There's also large libraries of shared transcriptions & scores in MuseScore file formats

Students can submit their MuseScore files for feedback, advice, & grading as Assignments. MuseScore can also export scores as PNG images or post them as attachments in Moodle forums so that they can demonstrate what they mean. This would be better for studying music theory than MIDI files or audio recordings, i.e. keeping the focus on music structure rather than on performance.

What is a good procedure to issue a certificate based on a face-to-face final test?

If the offline assignment is aimed at showing mastery of specific skills or behaviors, you could also set up the Assignment activity in such a manner that:

• there are no submissions possible (no files, no online text)
• the assessment is by marking guide or rubric
• the marking guide or rubric is visible to participants
• With a passing grade and access restriction on the certificate, this will only become available to those who have successfully shown they master what's been assessed offline.
• This works well for master-apprentice type learning situations.
• The coolest thing about this approach is that the offline assessor can use the marking guide of rubric on his tablet, to assess on the go... and that a result will be available as soon as the grade has been saved and released... Plus: there's room to add feedback for the student (which, of course, most important).

Is there a tool on Moodle where groups can collaboratively draft a document and I can see what they are doing in real time or near real time, before they save their work?

• Unfortunately Moodle doesn't currently contain an easy to use tool for collaboratively drafting a document.
• Use Google Docs, but it's independent of Moodle. Please see here: https://matbury.com/wordpress/?p=3771
• There's a Moodle-Etherpad integration module here: https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_etherpadlite that may be of use to you. However, you need to set up Etherpad on your server or at least on the same top-level domain (TLD). Etherpad: https://etherpad.org/
• There's also an integration with Collabora Office, i.e. the online version of LibreOffice (similar to Google Docs but free and open source & without the GDPR issues): https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_collabora Collabora Office: https://www.collaboraoffice.com/

Administrators

How do i change assignment defaults.

Go to Site administration >Plugins >Activity modules >Assignment and check out the Assignment settings, Submission plugins and Feedback plugins links.

How do I set up Ghostscript?

See http://www.ghostscript.com/ and visit Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Assignment > Feedback plugins > Annotate PDF to make sure you have the correct path to Ghostscript.

How do I set up unoconv?

See Installing unoconv for details.

How do I list all assignment files for a user and/or a course

Install the Assignment files report additional plugin.

Any further questions?

Please post in the Assignment forum on moodle.org.

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Moodle assignments can be used for timed take-home exams, by using the time limit feature in the  Availability section of the Assignment settings.  This works best for open-ended questions in which you would like students to submit a file.

It is also possible to use a quiz for a timed exam. See Creating a timed quiz or exam in Moodle .  A timed assignment is easier to set up and grade if you want students to submit a single file.  A timed quiz has more functionality if you want to include auto-graded questions (e.g. multiple choice or fill in the blank) or would like to grade several short essays.

Start by creating an assignment (see Set up an assignment in Moodle for more guidance). 

In the Activity instructions , end the information students need to know to take the exam.  For example, this could include an essay prompt or you could upload a file with a copy of the exam instructions.  Students will not be able to see the activity instructions until they begin the exam.  

Put any files needed for the exam in the Activity Instructions section by selecting text and clicking the paperclip button to upload files. The Activity Instructions section will be hidden until students begin the exam. Putting files in the Additional Files area will reveal them before a student begins the exam.

Under the Availability section, adjust the Allow submissions from and  Due date to be the start and end of the window of time students are allowed to take the exam.  Then set the  Time limit to the desired maximum time that students can work on the exam.  

All other standard Moodle assignment settings can be implemented as you see fit. 

Students will still be able to submit the assignment after time expires. If you are concerned that some students may use more than the allotted time, contact your academic technologist for report on time used by each student.

User and Group Overrides

Just like a normal assignment, it is possible to set up individual user or group overrides to adjust the window that the exam is open or to provide extended time.

To set overrides, click on the assignment → More → Overrides and adjust the dates and times as needed.

Other Notes

Students can make a submission after the time expires and their submission will have a note indicating it was turned in late.

Ways you can contact ITS or find information:

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Last updated: December 13, 2023, 9:28 p.m.

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Summary Glossary Comparison Scenarios How-to

Moodle has two activities you can use to administer a take-home exam: Assignment and Quiz. Generally speaking, Assignment is appropriate for written assessment such as essays, learning journals, final papers etc., which requires manual grading and a longer time frame (days or even weeks) for completion. Quiz is better suited for closed-book tests, supports a variety of question types, and grades automatically, with the exception of the Essay question type, which needs to be graded by human markers.

