This article explains how to set up the assignment activity in Myplace for coursework which is submitted (or presented) offline, ie, so that you can provide marks and feedback but not accept submissions.
Before you start, it is expected that you have already...
- created a MyPlace site
Assignment Settings
Note that below are shown only the settings that enable offline submissions, however other settings might also be relevant to your use case, e.g. group assignment settings. If you are setting up a Group Assignment, please ensure that you have created your groups before setting up the offline submission link on MyPlace. You can learn how to create groups manually or automatically. Then, simply follow along the tutorial. Steps that are unique for group assignments are marked with a *) (optional).
1) With editing turned on, you can click Add an Activity or Resource on the page and choose Assignment activity from the list.
2) In the General category, enter the Assignment name and its Description. These are critical components to offline submissions as they enable students to view in advance that submissions for this activity should be made in-person. As with a traditional assignment, you can add any relevant Files.
3) In the Availability category, ensure that the Allow submissions from and the Cut-off date sections are not enabled.
Note: You are still required to indicate the Due date, as this will enable automatic notifications to be send to students, as well as the assignment to appear in student calendars.
Similarly, to add reminders for grading submissions, you can enable the Remind me to grade by section and indicate a relevant date.
4) In the Submission category, ensure that all Submission types are not enabled.
5) In the Feedback types category, ensure that you have indicated the relevant feedback types for this activity. The assessment for offline submissions can be done though Feedback comments, Offline grading worksheet and Feedback files.
6) In the Submission settings category, ensure that you have indicated No to the Require students to click the submit button. Also, indicate at Attempts reopened - Never.
7) From the Grade > Grade Category section, select the relevant option that best describes this activity for the grade book.
*) (optional) Group Assignment Submission Settings
With your groups set prior to starting the assignment set-up, in the Group Submission Settings, indicate that students will submit in groups by choosing Yes from the drop-down menu in the Student Submit in Groups button.
8) Click Save and return to class or Save and display (at the bottom of the screen) to save the settings and got back to the class or display the assignment, respectively.
From a course administrator/tutor perspective, the assignment section will look the same as for any other assignment activity, however for students, the assignment page will display the following message: 'This assignment does not require you to submit anything online'.
Offline Grading and Uploading Grades
Offline grading on MyPlace allows you to grade Assignment submissions without being logged in to MyPlace or connected to the Internet. With offline grading, you enter grades into a customised grading spreadsheet and upload the spreadsheet to MyPlace at a later time.
Note: Offline grading is not available for assignments that use an advanced grading method (such as a Rubric or a Marking Guide).
1) Access the assignment by clicking on it in editing mode. This should open the Grading summary section. Click on View all submissions to access the submissions page.
2) Since you have received offline (as opposed to online) submissions, the anonymous marking process will not be possible for implementation for this assignment. Prior to downloading the grading sheet, you must de-anonymize the list of students by clicking on Reveal student identities from the drop-down Grading action menu.
3) Below the assignment's name (in the example the name is 'Hand-in') is located the Grading action menu. From the drop-down options, select Download grading worksheet. This action will trigger an excel file download.
4) In the downloaded Excel file, input relevant values as you go through the marking process in the Grade column. Ensure that the completed entries are saved in a .csv (comma-separated value) file to ensure compatibility.
If you have previously enabled Feedback comments when setting up the assignment, there will be a feedback comments section available in the Excel file, where you can insert feedback comments, which can be later uploaded directly in bulk for all students.
Note: Any text inserted in this column will not be translated with the formatting it has been inserted with, meaning that paragraph structure and any text formatting will be lost.
Other methods to upload feedback will be discussed later in the article as well.
*) (optional) For group assignments, you can sort group participant list, using the group name by selecting all values from the Group column, then clicking on the Sort&Filter button in Excel (top right-hand corner in the Home tab, and sort the values alphabetically from A to Z, with expand the current selection.
As a result, your group column will be sorted, which will allow you to drag and copy marks and comments for all members of the group, if the marks are equally distributed. This can be done by dragging the + at the bottom right corner of the selected cell and dragging it the necessary number of rows down (corresponding with the number of members in the group).
5) Once completed with the marking process, access the Grading action menu again (see steps 1 and 2, above). From the drop-down options, select Upload grading worksheet.
6) This action will take you to a screen where you can upload the completed grading worksheet. Once uploaded, click on the Upload grading worksheet button.
7) The following screen will ask you to Confirm the detected changes. Once you click confirm, the grades will be updated.
8) Following the marks update, the submissions list should look somewhat similar.
Uploading Feedback
Feedback for offline submissions can be submitted through the comment section of individual submissions, as well as in individual files.
1) Click on the Edit > Edit button for any given assignment.
2) Select Update grade.
3) The next section will display a section that allows you to view the grade and insert a Comment. Add here all relevant feedback that you want to give to the particular student.
4) Alternatively, you can upload individual feedback files for each student by dropping relevant Files in the drag and drop section.
4) Once you are ready click on Save and show next (at the bottom of the same screen) to continue with the next submission on the list, or Save changes to save the changes and remain on the same page.