Here's a look at the new Assignment module in 1.5.
The major differences are actually not visible. I've rewritten the entire module from scratch to allow object-oriented plugin module types. The intention is to stop all these "alternative" assignment modules floating around and group them all together in a nice package. I hope to see a lot of new assignment plugins coming out in the new feature that re-implent "echoassignment", "exercise" and so on in this new format.
From an interface point of view, the student view is more or less the same, except the index page has a bit more information:
There is a new assignment type, Online Text. For the student it looks like this:
Martin
Sorry if this is a stupid questions but I have been searching for weeks how to do this. How do you get your question (i.e. "what I did on summer holiday") In the same text box in which the student replies?) When I use the online assinment. The text box in which I put up questions, and the box in which the students answer them are in completely separate areas. I would like to have several questions with blanks below them for answers.
Am I using the wrong module?
On the second page of the online assignment set up there is an option which goes along the lines of 'allow comments inline' and you need to select yes from the drop down.
HTH
HTH
Darren
Thanks for the suggestion, but I am either missing something or that is not the answer. That option seems to allow me to write responses to what the student has given in the 'response' box. However, the students response box is still completely separate from the box that I post as 'the question(s)' (ie, what I fill out on the first page). This is fine if you have only asked one question to which thh student will respond or if you ask them to write an essay. However, I want them to respond to 5-10 questions that I give them providing short answers immediately following each of the questions. The 'quiz' module would do what I want using short answer questions, except that the quiz module wants to autograde everything and I simply want teh students answers delivered for me to hand grade. The short answer quiz is fine if you have a very defined response that is correct.
Hi, I have a module that is in development that does exactily what you want to do.....but it has a few issues....are you a programmer? I could use a little help. If not do we have anyone who would like to look at an assignment module that I have that allows for a form of questions to be made and then answered by the students....then hand commented on for each question.....Let me know
Thanks
Thanks
In another forum Mary wrote:
Hi there - I need the assignments module to allow teams (groups) of learners to be able to access the same submission and be assessed as a group based on that submission. So if Tom and Bob are both in group one, either of them could submit their document to the Assignment Module I set up, and either could go in and see that it's there once it's been submitted. When the course instructor assesses the assignment, both Bob and John will be able to access that assessment information. Other learners not in group one would not be able to see the submissions or assessment received by Bob and John, but would have their own areas for their group's work. Is this possible? If not, is there another module I could use to make this work?
She didn't get an answer until yet, but I have exactly the same request. I hope there will be coming an answer in this forum!
Thanks very much in advance!
Jos
Nice indeed!
The grading interface is completely new. The old interface was designed for classes of ten students or so and failed miserably with larger classes.
The new interface has sorting/searching to allow you to find things very quickly. Things needing your attention are highlighted with a different color (as in the old interface, but this is more obvious).
The columns are all collapsible if you don't care about some of them.
Here's what the main grading page looks like now.
The new interface has sorting/searching to allow you to find things very quickly. Things needing your attention are highlighted with a different color (as in the old interface, but this is more obvious).
The columns are all collapsible if you don't care about some of them.
Here's what the main grading page looks like now.
Currently, it looks like the number of submissions per page is hard coded to 10 in the /mod/assignment/lib.php file. While I can understand not wanting to throw too many variables into the course settings, doing so would allow for each teacher to control how many submissions he or she wishes to view at one time. I prefer to see the entire class (about 25) so I have set it to 30 in my lib.php file. Another less desirable option IMO would be to allow a drop down box so that the user could change it.
Peace - Anthony
Peace - Anthony
Clicking on any of the Grade/Update buttons in the grading page produces a popup window. The contents can be different for each assignment type but for the current types they all look like this. Note that the assignment submission itself is a further popup, showing the files or text or whatever.
Martin,
if I understood the new assignment right, the teacher writes directly in the text of a student. This is a good concept. Some teacher asked for this in the last months.
In your screen the text is written in red. Is this a default colour for the comments?
