Annotate PDF or upload feedback files for Assignments?

Annotate PDF or upload feedback files for Assignments?

by Joe Murphy -
Number of replies: 3

I've got some faculty who are finding a lot of use for the Moodle app, so first, thanks for that! But they're finding it limiting that they can't annotate PDFs within the app, and I'm finding it limiting that I can't recommend that they download files to another app, mark them up there, and return them. 

So, just as a sanity check (since it isn't addressed in the FAQ) - am I right that the Annotate PDF feature isn't available in the app, and neither is the ability to upload feedback files as part of grading?

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In reply to Joe Murphy

Re: Annotate PDF or upload feedback files for Assignments?

by Francois Du Toit -
Good day Joe,

I've gone and had a look as well and the mobile app doesn't seem to allow for feedback/marked file uploads. Under the Grading section there is a comment tab, but that als only seems to allow for basic text.

On the PDF annotations I have found the following:

"I can’t annotate directly on the students’ submissions:
Check with your administrator that your site has Ghostscript and one of the Document converters enabled."

Here is a link to the Document converters section on Moodle: https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/Document_converters

Also it might be that Ghostscript isn't currently capable of functioning on mobile via Moodle.

Hope this helps.
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In reply to Francois Du Toit

Re: Annotate PDF or upload feedback files for Assignments?

by Joe Murphy -
Thanks very much, Francois. I should have been more clear that Annotate PDF is working fine on the web (including on mobile, or at least through Safari on iOS 12). But when PDFs load in the Moodle App, they just load the file; there's no option to bring up the annotation tools. Directing faculty members to use the "open in browser" menu option to see the list of submissions in the browser isn't the end of the world, but a link from the actual submission directly to the "annotate" page would be more efficient.
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In reply to Joe Murphy

Re: Annotate PDF or upload feedback files for Assignments?

by Francois Du Toit -
I believe this is due to the PDF annotation software not being integrated with the Mobile app. When opening the pdf as you mentioned via a browser, even on mobile, the tools should still work as intended.

I'm not sure if this is something that Moodle plans on implementing in the future, but I'm sure if there is enough interest we can at least let them know about it.
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