Group Assignment, a first shot

Group Assignment, a first shot

by Patrick Jermann -
Number of replies: 45
Hello,

We needed some way at our school to set up group assignments, i.e. one user uploads the file but all the members of his or her group "benefit" from the submission. Also, for the teacher we wanted to allow for group grading, i.e. assign the grade and give feedback only once for all the students in a group.

Here is our first shot at solving this issue, with some caveats:
  1. It works under 1.5.2+ as of today (Sept 13, 2005), and has only been moderately tested.
  2. It copies files from one user file area to the file areas of his or her colleagues. A more elegant way would probably consist of having group file areas so as to have only one copy of a submission on the disk, but ...
  3. Ignores teacher submissions
  4. Does not handle grading individuals who are not part of a group

The group assignment type relies on the groups defined in the course:
  • When groups are defined in the course, the submissions are handled by using these groups.
  • When no groups are defined in the course, the whole class is treated as a group. We have this case in projects with only few participants (3-5).
When setting up the assignment, the teacher can choose whether to grade groups (all students in a group get the same grade and feedback) or to grade individuals (allows to give different grades and feedback to the members of a group).

Maybe some of you might install this and try it out, comments are welcome. We plan to have it robust and usable by mid-october.

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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Barron Koralesky -

This looks like a useful addition.  I tried to install it, but the zip file above is missing at least one file, gradegroups.html

Could you attach a version with that file so we can give it a try?

Thanks!


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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Enrique Castro -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
Hi Patrick,
Its nice to see other people working in the same directions. I miss a "small team" group mode a lot in Moodle. At ULPGC we have been using for the whole last course a custom modification of the echo-assignment with group-based submission and assessment (ULPGCassigment). The groups-oriented modifications were based on ideas & code from Audun Hauge (see this thread) .

I have just finished the upgrading of ULPGCassigment for use at our Campus. Please, see the attachment. This is a simple copy of the module working at our server. It includes four types of assigments: offline, online, uploadsingle, groupupload.

We have made some customization of the core module (to serve all subtypes) and renamed some.Our "uploadsingle" is actually based in Humboldt's uploadreview. Allows teachers to upload response files to students. In addition we may allow submission of several files."Groupupload" works as you describe: if a member of a group makes a submission that submission is replicated for all otehr members of the group. The teacher grade once and all members get their grades (and teachers can upload response files too). In addition, you mey allow students to see and get the files submitted by their peers (but not the grades or comments).

We use symlinks to "copy" files for replicated submissions (and use as much as possible uploadlib.php, avoiding raw access to files). In addition, we manage non-grouped students as regular ones. That is: a member not enrolled in a group can submit and get graded as in a regular assigment.

The attached file is only for testing and experimenting. It will replace the regular assignment module. If you are interested, I may re-package for a more friendly use.

Enrique

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In reply to Enrique Castro

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Mawuli Kuivi -
Looks like someting l might be interested in. 
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In reply to Enrique Castro

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Bhupinder Singh -

Hi Castro,

This sounds nice.

Any hints on how to add this feature.

Garry

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In reply to Enrique Castro

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Patrick Jermann -
Hi Enrique,

Thank you for sharing your efforts as well smile I have not had time yet to look a your solution, but will try it out as soon as time allows.

In the meantime, here is our code once again, with the missing gradegroups.html file (thank you Barron).

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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Svar: Re: Group Assignment, a first shot - can't grade groups?

by Helge Hafting -
Having students upload a file works - the file appear for all group members.

But grading don't work well.  It works if I set it to individual grading, but that is not what I want.  I don't want to read the same file over and over, assigning the same grade each time.

I want to grade once, and then all members of the group should get the same grade (1 for ok, or 0 for failure.)

But if I set the grading style to "grade groups" and let my group consisting of 3 "test students" deliver a file, then the "teacher"  don't see anything.  I click on "show 3 uploaded assignments" but the window comes up blank!  All it says is "Nothing to display" as if
nobody ever delivered anything. Still, moodle correctly noticed that there were three uploaded assignments?

What to do?  I really wanted this to work by thursday mixed Do you have a never version, or an idea about what goes wrong?  I can read & write php code, but don't know moodle code at all.

Helge Hafting
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In reply to Helge Hafting

Re: Svar: Re: Group Assignment, a first shot - can't grade groups?

by Patrick Jermann -
Hello Helge,

Sorry I saw your message only today. Is it possible that your three test students are in fact teachers in the course ? If yes, it is "normal" that they do not appear, because I included only students in the list of people to be graded ...