The default colour for comments should be an other colour than the default for texts by the students. And the teacher must have a option to change its defaults. Red is in the most of the times ok for corrections. But there are a lot of situations where teatcher don't use red, because the comment has not the character of a correction.
Ralf
if I understood the new assignment right, the teacher writes directly in the text of a student. This is a good concept. Some teacher asked for this in the last months.
In your screen the text is written in red. Is this a default colour for the comments?
The default colour for comments should be an other colour than the default for texts by the students. And the teacher must have a option to change its defaults. Red is in the most of the times ok for corrections. But there are a lot of situations where teatcher don't use red, because the comment has not the character of a correction.
Ralf
This is not "the new assignment" as such, it's just one assignment type (other types are Offline and Upload a single file, with many more come)
Different colors makes sense, of course, but this is the standard HTML editor and setting a default font color is not currently possible.
Different colors makes sense, of course, but this is the standard HTML editor and setting a default font color is not currently possible.
Love it. I'm assuming that the teacher writes in whatever format suits him/her rather than having an enforced 'comment' mode. That will be very flexible.
I've got confused trying to follow the various assignment versions that this makes a lot of sense.
Looking forward to using it, thanks, Andy D
I've got confused trying to follow the various assignment versions that this makes a lot of sense.
Looking forward to using it, thanks, Andy D
Martin: would it be possible to have feedback be saved and sent out at a particular time? I have had a request from teachers who would like to grade assignments over the course of a week but send all feedback at the same time. For them this means that they're not answering questions re: the feedback while they're still grading others assigments, etc.
Once you save the changes of grading, the parent window with the list of students is upgraded instantly (without reloading anything). This makes it fast to work through a number of students in a session.
I've got a two little patchs for helping myself with online
assignments: The one counts words, and the other one makes grading a
bit easier, the result is like this:
And you can check it at our test site : http://parles.upf.es/TEST/
to log in, user teacher pass teacher.
There you will find the patches for this.
And you can check it at our test site : http://parles.upf.es/TEST/
to log in, user teacher pass teacher.
There you will find the patches for this.
And also the number of words is available in the assignments list, and students can be ordered by the length of the their submitted work
Finally, every single part of this interface can be replaced by the assignment plugin. These interfaces are just the defaults - a plugin can define a completely different grading interface, or a completely different three-part submission interface, and so on.
Because the core code does most of the work, plugins can be quite short ... the online assignment type is only 200 lines of extra code, for example.
I am looking forward to seeing some really amazing assignment plugins being developed, and will be very open to including them in future distributions.
Because the core code does most of the work, plugins can be quite short ... the online assignment type is only 200 lines of extra code, for example.
I am looking forward to seeing some really amazing assignment plugins being developed, and will be very open to including them in future distributions.
Hi Martin,
Finally, every single part of this interface can be replaced by the assignment plugin.
I need some clarification, perhaps I am dreaming too much.
An example. I would like to have the links to the student-submitted files in the main table, just next to the submission date, rather that in the grading popup. Do you mean that the new "pluggable" framework will allow to add this without touching the existing code, just adding a new file with the plugin code?
And, the plugged-in code: will result in a new selectable option as assignment type (off-line, on-line, single-file, .. and then Plug1, Custom 2 ... etc.) ?
Or rather, you can plug "links in table", or other fine-granularity details into the regular "on-line" assignment.
Asked in another way, can the appearance/functionality of the grading popup window for an standard "single file submission" be modified without adding a whole new subtype of Assignment, just a custom popup code file? (that can survive version upgrading)
(I have not installed last 1.5 yet, sorry if too obvious)
- Enrique -
Finally, every single part of this interface can be replaced by the assignment plugin.
I need some clarification, perhaps I am dreaming too much.
An example. I would like to have the links to the student-submitted files in the main table, just next to the submission date, rather that in the grading popup. Do you mean that the new "pluggable" framework will allow to add this without touching the existing code, just adding a new file with the plugin code?