Assignment and Quiz can both be set up for administering take-home exams. This quick guide will help you determine which one is a better fit and give you a general idea of how to set it up.

Window of time : The time frame during which the exam is available to all students (from hours to days). In Quiz settings, this means the time between Open and Close date. In Assignment, this refers to the Available from and the cut-of date.

Timed exam : Students have a certain amount of time to complete the exam, usually a window of few hours.

Untimed exam : Students are given a window of time to complete the exam and can start and complete any time within the window.

Time limit: The time between when a student starts and finishes the exam. In Quiz settings, it is called Time limit. In Assignment, it is equivalent to the time between when the Assignment is made available and the Cutoff date. Assignment settings do not distinguish between time limit and a window of time.

Due date and Cutoff date in Assignment: The due date (date and time) is when students are expected to submit their assignment. After the due date, students are still able to submit, but it will be marked late. The cut off date (and time), if defined, will prevent students from submitting after the designated time. For exams, you may want to skip the due date buffer, and only set the cutoff date as the close time. However, if you want to allow an extra few minutes in the instance of technical glitches, you may consider making using a due date and a cut off date (at 15 minutes after the due date).

Comparison of Assignment and Quiz for take-home exams

Following is a summary table of key differences between Assignment and Quiz for the administration of take-home exams.

Timed, inflexible start time: Quiz

If your exam is timed (e.g. 3 hours) and starts at the same time for all students, theoretically both Assignment and Quiz can work for you. However, for timed exams, it is safer to use Quiz in case students are not able to submit on time due to technical glitches. Quiz can automatically submit what students have completed before time expires. With Assignment, the system cannot prove whether a student completed the exam within the time limit, neither with the file upload option nor the online text option. Students are not able to submit after the exam closes (Cutoff date) unless you accept late submissions by setting up a Due date.

In addition, if your exam contains a mixture of essay questions and other question types that can be computer graded, using Quiz will save you some grading time.

For timed online exams, it is recommended that you give students at least 15 minutes’ buffer to start the exam. That is to say, although all students are given the same amount of time to complete the exam, those who are late for no more than 15 minutes will have an equal chance to finish the exam on time. With Quiz, this can be easily set up using the timing settings.

If you decide to use Assignment, keep in mind that Assignment cannot auto track the time between when a student starts and finishes the exam, so the 15 minutes extra time will actually be bonus time for students who start right on time, which is fine given the current circumstances.

Timed, flexible start time: Quiz

This scenario is the same as Scenario 1 except that you want to give students the flexibility to start the exam at any time within a longer time frame (e.g. 24-48 hours). For example, you want to open your exam at 9:00 AM, April 16 th and close it at 9:00 AM April 17 th , with a time constraint of 3 hours. In this case, Quiz is your only option. Assignment does not support such flexibility in timing.

Untimed: Assignment or Quiz

If your exam is untimed, both Assignment and Quiz can work for you. You can choose either based on your preferred features listed in the comparison table above. With Quiz, make sure you set the open and close time to reflect the duration you will grant students for completing your exam. There is no need to set a Time limit in Quiz as this will be the same as the duration between the open and close time. With Assignment, you will set the Cutoff date as the time for closing your exam (no submission will be accepted after this time). The moment you make the Assignment available to students will be the start of your exam. If you want to give a buffer time, use the Due date as your deadline and use the Cutoff date as the absolute deadline.

Note: these instructions are for Moodle 3.9.

Assignment setup for take-home exams

1. Add an Assignment activity.

2. In the settings of the Assignment, set the Cutoff date to be your exam close time (no need to set submission start time; for Due date; set this only if you want to give a buffer and accept late submissions up to the cut off date).

3. In  Submission types : check File if you want students to submit their responses in a file or Check Online text if you want them to submit via a text box in Moodle. If you would like to assess oral presentations, check Online Poodl to allow students to record audio submissions.

4. Select the appropriate Feedback types . If you intend to return corrected exam papers to students, select Feedback files. If you want to leave some general feedback, select Feedback comments. If no feedback is intended, leave all options unchecked.

Tip : If unsure at the time of setting up the assignment, check all feedback types, and you can decide when it comes time to mark.

5. In  Submission settings:  make sure "No" is selected for Require students to click the submit button. This way, students can delete and resubmit a new/revised version as long as the Assignment is still open for submission.