There was also a small updating problem which prevented the feedback and grades to appear in the gradebook once you clicked on "Save changes". But they were saved, i.e. if you reload the gradebook the changes were visible. I fixed this thing now, so that new grades and feedback appear in the gradebook as soon as you save them.



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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Re: Svar: Re: Group Assignment, a first shot - can't grade groups?

by Joan Codina Filba -
I found a bug, there is an error when at least one of the groups has no students. this happens around line 246 in assignment.class.php
the code needs to add the lines marked with "++" to avoid problems with array merge when $userstoadd is empty

$users = array();
foreach ($groups as $group) {
    $groupstoshow[] = $group->id;
    $userstoadd = get_group_students($group->id);
++ if (!empty($userstoadd)){
        $users = array_merge($users,$userstoadd);
++ }
}

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In reply to Enrique Castro

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Jordi Adell -
HI,

This is what we, at UJI, need to work with small groups!  I hope that, after testing, soon will be part of the standard Assignment module.

Thanks Enrique somriure
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In reply to Enrique Castro

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Audun Hauge -
You might be interested in having students book themselves into a group before starting on the assignment. I'm using activity locking (thanks to Stuart big grin ) and a bookings-module. The assignment is locked by the booking-module. The students can't start the assignment before they have selected a group to join.
In the group-booking I can set max limit for each group.
In the lock I can set that the assignment won't open before the group has at least xxx members. You can set the group-booking to either show usernames (so they can select a group with their friends) or the names can be hidden (students will only see how many there are in each group). The group-bookings module will create the groups defined in the setup (comma separated list). A student can only join one group from the list, but may be member of other groups (this can mess up the display for editing groups,- possibly confuse a few mods ... haven't checked this). The bookings-mod could be changed so that students are dropped from other groups as an option - need some testing here ...
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In reply to Audun Hauge

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Jordi Adell -
It's a great idea! But what if "the last grup" have not all the xxx members?

J.

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In reply to Audun Hauge

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Joan Codina Filba -
How to get all this code up and running??
It is very useful for me to have all this modules tied together and running but I think it need to merge code from many sources and that the hack is not so simple to get this functionality:
  1. Enroll themselves in a team
  2. Choose one of the proposed activities as a team
  3. Post the activity(ies) only once by team
There is also the need that one student can belong to different teams for different activities
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In reply to Enrique Castro

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Francisco Gonzalez -
Hola enrique, yo tambien estoy empezando a desarrollar una modificación de la clase assignment como pfc, pero voy un poco perdido. Hiciste algun tipo de memoria para presentar dicho trabajo? me seria de gran ayuda para mi proyecto. Un saludo
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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Helge Hafting -
This is very interesting. I give courses where students work in groups of 2-4.  For each assignment, they deliver one file per group for grading. 

Being able to use groups this way is interesting.  Is it only for "file upload" assignments, or will it work for "online text" assignments too?

I assume I have to create the groups myself with this system.  I wonder if it'd be possible to use the same symlink mechanism to create a system where the student uploading the file simply can use a pulldown list (or similiar) to add information about which other students are supposed to "benefit" from that particular file upload. (I.e. get a grade and feedback.)   This sort of mechanism is ideal for courses where the groups aren't fixed, students sometimes move from group to group.  Particularly in the beginning, until they find out who they want to work with.  This may save some work for the teacher who won't need to create & maintain a group database.

Helge Hafting
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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Klaus Mueller -
Hi Patrick

Your idea sounds good and it is going in the direction I will need.

I'm wondering  why the idea of allowing groups or not( as done in wiki e.g.) is not transported to the assignment module.

My business case for using assignments would look like this:

- A class performs a course
- The class is separated into groups
- there are tasks that must be done by the group
- there are other tasks that must be done by each pupil himself

- when choosing an assignment  (online, offline, upload) I want to choose whether  it can be performed by groups or individuals.
-According to this decision grading will be done to the individual or to the group.

(An online assignment in group-mode would be very similar to a wiki
but having a start-date, a due-date, a grade, and an overview page where the delivered results are listed.)

I am evaluating moodle and planning my first course for three days so I hope
I did not misunderstood anything lächelnd.

Best regards
Klaus



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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Garry Boyer -
We at Georgia Tech are taking a slightly different spin on this.

