Create Moodle Assignment guide

This page provides an overview of how to create a Moodle assignment where each student submits their coursework individually and Turnitin is enabled to produce a Similarity Report.

Settings not enabled

• Anonymous submissions are not enabled.
• Time limit is not set, so students can begin working on the assignment as early or late as assignment settings allow. 

Quickstart

If you are familiar with the assignment set up, you will only need to review:  

• Considerations for using the Turnitin plugin
• In Submission types, limit Maximum submission size and Accepted file types to ensure Similarity Report is generated.
• Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings.

Screencast: Create a Moodle assignment

This screencast first demonstrates how to create an individual Moodle assignment.

Subsequent chapters demonstrate how to:

• Enable anonymous submissions
• Enable Turnitin similarity reports
• Create a timed assignment
• Create a group assignment 

Grades and feedback

• If you decide to mark Moodle assignments via Feedback Studio, you need to set Require students to click the submit button to Yes. In the Turnitin Plagiarism Plugin settings a new option will be available. When should the file be submitted to Turnitin? Select Submit file when student sends for marking. These options can help reduce the amount of draft papers submitted to Turnitin.
• You must select each student assignment from the Moodle assignment interface and not use the navigation between papers in Feedback Studio. Using Feedback Studio's internal navigation can result in you marking multiple drafts of the same submission.
• There is no way to control the Turnitin post date on Moodle assignments with the Turnitin plugin enabled. You must use Moodle's mechanisms for hiding the grade item prior to beginning marking.
• You will need to set up a separate assignment activity to manage extensions as the setting to partially release feedback does not work with feedback provided with Feedback Studio.

Confidential submissions

Student submissions may contain confidential material. These could include:

• Commercially sensitive material
• Personal details that could identify an anonymous participant

If submissions contain confidential material, they must not be stored on Turnitin's repository as they would then be included in future similarity searches. To exclude confidential submission from future searches, under the setting Store Student Papers select No Repository.

For confidential submissions, once the assessment process is completed and you have downloaded and securely saved a copy of the confidential submission, feedback and grade -  you can remove the paper from the Turnitin submission inbox. Please note that as the paper was not saved in the Repository it is not recoverable after it is removed.

Other considerations

• Assignments should be set up only to accepts files up to 100MB in size, the limit for Turnitin assignments.
• Ensure that students will be submitting a file of the type and size that can be accepted by Turnitin and generate a Similarity Report for this assignment type. If not, depending on file type, Moodle will accept the submission, but Turnitin may not produce a Similarity Report if the file is not of an accepted size or type.
• You can't retrospectively enable similarity reports after students have submitted to the assignment.
• Never duplicate a Moodle assignment with Turnitin enabled as it will break the assignment.
• All Turnitin services may be unavailable during scheduled maintenance times - the first and third Saturdays of each month.

1. Turn Edit Mode on. 
2. Open the relevant section. Select the plus icon. Select Activity or resource. Select Assignment from the Activities tab.
3. 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.
4. In Description, provide clear instructions to your students about the assignment. Consider adding a link to the student educational technology guidance.
5. 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.
6. 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. 
7. 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.

1. 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. 
2. 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.
3. Check the box next to Enable to set a Cut-off date. This is the final date and time when coursework can be submitted and should be set to 48 hours after the extension deadline.
   • Any submissions added after the Due date or the Extended date will be marked as late. Once the Cut-off date has passed, students will not be able to submit coursework to the Assignment.
4. 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.
5. Do not use Time Limit. This feature is for setting timed assignments.

1. In Submission types, select the box to indicate if the submission will be online text or whether students will upload one or more files. 
2. 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.
3. Set the Maximum number of uploaded files as required by the assignment. Advise students how many files they should submit in the assignment instructions.
   • 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.
4. The maximum submission size defaults to the maximum upload limit for Moodle of 400MB. This default can be decreased if required.
5. Accepted file types
   • 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.

Turnitin will accept a limited number of file types that are:

• smaller than 100MB;
• have a minimum of 20 words; and
• fewer than 800 pages.

To ensure that submissions are within the limit of 100MB, change the Maximum submission size to 100MB.

Turnitin Feedback Studio accepts a limited range of file types so check Turnitin's accepted file types.

If you do not limit the file types to those accepted by Turnitin, submitted files may either not be accepted by Turnitin, or accepted but no similarity report is generated.

To ensure that a similarity report is generated, set the accepted file types for an assignment.

Select accepted file types

Under Accepted file types, select Choose.

From the list, expand each file type and select the box next to the relevant file types.

Under Document files, select .gdoc, .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .odt, and .pdf.