And, the plugged-in code: will result in a new selectable option as assignment type (off-line, on-line, single-file, .. and then Plug1, Custom 2 ... etc.) ?
Or rather, you can plug "links in table", or other fine-granularity details into the regular "on-line" assignment.
Asked in another way, can the appearance/functionality of the grading popup window for an standard "single file submission" be modified without adding a whole new subtype of Assignment, just a custom popup code file? (that can survive version upgrading)
(I have not installed last 1.5 yet, sorry if too obvious)
- Enrique -
The base class fully implements the "Offline" assignment type. Other types just add or change small parts of it.
So if you wanted an assignment type that listed files in the gradebook, you would not be modifying the "uploadsingle" type, you'd create a new assignment type (which would appear in the menu as a new type) using similar code as the "uploadsingle" module, and override one function. I suppose it would technically possible to subclass the "uploadsingle" assignment type too ... I haven't thought about that. But no, there are no sub-sub-modules within the sub-modules of the Assignment module
On the other hand, we can make changes in the base class and they flow through to the all the plugins (that aren't overriding the functions). So in your example (if it was an improvement everyone wanted) we could do that.
See the code in cvs:/moodle/mod/assignment
I'll improve the inline documentation in there before final release, things are still changing a little.
So if you wanted an assignment type that listed files in the gradebook, you would not be modifying the "uploadsingle" type, you'd create a new assignment type (which would appear in the menu as a new type) using similar code as the "uploadsingle" module, and override one function. I suppose it would technically possible to subclass the "uploadsingle" assignment type too ... I haven't thought about that. But no, there are no sub-sub-modules within the sub-modules of the Assignment module
On the other hand, we can make changes in the base class and they flow through to the all the plugins (that aren't overriding the functions). So in your example (if it was an improvement everyone wanted) we could do that.
See the code in cvs:/moodle/mod/assignment
Hi Martin, some of the changes we made (in contrib/ReviewAssignment) include Review (the teacher uploads a marked file back to the student--this was actually a mod of something Daniel Miksik started) and custom scoring (teacher can choose to use an entry box into which they can type numbers (even negative numbers) directly in, including 2 decimels and numbers above 100. Are these sorts of mods possible in the new Assignment mod, or would we still need a custom module?
Thanks!
Michael
Thanks!
Michael
Review for sure, something I kept in mind. Arbitrary scoring, currently no - I'll see what I can do to fix the core for that.
I had these changes in my mind too.
My understanding is that anything must be implemented as a "submodule". So the teacher has the "add activity" dropbox in course main page. She selects "assignment" and then , in the config page for the assigment , she will have another dropbox to select "off-line", "on-line", "standard one file", "echo-assignment", "ULPGC-assignment" or whatever.
The customization we did at ULPGC of Daniel Miksik code needed the addition of some extra configuration options. I assume that those "extra" options that new assigment types may need are put automagically (by plugin framework) in the second config page that now appears on "Assignment".
- Enrique -
My understanding is that anything must be implemented as a "submodule". So the teacher has the "add activity" dropbox in course main page. She selects "assignment" and then , in the config page for the assigment , she will have another dropbox to select "off-line", "on-line", "standard one file", "echo-assignment", "ULPGC-assignment" or whatever.
The customization we did at ULPGC of Daniel Miksik code needed the addition of some extra configuration options. I assume that those "extra" options that new assigment types may need are put automagically (by plugin framework) in the second config page that now appears on "Assignment".
- Enrique -
Correct, the second page can be anything you want (even more than one page).
The idea of being able to review an assignment directly (using features such as Word comments) and then uploaded the file so that students can access it is a feature that a number of my staff have been requesting. Currently they tend to email a copy of the marked assignment with their comments in it back to the student - if Moodle could do all this it would be great!
me too... Martin, may I know if this is included in your current plan?