6. To set a time to make the assignment available to students, you can add a Date restriction under Restrict Access.

Alternatively, you can immediately hide the Assignment from students and manually make it available to students at the appropriate time. Do not add the questions until you have hidden the activity from students.

Note:  The start time you set in the Availability section only constrains the time when students can submit their exams, not when they can access your attached file(s). This is why you need to either restrict access or hide the Assignment.

7. Write the Questions in the Assignment Description or write them in an attached document that they must download, complete and submit.

Students upload the completed exam paper by the exam close time via Assignment submission.

Note:  If you want to release student grades all at the same time, you can hide the grades by going to the Actions menu in the top-hand-corner of your course page. From the Actions menu, select Gradebook setup . Click on Edit opposite to the assignment you want to hide. A drop-down menu will appear. From the drop-down menu, select Hide . The grade item's color will be dimmed to indicate the item is now hidden. When you are ready to release the grades, come back here and select Show.

Quiz setup for take-home exams

1. Create a category in the Question bank to house your exam questions.

2. Add questions to the category one by one as separate questions, or enter two or three related essay questions as one Essay type question for students to answer in one entry box (or import all your questions into the Question bank from a specially formatted document).

3. Add a Quiz activity.

4. Set the Open and Close time.

Note: For timed exams, give at least 15 minutes extra time to allow late students enough time to complete the exam.

5. Set the time limit. For timed exams, this is the time between open and close time minus the extra 15 minute. No need to set this up for untimed exams as this will be the same time lapse as the time between the open and close times.

6. Select 'Open attempts are submitted automatically for When time expires'. This ensures student attempted responses will be submitted even if the student forgets or fails to submit the quiz manually.

7. Under Grade, set Attempts allowed to be One.

8. Under Review options, make sure all the active checkboxes next to The attempt are unchecked across the columns if you do not want students to see the questions again after they submit all and finish.

9. Under Review options, make sure all the active checkboxes next to Marks are unchecked across the columns if you have essay questions and do not want students to see their grades as you grade them. You can release all student grades simultaneously when you are done grading by coming back to tick the Marks checkbox under After the quiz is closed.

10. Save the settings and Add your questions from the Question bank (If you have set the Open time properly, you shouldn’t worry about students seeing the questions ahead of time; if you want to be absolutely sure, hide the Quiz before adding questions. You can also switch to the student role to check if they can see the questions if you do not hide the Quiz).

Note:  that if you have students with disabilities in your class who need extended time to complete the exam, yo u can extend individual students' exam time  by selecting the User overrides feature in the Actions menu on the Quiz summary page .

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• The Assignment Activity

Creating Assignments in Moodle

Students can submit work for a course via the Assignment Activity in Moodle.

Adding an Assignment to a Course

• Open the Moodle course and turn editing on by sliding the  Edit Mode  toggle to the on position. ( Those using the Classic Theme in Moodle can click the  Turn Editing on  button. ).
• Move to the section of the course where you wish the assignment to appear and click the Add an activity or resource button.
• Select Assignment .

General Settings

Under the General heading, enter an Assignment name and Description for the assignment.

You can also add Activity Instructions , which will appear when the student opens the assignment.

Availability Settings

Under the Availability heading, set the Allow submissions from date.

• If enabled, the Due date means that any assignments submitted after the date will be marked late.
• If enabled, the Cut-off date means that students can no longer upload assignments after the entered date.
• Most people set a Due date, but only set a Cut-off date if you are sure that you won’t allow late submissions.
• Time limit is useful when using an Online text box rather than a File submission. When enabled students have a specified amount of time to enter material into the Online box.

Submission Type Settings

• Most people choose File submissions .
• You could choose Online text if you wanted students to enter text or to paste a URL to a video presentation hosted on YouTube.
• You can also set the Accepted file types , if you want to prevent students from uploading file types you may not be able to read, such as a Pages document.

Feedback Types Settings

Under the Feedback types section, check the Feedback types you would like to use.

• Feedback comments lets you type comments into a comment box.
• Annotate PDF converts the file to a PDF and then lets you mark up and comment directly on the PDF file.
• Feedback files lets you download the Word document, comment on it, and re-upload it to the system.
• Checking the Comment inline turns the document into a text box where you can comment inline with the text.  (Only useful for short assignments.)

