Grading Assignments in Moodle

There are several approaches you can take when grading a Moodle Assignment activity. This document explains how to enter grades by opening the Assignment activity, then entering grades on the assignment Submissions page.

If you prefer to see a video overview, please see Grade a Moodle Assignment – YouTube video (7:54 min.) from Cairn University

One way to  get to Assignment activities is  from the Activities block.

Note: Although you can manually edit grades in the Grader report, when grading an Assignment activity, we recommend grading from the Submissions page.

1. Click on the Assignments link from the Activities block and select the assignment you want to grade from your list of assignments.

You may grade multiple students at once directly in the Submissions table, or open each submission on its own Grading page. 

Here is the screen you will see when you click all submissions:

How to Enter Grades and Feedback for Multiple Students at Once

Quick grading lets you enter grades and feedback for multiple students on one page.

1. If editing is on, click Turn editing off. This will give you additional screen space to view the table on the Submission page.
2. Open the assignment. On the Assignment page, below the assignment description, the Grading summary shows how many students have submitted work, how many submissions need grading, the due date, and time remaining to submit.
3. Click View/grade all submissions.
   The Submissions page will open displaying the Submissions table, with a row for each student, and columns determined by the settings for the  assignment.  (Screen grabs of steps 1-3 are found above.)
4. To be able to enter grades and feedback directly on the Submissions table, below the table, under Options, select the Quick grading check box.
   Note: Once you select the Quick grading option, Moodle will remember the setting the next time you open this Submission screen.
5. Also under Options, are settings to control which submissions show in the table:

• To filter the table to show only those Students with submissions, or Submissions that require grading, use the Show drop-down menu.
• To change the number of students shown on the page, use the Submissions shown per page drop-down menu.

As you set these options, the page will automatically refresh to reflect changes.

• To make the Submissions table more compact, you can “collapse” columns you are not using at the moment:

 To collapse a column, at the top of the column, under the column name, click the Minus icon

• For each student’s submission, the columns in the table provide information or let you perform an action. (Which columns are present is determined by the settings for the assignment.)
  Select: To lock, unlock, or revert submissions to draft status, select the checkbox for a student, then, below the table, use the With selected  drop-down menu.
  First Name / Last Name: Click First name or Last name to sort the list alphabetically
  Status: The Status column displays whether a submission has been made, is a draft, is late, has been graded, etc..

  Last Modified: Shows when the assignment was last updated by the student.
  Grade: In the Grade column:

  • If the activity is set to use a numeric scale, enter a score a student in the entry field (below the entry field the total possible points will be
    displayed, e.g., /100)
  • If the activity is set to use a non-numeric Scale, select an option from the drop-down menu.
  • Click the Checkmark icon to view and grade a submission on a separate page. Because this opens on a new page and leaves the Submissions
    screen, click Save all Quick grading changes before you click the Checkmark  icon.

  File submissions: If a student has submitted a file, File icons will appear in the column.

  • Click a file icon to download the submission to your computer.

  Submission comments: In the Submission comments column, you’ll see a Comments link followed by the number of comments made (e.g., Comments (2)). Click Comments (#) to read and/or leave a comment.

  Feedback comments: This feedback will also show in the Grade report. In the text entry box, enter feedback for the submission. (To enlarge the entry box, drag from the bottom-right corner).

  Feedback files: If you have already uploaded a Feedback file for a student, you will see a file icon here (click to download). To upload a Feedback file you must Grade One Student at a Time.

  Final Grade: The Final grade column shows the grade as displayed in the Grade report.

• Once you’ve input student grades and feedback for this page of students, click Save all quick grading changes to save your work.

How to Manually Edit Grades in the Grader Report