Submit Moodle Assignment guide

Your lecturer can set up a Moodle Assignment with a time limit.  If an assignment is timed, a Begin assignment button will display when you open the Assignment activity. Once you press the button, a confirmation pop-up will display to inform you how much time you have to complete the Assignment. If you are ready to complete the Assignment, select the Begin assignment button from the pop-up. If you are not ready to complete the Assignment, select the Cancel button on the pop-up. You must return prior to the Assignment Due date to complete the activity within the time limit set.

As you work on the assignment, a timer is displayed on the screen so you always know how much time you have left. If time runs out, you can still submit the assignment as long as the Due date/cut off date has not been reached and your Assignment will display as late for markers.

Turnitin may be enabled on Moodle assignments. Please refer to the guidance on Turnitin's accepted file types and file size and naming conventions before you submit your file.

1. Select the Assignment from the relevant section of your module or Timeline (on the Dashboard page).
   • You can also select the Assignments link in your Module dashboard to open a list of all your Moodle assignments. Select the relevant assignment to open it.
   • On Grid format, open the Block drawer and navigate to the Activities block, select the link to Assignments.
2. A Begin assignment button will display when you open a Timed Assignment activity. Once you press the button, a confirmation pop-up will display to inform you how much time you have to complete the Assignment. If you are ready to complete the Assignment, select the Begin assignment button from the pop-up. 
3. A timer will display in then panel on the left. This timer cannot be paused.
4. View or download any additional files that may have been added for use in the assignment, such as example submissions or answer templates. The files will be available under the instructions in the assignment description.
5. Review and check the submission declaration box to confirm that your work is entirely your own.
6. Scroll down to the  File submissions screen.
7. To submit your assignment, you can simply drag and drop your assignment file(s) from your computer desktop or file manager or use a file picker via the Add icon. 
   • You may need to agree to the Turnitin End-User Licence Agreement - see Turnitin box below for further instructions if required.
8. Select Save changes to submit your assignment.

After you have submitted your assignment, you must confirm that you can open the file(s) and that you submitted the correct file(s).

1. Return to the module homepage.
2. Select the Assignment. Select each file in turn to download it.
3. Confirm that the file can be opened and that it is the correct file.

If there is an issue with the file, you may be able to replace the coursework file prior to the deadline.

If you do not have an option to replace the file, then contact your Course Officer.

If your lecturer is using Turnitin within the Moodle assignment, and if this is your first time submitting to Turnitin for the new academic year, you might also be presented with an End-User Licence Agreement (EULA) to review and accept before submitting your assignment. There is currently no box to check, but you will need to select the link to open the End-User Licence Agreement (EULA): 

1. Review the EULA and scroll down the page to select I agree.
2. Select away from the confirmation page to continue you assignment submission. If you do not accept the EULA you will not be able to complete your assignment submission.
3. The TurnitinUK User Agreement will open up in a new window, unless your browser has pop-up blocking turned on. To view the blocked pop-up page:
   • Firefox: When the pop-up window is blocked you will be able to see a message in the browser address bar. To view the agreement page, select Options and then allow popups for moodle.city.ac.uk & moodle4.city.ac.uk
   • Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer will display a message at the bottom of the page to indicate that a pop-up page has been blocked. Select Allow once if you wish to only see the current blocked page. We recommend you to select the option to Always allow from Options for this site menu.
   • Chrome: Chrome will display a message in the address bar to indicate that it has blocked a pop-up page.

4. If your pop-ups are blocked initially, and you then unblock them, you will need to select the link again to read and accept the Turnitin EULA.

When you submit a file to a Moodle assignment with Turnitin enabled, you may receive an error message that prevents your submission from uploading successfully to Turnitin.
Some of the errors such as file exceeds maximum allowed size and user has not accepted end user agreement are clear to understand and easily rectifiable by following the guidelines set in the Submit Turnitin Assignment Guide.

There are other errors that are not so clear to understand such as:

• problem creating the module in Turnitin (see API logs) 
• problem editing the module settings in Turnitin (see API logs) 
• no accessible content in the file pool 
• XML response could not be parsed 

To rectify these errors, please try the following:

1. If the file name of your submission is over 40 characters, change the file name of your submission and resubmit the file.
2. If  you converted the assignment file from Word to PDF, we have found changing the file name and resubmitting the assignment works.
3. If the file name has any punctuation apart from underscores, remove punctuation from the file name and resubmit.
4. If the file name & file name convention is OK, sometimes, simply changing the file name helps push the paper through to Turnitin. 

Note: If you don't seem to have the ability to resubmit or if the deadline has passed, please contact your Course Officer who can assist.