How to know which quiz activity has an essay question to be graded....

How to know which quiz activity has an essay question to be graded....

by James Roberts -
Number of replies: 5

I work under Moodle 3.1 and Moodle 3.5. I believe my topic/query applies to both versions.

Problem: At the end of term, to ensure that all essay questions are graded, I have to go through many quiz activities to verify if there's an essay question "Not yet graded".

When finalizing student marks at the end of term, I (as a teacher) often have several dozen quiz activities - some with an essay question, some without.  Sometimes, I have marked some of the essay questions during the term but sometimes I am tardy and have not marked them. Then, the term "Not yet graded" appears (correctly) on the "Quiz administration > Results >Grades" screen. But I have to drill down to this screen for each quiz activity to ensure that I have not forgotten to grade an essay question somewhere.

Here is my query: Is there a simple way to identify a quiz activity with an essay question that has not been graded? Or, if that's not possible, is there at least a simple way to identify/tag which quiz activities contain an essay question so I can narrow my search?

I have looked elsewhere for a solution/reference to this problem but have found nothing. Essay questions are already time-consuming for teachers; this Moodle bug gives teachers another incentive not to use them. Yet well-designed, essay questions are a critical part of any quiz.  

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In reply to James Roberts

Re: How to know which quiz activity has an essay question to be graded....

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

James, I do not know of any moodle feature that will show you which of all your quizzes still need grading.  Others here on Moodle.org might jump in with other ideas.  I know what you know, that you can go into each quiz and see that they still need grading.  It would seem to me that one can write an SQL query to collect all of these "still need grading" quizzes.

But the simple solution, at least for me, is to not be "tardy!" Why do you allow yourself to be tardy? Don't your quizzes have due dates?  And don't you want to provide your students with an accurate grade status?  Don't you feel that you are not being the best teacher that you can be?  I am not trying to boast or anything, but my 4 summer online courses all have student grades accurate as of a day ago.  I feel that grading is part of my job, and the faster that I grade, the better I am performing my job.  Well, maybe I have an advantage in that the courses that I teach tend to be quantitative, so I do not use essay questions.  But I do have students submit assignments, and I always grade these in less than two days after the due date.

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In reply to James Roberts

Re: How to know which quiz activity has an essay question to be graded....

by AL Rachels -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
If you can install plugins, the Grade Me block will tell you what you want to know quiz essay questions, and it also reports some other activities that need grading.

And, if my memory is correct, the NED Marking Manager will too.
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In reply to AL Rachels

Re: How to know which quiz activity has an essay question to be graded....

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Cool, Al!

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In reply to AL Rachels

Re: How to know which quiz activity has an essay question to be graded....

by James Roberts -

Thanks for pointing me to this Grade Me plug-in. I have installed it (on Moodle 3.1), made the block active on the teacher view but I still don't see how it works. I'll play around with it.

I note that the Grade Me plug-in is not maintained quickly and may not work in Moodle 3.5.   

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In reply to James Roberts

Re: How to know which quiz activity has an essay question to be graded....

by AL Rachels -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

If you use Grade Me version 3.4.0.0(2017111300) it should work in Moodle 3.5. At least it does for me. Also, you only need to install one copy of it on the front page of your Moodle site, and Configure it to, Display throughout the entire site.

It is pretty simple to use. If you click on an activity name, it takes you directly to the activity in the course where the activity is located.

If you open a toggle and click on a students name or picture, it takes you directly to that students profile.

If you click on the red check mark in front of their picture, it generally takes you to the place to grade that activity for that student.

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