One of our programmers, Michael Avelar, just finished this for 1.5 (adding the review assignment hack for 1.4 to the 1.5 version). He's working on adding our custom scoring hack (optional numerical rather than drop down score input, no limit, 2 decimel places and negatives allowed) then we'll post it in CVS.
I kid you not that some of our faculty use assignment scores like 205.25
.
I kid you not that some of our faculty use assignment scores like 205.25
.
Perhaps a "Team assignment", where grades goes to all team members?
Thanks for the description (and responses). Does this mean that 1.5 is far enough along to download and try out the assignment module? I tried it on April 14 and didn't have much success ("cannot build blank reply form" or something like that when I tried to submit as a student).
I have only been working with Moodle for about 10 days and am especially interested in trying the updated assignment, lesson, quiz, and workshop modules. Since I am just starting to plan Moodle lessons based on module characteristics, I would prefer to work with 1.5 as far as possible -- though I'm not so much daredevil as just trying to get a feel for how it works.
Thanks,
Jim.
I guess I'll reply to myself: since the site has moved to 1.5 in preparation for beta, it should be ready to try. Or wait just a bit for the beta release if it will make you feel more comfortable.
I love the interface for the new assignment page. I have a quick question about a use for the Assignment module that I can't quite work out.
I have an Senior AP English class, and I want to offer a "Writing Tutorial" class with my AP students as teachers. I would like to use one Assignment module where younger students can submit essays into a queue. Currently, I can only figure out how to let a student submit one essay at a time. If a student has two essays, or perhaps resubmits, the information about the previous assignment is lost. I'm wondering if it is possible to create a queue that allows unlimited submissions. (I would really like to keep track of date of submission for each entry, and (if I'm lucky) might even remember the time of grading.)
Is this possible? As of now, my biggest concern is simply the ability to use one Assignment Module to queue essays while allowing for multiple submissions by students.
Thanks for all the hard work on this assignment module. It looks great.
Your idea of recording multiple submissions would also be v. useful. Even if only the previous version was available - especially important if the assignment is in-line as shown above. (which looks good in itself)
Also see this discussion about various assignment plugin features - including messages, rubrics, multiple linked assignments etc.
Hi Martin,
On the topic of multiple submission, is that some that will be added for 1.5 or soon?
Also, it will be nice to have to Instructor return the graded assignment back online and not send them to the student in an email. Can this be added for the 1.5 final release?
Please let me know.
On the topic of multiple submission, is that some that will be added for 1.5 or soon?
Also, it will be nice to have to Instructor return the graded assignment back online and not send them to the student in an email. Can this be added for the 1.5 final release?
Please let me know.
Also, it will be nice to have to Instructor return the graded
assignment back online and not send them to the student in an email.
We just wrote this up a few days ago, it's in CVS/contrib/ReviewAssignment 1.5. The new assignment module makes it pretty easy to add new assignment types (thanks Martin!).
We just wrote this up a few days ago, it's in CVS/contrib/ReviewAssignment 1.5. The new assignment module makes it pretty easy to add new assignment types (thanks Martin!).
On this note (and not directly addressed to you, Michael) is there an upgrade path for echo-assignment? In otherwords what will happen to all of our echo-assignments when we upgrade to 1.5?
Darren
So, will this be added to the Moodle 1.5 final release?
If not, what will be the steps to take in upgrading the Moodle 1.5 final release assignment module to the one you have in the cvs/contrib/Review...?
Thanks so much for the information.
If not, what will be the steps to take in upgrading the Moodle 1.5 final release assignment module to the one you have in the cvs/contrib/Review...?
Thanks so much for the information.
Doubt it as Martin has called an end to new features.
Click on cvs in your post or mine
for cvs tips and search the forums for tortoise cvs if you are windows user
HTH
Darren
Click on cvs in your post or mine
for cvs tips and search the forums for tortoise cvs if you are windows userHTH
Darren
So, will this be added to the Moodle 1.5 final release?
Nope.