Submission Settings

Under the Submission settings heading:

• Require students to click the submit button = Set to Yes . Otherwise, if students forget to click submit you will see files that say “draft.”
• Require that students accept the submission statement = The submission statement is a message regarding Gettysburg College’s honor code.  If you want students to read this before submitting their files, select Yes .
• Attempt reopened  = Usually set to Manually, which allows the instructor to reopen an assignment so a student can re-submit it if there is a problem.
• Maxium attempts  = If you set it to two, you allow students to upload a second file if they make a mistake.  They do not have to contact you to do so.

Group Submission Settings

The Group Submission section allows one person from a student group to upload a presentation file for everyone in the group.  The downside to this setting is that if set to yes, you can’t grade each person in the group individually.

Notifications Settings

The Notification s section includes options to send emails to the instructor when a new submission arrives or if it is late.  You can also send automatic notifications to students when the item has been graded.

Grade Settings

• Type = Point is the most common option, but can set to None or Scale .
• Grading method = Simple direct grading is the most common and provides a place to enter the grade and a comment box.  Can also setup checklist , marking guide , or rubrics .
• If you have created categories in your gradebook, you can choose your Grade category .
• Grade to pass = This option isn’t necessary, but might use if using Mastery Grading or setting Access restrictions
• Anonymous submissions = When you grade the assignments, Moodle will hide the students’ name until finished grading.
• Hide grader identity = Used by large schools where a class my employ several TAs.
• Use marking workflow = Used by large schools where several people may mark an assignment.

Common Module Settings

Under the Common module settings section, you can set the Group mode to a specific group so that only members of that group can access the assignment. (To use this setting, you first must setup your groups in your course.)

The Force language option allows you to set the language for the individual assignment rather than the entire course.

Restrict Access Settings

Under the Restrict Access heading you can limit access to the assignment in numerous ways.

• Date = usually people use the dates set under the Availability section.
• Grade = used often with Mastery grading schemes
• Group = can limit to a certain group
• User profile = can limit to a specific person
• Release code = can set a pass code

More Information About Moodle Assignments

• Moodle.org: What is the Assignment Activity?
• Moodle.org: Assignment Settings

Video: Creating Assignments in Moodle 3 (recording of live Moodle training)

This video explores how to create and use the Assignment Activity in Moodle 3 using the Classic theme.

The default theme for Moodle as of the Fall 2023 is Boost. Courses made prior to this time used the Classic theme.

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Extending Test Time or Availability for a Student in Moodle

Students requiring documented accommodations, or students absent the day of a quiz, may require additional time for, or access to, Quizzes in Moodle. Granting that extended access is a simple process using the following steps.

• In your Moodle course, select the  “Edit Mode”  toggle in the upper right to begin editing the course site.
• Open the Quiz or Assignment you wish to modify.
• Select the More  tab, and choose Overrides .
• Select the student(s) from the list.
• You may set a password to access the quiz.
• The “Time limit” option allows you to set the length of time allowed for the student.
• The number of quiz attempts can be set under “Attempts allowed.”
• Click  [Save] .
• These overrides will be listed on the User Overrides page.
• User overrides will need to be set for each applicable quiz or assignment in the course.

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Create moodle assignment activity, availability, submission types, feedback types and submission settings, group assignment submission settings, notifications, common module settings & save, restrict access and activity completion settings.

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• Create Anonymous Assignment with Similarity Report
• Create Timed Moodle Assignment
• Create Group Assignment
• Create Group Assignment with Similarity Check
• Create Anonymous Group Assignment
• Create and define Moodle Rubric from scratch
• Create Moodle Rubric from template
• Create and define new Marking guide
• Create Marking guide from template
• In person Moodle Assignment - settings for summative exam
• Moodle Assignment FAQ

Related guidance

This page provides an overview of how to create a Moodle assignment where each student submits their coursework individually.

Some things to consider in the settings for assignments:

• Anonymous submissions are not enabled.
• Turnitin is not enabled so no Similarity Report is produced.
• Time limit is not set, so students can begin working on the assignment as early or late as assignment settings allow. 

Screencast: Create an individual assignment

This screencast demonstrates how to create an individual assignment in Moodle 4. 