We are in the process of making a submodule for Assignment (we might end up eventually making it a completely separate module though) that is for a Team Project. The important characteristic:

- Each assignment has its own team selection process. This process is automated -- students get to pick their favorites, but after a while, the selection is dead.

We haven't made too much headway, so there's no real deliverable, but around December we'll have some rock-solid code.
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In reply to Garry Boyer

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Josep M. Fontana -
There are at least two other current developments that seem to overlap with yours: the one lead by Michael Penney and the one lead by Don Hinkelman. The more the better, I suppose. But wouldn't it be better to join efforts to share resources and know how to create a single, solid and comprehensive Team Project module/whatever?

For me it is a bit sad to see that there have been so many other efforts that seem to have faded away because their product was not eventually integrated in the official distribution and then funding or time to work on the upgrading of the products ended.

Josep M.
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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Abbie Blanco -

Hi Patrick!

The group assignment is also needed in the project I am currently working on. I've installed your work in my moodle, however, the teacher doesn't see any submissions made by the groups. The groups have passed their files, and the teacher is not a student in any courses.

How do i fix this? How can the grading be implemented here?

Thank you in advance for your reply.

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In reply to Abbie Blanco

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Du Nguyen Tien -

Hi everybody

I use IIS and I have the problem with the lib.php when grade for the student in group

Fatal error: Call to undefined method assignment_uploadsinglegroup::print_student_answer() in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\moodle\mod\assignment\lib.php on line 716
How can I solve it?

Many thanks

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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Étienne Rozé -
Hello !!

His this fun plugin is OK for Moodle 1.6.3 ? Where I can find the last version ?




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In reply to Étienne Rozé

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Jan Toelstede -
Seems to be a very important function while working with groups ...

In a meeting with other trainers I suggested to use the assignment-function for our groups to get their presentation-files. I had no doubt, that the assignment-module works with works ... but i was wrong ;)

Are there plans to integrate Group-Mode for the assignment module into the standard-Moodle?
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In reply to Jan Toelstede

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by David Brechet -
Hello,

I am working with Patrick Jermann at EPFL. We have adapted the standard assignments for our needs.

The main changes are :
  • Grade groups for offline, online, updload assignments.
    • when choosing grade group, one student of the group can submit for all the group, and the feedback from the teacher is send to all students of the group.
    • when choosing grade individuals, one student of the group can submit for all the group, and the feedback from the teacher casn be done individualy for each student of the group.
    • if no groups are setup, and grade group is choosen, the all class is considered as one single group.
  • Upload file can be choosen to upload one or many files or to require to upload specific files depending on the file.
    • upload single file: like the standard one, only one file can be uploaded. uploading a new file with erase the old one.
    • upload multi files: any number of files can be uploaded. uploading a file with the same name with erase the old one, already uploaded.
    • upload required files: teacher can specify the file name and the number of files required.
  • A review file from the teacher can be attached when uploading a file.
Theses assignment types work for Moodle 1.5.x to 1.6.x.
We have not modify them to work with Moodle 1.7.x

I hope these assignment types will help you.

All best. ;)
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In reply to David Brechet

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Ruben Jansen -

Thanks, this is just what I'm looking for. I've one problem: when a teacher attached a review-document (i.e. word), a student cannot open this ("Access not allowed").

I searched on the forums and find this solution (see attachment). This didn't work...

Can someone give me a solution? I'm using Moodle 1.6.

Thanks!

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In reply to Ruben Jansen

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by David Brechet -
I am sorry a little bug.
Please find the correct file in folder uploadEPFL/file.php, inside the attached zip file.
The zip file is the more recent one.

Now it should work.
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In reply to David Brechet

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Ruben Jansen -

I used this module but after some time (i think when the 'upload-deadline' has expired) I can't see the uploads of the students (even when I'm admin). I see that there are uploads, but when I want to review I get the message that there are no uploads, but when I change the assignmenttype to "upload singe file" I can see them all!

Have I done something wrong or is there a little bug?

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In reply to Ruben Jansen

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Ruben Jansen -

I found the problem!

The problem is that I'd made an empty group and this is apparently a problem when the teacher wants to see the uploads of the students ("there is nothing to review").

Also, when a teacher is a member of a group or several teachers form a group beside the groups of students, then the same problem occurs.

How can I solve this problem?