If not, what will be the steps to take in upgrading the Moodle 1.5 final release assignment module to the one you have in the cvs/contrib/Review...?
1) Copy the 'uploadreview' folder into your assignment/type folder.
2)Copy the lang files into the moodle/lang/en directory, and replace existing files.
Nope.
If not, what will be the steps to take in upgrading the Moodle 1.5 final release assignment module to the one you have in the cvs/contrib/Review...?
1) Copy the 'uploadreview' folder into your assignment/type folder.
2)Copy the lang files into the moodle/lang/en directory, and replace existing files.
This works great. Thanks for this update.
I have another request. What will be involve to allow more than one file per student?
So l come into the assignment.
1. Select browse and get the file
2. upload the file
Then l will be able to repleat step 1 and 2 again without deleting the file one l just added. So there need to be delete link beside each file if l want to delete.
Also, there should be a way to set if l do not want the teacher or the student to delete the students files. Hence you can only delete the files you upload. This will be a control flag in the assignment setup.
Also, can we add a control flag that can be set in the assignment module set up that determines if the file(s) submitted by students in this assignment can be view by others in the class. Good for presentations, etc.
Are this doable?
I have another request. What will be involve to allow more than one file per student?
So l come into the assignment.
1. Select browse and get the file
2. upload the file
Then l will be able to repleat step 1 and 2 again without deleting the file one l just added. So there need to be delete link beside each file if l want to delete.
Also, there should be a way to set if l do not want the teacher or the student to delete the students files. Hence you can only delete the files you upload. This will be a control flag in the assignment setup.
Also, can we add a control flag that can be set in the assignment module set up that determines if the file(s) submitted by students in this assignment can be view by others in the class. Good for presentations, etc.
Are this doable?
Hello Michael,
I think if you you can give me some steps to take, l might be able to add the functionality to upload more than one file for eachs.
Does the upload_manager allow more than one file addition?
Thanks in advance.
I think if you you can give me some steps to take, l might be able to add the functionality to upload more than one file for eachs.
Does the upload_manager allow more than one file addition?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Michael,
I did a little hack to make Upload&Review assignment work with Postgres.
Script:
/mod/assignment/type/assignment.class.php
Function display_submissions()
Query:
$select = 'SELECT '.$db->Concat('u.id', '\'#\'', $db->IfNull('s.userid',
'0')).' AS uvs, u.id, u.firstname, u.lastname, u.picture, s.id AS
submissionid, s.grade, s.comment, s.timemodified, s.timemarked,
((s.timemarked > 0) AND (s.timemarked >= s.timemodified)) AS status ';
/* && replaced by AND */
// $group = 'GROUP BY uvs ';
/*removed GROUP BY because SELECT and GROUP BY lists do not agree here*/
I did a little hack to make Upload&Review assignment work with Postgres.
Script:
/mod/assignment/type/assignment.class.php
Function display_submissions()
Query:
$select = 'SELECT '.$db->Concat('u.id', '\'#\'', $db->IfNull('s.userid',
'0')).' AS uvs, u.id, u.firstname, u.lastname, u.picture, s.id AS
submissionid, s.grade, s.comment, s.timemodified, s.timemarked,
((s.timemarked > 0) AND (s.timemarked >= s.timemodified)) AS status ';
/* && replaced by AND */
// $group = 'GROUP BY uvs ';
/*removed GROUP BY because SELECT and GROUP BY lists do not agree here*/
Hi Oksana, Martin is asking for a stable Upload/Review to include in 1.6, I wonder if you all at AU have a version more or less ready to go? Martin's request is here:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=37883#186139
Best, Michael.
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=37883#186139
Best, Michael.
Any help on my questions, please.
Hi Mark, the essay question type in the lesson module will queue essays. If you create a lesson with just one essay question and allow retakes, this will put each attempt in a queue and each can be graded individually.
Of course these are only for online essays, not uploaded papers.
Of course these are only for online essays, not uploaded papers.
