I am using Moodle (version 3.2) to conduct admissions for my college (created a new course for this). The way it works is that applicants (approx. 800 in number) come in for interviews after a process of selection. Prior to their arrival, we know their score on an externally conducted standardized test. Think of the old GRE which had one total score. I am modeling this as Assignment 1. We do not conduct this test. We just use the reported scores provided to our University by an external testing agency.
When they arrive, I plan to have interviewers (we are about 20-30 in number) grade the applicants on an assignment activity. Call it Assignment 2. This will be the placeholder for an interview score (0-100). The final score for all applicants consists of a weighted score consisting of Assignment 1 and Assignment 2. I know how to punch in the formula in gradebook settings as I have done it for several years for my regular courses.
I have run into a peculiar problem.
1. To enrol the users, I have created a spreadsheet using Python (details don't matter - but this involves doing data reduction on a large spreadsheet of all applicants, and then selecting those that are to be called for interviews). This has the right username, password, cohort1, etc. columns (8 in all). This is well documented in Moodle. When I upload this spreadsheet as admin, it creates the users with the right course registration. I have not yet done it for this run of the admissions, but have done it successfully in the past. What is new this time, is step 2 (see below).
2. To enter scores for Assignment 1 (the external standardized test), I thought of using the offline grading worksheet feature. Seems like a good idea. So, I created a dummy assignment (just to test the idea), switched off feedback comments, but switched on the offline grading worksheet in the settings. Then I proceeded to view all submissions and downloaded the grading worksheet. I did this on a previous cohort for a previous run of admissions.
3. Now I see a problem. The first column of this worksheet contains an Identifier, which is the participant ID that is automatically generated by Moodle (dependent on step 1). However, in step 1, I already know the score for Assignment 1, and can in principle generate the spreadsheet populated with the right scores, which can be uploaded to "grade" the students for Assignment 1. However, this dependency on the outcome of step 1 is preventing me from generating both spreadsheets (one containing the user info for enrolment, and the other containing those users' scores on Assignment 1) in one shot. What is holding me up is an internal Moodle participant ID that is not even pertinent to student information.
Is there a way for me to do this elegantly (short of writing another Python script that parses the downloaded offline grading worksheet and then redoes step 1 to populate the correct scores?
Can an Assignment score for a new user be created at the time of enrolment?