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In reply to David Brechet

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Johnson Foong -
Hi David,

This is what i want but do you have any instructions on using it as the readme inside the zip file is not complete and i using moodle 1.8.

Thank


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In reply to David Brechet

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by julio perez -
Hello David,
we have been using the uploadsinglegroup module originally uploaded by Patrick Jermann. We used it for a couple of years on a moodle 1.6 system with very good results.

On last week we upgraded our system to moodle 1.9 and we had some problems with the uploadsinglegroup module. After some dirty patches it is running now, but if you are still using and maintaining the module you surely have a much cleaner solution.
Is there a moodle 1.9 compatible version of the module?

julio
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In reply to julio perez

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Joan Codina Filba -
do you have the patches? we got it in 1.6 and we need it also in 1.9 ....

Joan
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In reply to Joan Codina Filba

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Pedro Liska -
Hi!

I'm still a newbie when it comes to Moodle. But I'm evaluating Moodle to use it heavily in our school.

We are firm believers in collaboration between students, as a result of this we have many graded group assignments. Collaboration is very important as it gets students a lot more involved in the course. This is why it feels strange to me that there is no core support for group assignments and I feel like maybe I'm missing something here.

Is there really no core support for this? or is the patch created by Patrick Jermann better than the core support?

Either way, I would like to test Patrick's patch on 1.9 . I would appreciate it if someone shared their 1.9 code.

Thank you!

-- Pedro
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In reply to Joan Codina Filba

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by julio perez -
Joan,
sorry for the delay. I have been (and I am still) out of town.
I asked help to a coleague that worked directly on the patch and he sent me the version that is running now at our server.
It is attached it to this post (uploadsinglegroup.tgz), I hope it helps. No warranties of course.
If you make corrections to it or find a better solution please let us know.
Cheers,

julio
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to julio perez

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Alfons Muñoz -
Hi Julio,

Do you have another copy of the file?, it says it is corrupted when i download it.

Thanks.
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In reply to Alfons Muñoz

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by julio perez -
Here is again.

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In reply to julio perez

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Alfons Muñoz -
Thanks, it's working now.
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In reply to Alfons Muñoz

Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by David Brechet -
Hello,

I am working with Patrick Jermann. I am working on a new general group assignment for offline, online, upload single and upload files.

I am working to change them to Moodle 1.9.

I will make it working during the summer.

Regards

David Bréchet
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In reply to julio perez

回應: Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by 景東 王 -

I  installed the uploadsinglegroup.zip in moodle 1.9.2+(Build:20080806).

When the teacher have graded the group assignment,the teacher can see the score,but the students of the group can't see the score or comment? Is there any solution?

Thank you very much

                                                                          Jing-Dong

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In reply to 景東 王

Re: 回應: Re: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Alfons Muñoz -
I'm having the same problem. The teacher can grade but the student doesn't see the score.

My Moodle version is 1.9.1+ (Build: 20080618)

Thanks.
Alfons
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In reply to Patrick Jermann

Svar: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Kai Friis -
Too bad it's not already in Moodle. Group Assignment and group administration is so vital to our institution that we will probably choose Blackboard instead of Moodle for that reason only. And I can't see any plans for it in Moodle 2.0 either.
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In reply to Kai Friis

Re: Svar: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Heikki Wilenius -
Vote for the issue (Group assignments) in the tracker:

http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-11933

Meanwhile, we've told our teachers to use the Forum for group assignments instead. I find it works rather well, if the students are given good instructions on how to use the forum.

We just in the process of migrating from Blackboard CE to Moodle. Most teachers haven't been complaining, since the group feature works well in the forum.

Cheers,
Heikki
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In reply to Heikki Wilenius

Re: Svar: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Daniel Neis Araujo -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Translators
Hello,

there is another similar issue at MDL-15641 . There were some code submitted by Dominik Anonymous for version 1.9.2 and recently i have transformed it into a patch that applies cleanly to 1.9.7+ (build 20100225) and maybe to 1.9.8+ too.

I have seen that there is a wiki for this on Moodle 2.0 at http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Assignment_development

Cheers,
Daniel
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In reply to Daniel Neis Araujo

Re: Svar: Group Assignment, a first shot

by Mike Algozzine -

Hi Daniel, can you clarify the status of MDL-15641? Does the v2 patch supersede the other attachments and is it considered safe to apply on 1.9.8? Does it allow the teacher to put students into groups or does it rely on students creating their own groups?

Thanks in advance.

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