Hi, does anyone have anything for me as you how to go about it if l want to add multiple files to an assignment.
Anything about about the upload_manager question l asked to allow adding more than one file?
Mawuli
Anything about about the upload_manager question l asked to allow adding more than one file?
Mawuli
Martin, can we bring back the old way of viewing the upload assigment. Or a better way to eliminate pop-up window when checking/grading the assignment.
Theres a post about it comparing the new assignment and old when it comes to checking uploaded files and grading. But the grading system works fine, the presentation of the unwanted pop-ups is really a mess.
Theres a post about it comparing the new assignment and old when it comes to checking uploaded files and grading. But the grading system works fine, the presentation of the unwanted pop-ups is really a mess.
This may be a foolish question. I know that most of the current development efforts are focused on the beta release of Moodle 1.5, bu around here we're still on 1.4.4. The new assignment module looks cool. Is it compatible with 1.4.4?
Is someone working on applying rubrics as a grading scheme? The only issue is that each assignment would be slightly different.
Any Ideas?
Loren
Any Ideas?
Loren
I've wondered the same thing. The best I've come up with (say for different essay genres) is to compose Word documents with tables. Then, use echo-assignment instead of regular assignment. When the paper comes in, I download to a student file, paste the table at the top of the page, add the rubric scores, briefly comment and grade, and post back on the website. In the end, the grade is still a single score, but the student gets the rubric for the particular kind of essay/assignment.
It isn't perfect, but it seems to work reasonably.
When a teacher graded an assignment in v1.4.3, I believe it would email students' grades to them.
Does anyone know if this is a part of 1.5? If it is, mine's not working... how can I troubleshoot? (I'm using email authentication, and those emails are going out)
thanks!
David
Also, as a suggestion, it would be awesome to be able to email quarterly 'report cards' to all students with their grades from that quarter's assignments.
the new assignment module looks good wit some excellent features.
The problem i have is that iI hae created 30 lessons each with 20 questions in each in the 'old journal module'. My moodle partner as upgraded t0 1.5 and the questions have not come across. Am i going to have to create all these questions again. If this is the case I a not going to be happy at all.
Gavin
This is fixed in 1.5.2 - or at least it was for me!
Martin,
I have funding to work on an OSS digital portfolios system. We want to develop something along the lines of Klahowya, but much more secure, robust, extensible, and featureful.
A digital portfolio is essentially a body of work that is accessible online, so it could look an awful lot like a Moodle course with lots of categorized "assignments" available for public viewing.
The two basic types of submittable assignments that you have are perfect building blocks for a digital portfolio module, because typing in text and uploading documents are the primary things you do when you're populating a portfolio.
I don't want to distract the discussion in this thread, but I wanted to post here first to hear your thoughts on using the assignment module in a portfolios module.
The following would also need to be figured out, but they will need another thread for discussion:
I have funding to work on an OSS digital portfolios system. We want to develop something along the lines of Klahowya, but much more secure, robust, extensible, and featureful.
A digital portfolio is essentially a body of work that is accessible online, so it could look an awful lot like a Moodle course with lots of categorized "assignments" available for public viewing.
The two basic types of submittable assignments that you have are perfect building blocks for a digital portfolio module, because typing in text and uploading documents are the primary things you do when you're populating a portfolio.
I don't want to distract the discussion in this thread, but I wanted to post here first to hear your thoughts on using the assignment module in a portfolios module.
The following would also need to be figured out, but they will need another thread for discussion:
- Different sets of people need to be able to have different views of portfolios: Administrators, Teachers, Students, Parents, and the Public are the most obvious groups. There must be a way to [dis]allow each of these groups to access items/sections/areas of portfolios.
- Since students will have the ability to publish content through their portfolios, there must be a review mechanism in place to allow (but not require) a teacher or administrator to approve content for publication.
- There will need to be a specialized portfolio view of some sort, as site visitors will want to find a student by name, or search for a portfolio item by name or type or category, etc.