• Turn Edit Mode on. 
• Open the relevant section. Select Add an activity or resource . Select Assignment from the Activities tab.
• In the General settings, write a meaningful Assignment name . This is the name that will be displayed on the module page and also in the gradebook.
• In  Description , provide clear instructions to your students about the assignment. Consider adding a link to the student educational technology guidance.
• Check Display Description on module page  to display the description beneath the assignment activity on the module page. If unchecked, the Description will only display when a student opens the assignment.
• Do not use  Activity Instructions , as these will   only display to students  after  they have opened the assignment (usually at the point of submission). This setting should only be used for timed Moodle assignments. 
• If required, in Additional files , upload any files you would like to attach to this assignment (e.g. assignment cover sheet or example submissions). Download links for the files will be displayed on the assignment page under the Description.
• Moodle guidance for students
• In the Availability section, set the Allow submissions from date to indicate from when students will be able to submit their coursework. This is enabled by default. 
• Set the Due date to match the assignment deadline. This date displays on the module page it is added to the Moodle Calendar and the students' Timeline block.
• Check the box next to Enable to set a Cut-off date . This is the final date and time when coursework can be submitted. Any submissions added after the Due date will be marked as late. Once the Cut-off date has passed, the submit button will not display on the assignment.
• Disable or update the  Remind me to grade by date. This appears in Timeline and Upcoming events block for staff enrolled on a module to remind them of grading deadlines.
• Do not use Time Limit . This feature is for setting timed assignments.
• In Submission types , select the box to indicate if the submission will be online text or whether students will upload one or more files. 
• If Online text submissions are enabled, students type rich text directly into an editor field for their submission. Markers can comment on, and edit students' text directly. Tick the Enable box to set a word limit. Set the maximum number of words that each student will be allowed to submit.
• Note: This is also the maximum number of feedback files that you can attach to each individual student when providing feedback. For example, if you want a student to submit one file but want to upload two feedback files then select three files.
• The maximum submission size defaults to the maximum upload limit for Moodle of 400MB . This default can be decreased if required.  Please note: If you have Turnitin enabled on Moodle assignments that Turnitin's upload limit is 100MB .
• The lecturer can specify the types of file the students may upload to the assignment. The file types may be added with their file extension, such as .png and mp3, or else as image/png and audio/mp3.
• Accepted file types can be restricted by entering a semicolon-separated list of mimetypes, for example: 'video/mp4; audio/mp3; image/png; image/jpeg'. You may also limit to extensions by including the dot, for example '.png; .jpg'.
• If the file types have been restricted, then when students attempt to submit the assignment, they will see a message telling them which files are accepted.
• Leaving the field blank will allow all file types.

Feedback types controls how you can provide feedback. In most cases, you will not need to change these settings unless you have an online text submission.

• Set Comment inline to Yes for online text submissions.

Submission settings provide additional requirements for students to confirm prior to submitting their coursework.

• We recommend that Require students to click the submit button stays at the default No to facilitate students re-submitting up to the Due date.
• The setting Require that students accept the submission statement will be enabled by default on assignments. Do not change this setting as it is important that students understand what is required of them in regards to academic integrity prior to submitting an assignment.

• In the Group assignment settings, leave Students submit in groups set to No for individual assignments. 

• If you want all Lecturers and Programme Administrators on a module to be notified via email of late submissions change Notify graders about late submissions to Yes .
• The Default setting for Notify students is Yes . Do not change this setting as it controls the generation of an email to students on release of grades and feedback.

• In the Grade settings, select the type of grade and the grading method. The most common settings are point and simple direct grading .
• For advanced grading methods - Rubrics and Marking records - select the links below.
• You can choose to Hide grader identity from students . This option might be required if Programme administrators are uploading feedback received from lecturers.
• Use Marking workflow is an  optional workflow  that requires grades to go through a series of stages before they're released to students. 
• Create Marking Guide
• From the Common module settings , you can set Availability to Show or Hide on course page .
• You do not need to change the Group mode .
• Select Save and return to module .

You can use the Restrict access settings to control the availability of content and activities based on one or more conditions, including date and group. 

Activity completion allows you to set completion criteria for a specific activity or resource.

Activities or resources with a completion criteria display a circle next to them in the Module index. The circle turns green (and is filled in) when the student meet the criteria. On the main module page, a tick and the word "done" appears against the item when the student meets the criteria. This helps students manage their progress on a module and staff can easily review student engagement and progress against key activities.

You can combine Restrict access   and Activity completion to provide structured pathways through your module.

Apply the settings

• Open the activity or resource.
• Select Settings from the contextual navigation menu above the module name. This opens the activity settings.
• Change the settings required.
• Select Save and return to module  to save any changes made.
• Manage your content guide
• << Previous: Get Started - Moodle Assignment
• Next: Create Assignment with Similarity Report >>
• Last Updated: May 8, 2024 4:04 PM
• URL: https://city-uk-ett.libguides.com/staff/moodle/assignment

Moodle help faster than you can drink a cup of coffee

Set Different Due Dates for Student Groups

Instructors can use the override function to create differentiated assignment due dates for groups. This might be useful if you have different class sections or student "cohorts" in one Moodle course and you want to set different due dates for each group.