Under Presentation files, select .pptx, .ppsx and .pps.

Under Spreadsheet files, select .xlx and .xlsx.

Under Web files, select .html

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.
• We recommend the setting Allowed attempts stays at the default 1 when the assignment is created.

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

In most cases, you will not need to change the Notifications settings.

• 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.

1. From the Enable Turnitin setting select Yes.
2. To allow students to view their Similarity Report, change the Display Similarity Reports to Students to Yes.
3. Change Allow submission of any file type? to Yes if students are required to submit a variety of file types. Not all file types will generate a Similarity Report. 
4. Select what to check the student's paper against. You must select at least one of the options to generate a Similarity Report.
5. Select where to Store Student Papers: 
   • The default option is Standard Repository which is suitable for most submissions. 
   • No Repository can be chosen for formative submissions or for a confidential projects/commercially sensitive dissertations which should not be included in future similarity
   • searches. For confidential submissions, once the assessment process is completed and you have downloaded and securely saved a copy of the confidential submission, feedback and grade -  you can remove the paper from the Turnitin submission inbox. Please note that as the paper was not saved in the Repository it is not recoverable.
6. Select the Report Generation Speed. This setting controls how quickly and how often Similarity Reports are generated.
   • Generate reports immediately. Submissions will be added to the repository on due date (if repository is set). Similarity Reports for the initial submission by each student are generated immediately. Students may resubmit as often as they wish until the Due date. Similarity Reports for the third or subsequent submission will require 24 hours before processing. Only the latest submission is available to the lecturer or student. Previous versions are removed. Student submissions will be compared against their peers submissions within the assignment on the Due date, which may then result in a change in the similarity index.
   • Generate reports on due date. Submissions will be added to the repository on due date (if repository is set): Similarity Reports will not be generated for any submission until the Due date of the assignment. Students can resubmit as needed until the Due date and time but no Similarity Reports are generated. 
   • Generate reports immediately. Submissions will be added to the repository immediately (if repository is set): This option is not recommended as students are unable to resubmit and submissions are not checked against each other. Submissions must be deleted by the lecturer/course officer to enable resubmission. Similarity Reports for all submissions will be generated immediately. Students cannot resubmit papers.
7. The remainder of the options enable you to exclude certain searches from a Similarity Report and we do not recommend that any of these options are changed. These Similarity Report should be filtered in the Feedback Studio during the marking process instead.
8. We strongly advise that you use the Moodle marking mechanisms to grade the submissions to this type of assignment. However, if you plan to mark in Feedback Studio using a rubric or marking record, you should attach it using the Attach a rubric to this assignment setting. The rubric is only visible to the lecturer who attached the rubric via the Assignment settings. All markers will be able to use the rubric when marking via Feedback Studio. Rubrics should be available to students before they submit.

Related guidance

• 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. 

1. From the Common module settings, you can set Availability to Show or Hide on course page.
2. You do not need to change the Group mode.
3. 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. 

Completion conditions 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 meets 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

1. Open the activity or resource.
2. Select Settings from the contextual navigation menu. This opens the activity settings.
3. Change the settings required.
4. Select Save and display to save any changes made.

View Activity restrictions on module page

If you have applied activity restrictions to an activity or resource, the restriction will be visible to you on the main module page.

When edit mode is on, you will be able to edit the restriction by selecting Edit restrictions.

View Completion condition on module page

You can view the completion condition on an activity or resource from the main module page by opening the dropdown menu next to Competion.

When edit mode is on, you will be able to edit the completion condition by selecting Edit.

Related guidance

Turnitin are currently investigating an issue where the Last modified (grade) column in the Moodle Assignment grading table is being updated to the date/time on which the student closes their feedback after reviewing it in Turnitin Feedback Studio for at least 30 seconds. Please be assured that the grade has not been modified.  

This is only impacting on Moodle Assignment activities where Turnitin has been enabled and marking has been completed via Turnitin Feedback Studio. 

• Impact on staff: The Last modified (grade) column in the Moodle assignment grading table may display an incorrect date. 
• Impact on students: On the Moodle assignment submission status screen, the Graded by name is updated to the student’s name rather than the marker’s after the student reviews their feedback in Feedback Studio for at least 30 seconds.

Hide grader identity from students

There is a work round for this issue. You can hide the grader's identify from students. You will find this in the Assignment settings.

1. Open the Assignment
2. Select Settings from the contextual navigation menu
3. Scroll down to Grade settings
4. Set Hide grader identity from students to Yes
5. Scroll down and select Save and display.

Now no grader identities are visible to students