You can only set group overrides on Assignments and Quizzes.

Group overrides allow you to change the following settings:

• Allow submissions from date (the first day / time students will be able to submit anything to the assignment)
• Due date (the day / time that displays to students on the assignment page and in the Moodle Calendar)
• Cut-off date (the last day / time students will be able to submit anything to the assignment)
• Open the quiz date (the first day / time students will be able to submit anything to the assignment)
• Close the quiz date (the last day / time students will be able to submit the quiz; also the day / time that displays to students on the quiz page and in the Moodle Calendar)
• Time limit (how long students have to submit the quiz after they've started)
• Attempts allowed (how many times students can take the quiz)

This guide shows how to have different assignment due dates for different groups, but the process is the same for overriding other assignment settings or quiz settings. Note that you cannot override the "Expect completed on" date.

Before getting started with this guide, follow the steps for creating groups . Create a group for each class section or student cohort.

Part 1 Set a due date in the assignment settings

(if you've already set a due date that works for one of your student groups, continue to Part 2)

• Open the assignment you want to add overrides to.
• Click the gear icon at the top right of the page then select Edit settings . This will open the assignment settings page.
• Under the "Availability" section, set a Due date . You should choose a due date that applies to one of your student groups. That way, in Part 2, you'll have one less group override to add.
• Click Save and display .

Part 2 Add the group overrides

• Open the assignment you want to add overrides to (if you're not there already).
• On the page that opens, click the Add group override button. Then you'll be on the group override settings page. If the "Add group override" button is greyed out, it means you do not have any groups in the course. Follow the steps for creating groups to create a group for each class section or student cohort. Then return to this guide.
• Click Save .
• You'll see the overrides you just added in the list of overrides. You can add more group overrides for the other student groups, unless there are only two groups, in which case you're done! The group that you applied the override for will have the different due date and the group that you didn't set the override for will have the default assignment due date. This is why it's a good idea to set the overall assignment due date to one that applies to one of the student groups.

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How To Set Assignment Upload Limit in Moodle

Samuel J Tan Learning , Tutorials , VLEs 3

So you have set your course but you are still seeing a 1MB upload limit for Assignments with File Submission plugin. What is missing? How do you increase this limit.

How to Increase the File Upload Size in Moodle Assignments from 1MB

You checked your course setting and you can see that this has been set to the maximum allowed upload limit set by the server. You check your course default settings and there is nothing that says differently. So why is it that your File Submission type assignment is still limited to 1MB.

Here are 3 Steps to Increase Your file Submission Upload Limit in Moodle Assignments

1. In your Course area, go to Administration > Edit Settings  then Files and uploads  menu and make sure that you have set the Maximum upload size to anything but 1MB. We recommend Site upload limit.

2. Next, to ensure that courses created in the future will have the new Maximum upload size, go to Site Administration > Courses > Course default settings and scroll down to Files and Uploads section. Ensure that the Maximum upload size is set to a higher value. Again, we recommend Site upload limit . You will need your Moodle Administrator to do this.

3. Finally, to increase your File Submissions limit, and this is the crucial step, go to Site Administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Submission Plugins >  File submissions . Here you can increase the Maximum submission size from its default of 1MB to a higher value. We recommend Site upload limit but your requirements may differ.

What if My Site Upload Limit is Low

If in step 1, you see a low Site upload limit, you will need to refer to your Server Administrator who will be able to increase the maximum upload limit in the PHP setting.

The highest upload limit is based on the server’s allowed maximum upload limit. You see this value in Administration > Server > PHP Info , look for  upload_max_filesize entry. This is referred to on Moodle as the Site upload limit .

Applies to: Moodle 2.3 onwards, menu routes for some versions may differ

Note: the Maximum submission size for the assignment module is specified for any individual file uploaded. If you allow more than one file submission per assignment, students may upload multiples of up to the maximum allowed limit each. There is no accumulated usage limit.

Published with permission  Xelium

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charlesdev March 3, 2015 @ 2:02 pm

Thank you very much. This is exactly what I was looking for. Best regards!

Colour My Learning March 3, 2015 @ 2:52 pm

Thanks Charles, we are glad it was helpful to you.

Anthony April 27, 2018 @ 6:22 pm

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