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Common assessment scenarios

Best practice for common assessment scenarios

Below are a number of best practice solutions for several commonly encountered scenarios when setting up and managing assessments on Moodle.

If not already included in your Moodle unit handbook and therefore displayed in the assessment structure table and assessment sections, you may need to create a space in your unit for information on exams that may be take-home, scheduled or (in general) take place outside of the semester.
Best practice solution
1. Create a new Learning section (guide) and give it a name, for example Final Assessments.
2. Check the date range. Make sure the date range of the new Learning section matches the dates of the out of semester assessment content (guide).
3. Populate the learning journey - consider adopting the following approach:
  1. In Own-time, provide an overview of final assessments and describe how your students can best prepare for them.
  2. In Real-time, give a more detailed description of each assessment. You can include the dates, time, and weighting as part of this.
  3. In Wrap-up, add any follow-up support information your students may require and/or when to expect their results.
4. In the Assessment section make a weighted assessment with no submission options, so that it appears in the Assessment summary and Schedule section with the correct date.
Students complete a 100% single project based assessment with multiple milestone points. For example, building a website where the website is worth 100% and handed in at the end of the unit. However the student submits multiple iterations of the website as milestones for feedback throughout the unit.
Best practice solution
1. Create a category in gradebook with 0% weightingand give it a name, for example,draft website submissions. For more information, see Set up Moodle Gradebook (Add categories) .
2. Create assignments for each milestone and place them inside this category.
3. Create the final assignment submission and place it outside of this category.
4. Be sure to include that each of the milestones have 0% weight in their title. For example, 'Draft website submission 1 (milestone - 0% of total marks)'.
  Note: Due dates will still display on the dashboard for un-weighted activities.
Students complete a thesis over two units and only receive a grade when they submit their work at the end of the second unit. The work they submit in the first unit is still valid, and there is still ‘assessment’ content that they need to access but because the Gradebook setup is 0% and they are not awarded a grade/mark, nothing appears in the assessments tab in the first unit.
Best practice solution
Given the specific challenge presented in this scenario, it is advised that you use the Project template and hide the Assessment section. Assessment items can still be created as usual in the Learning sections. They will still be visible in the Learning sections and Unit Dashboard.
Please note: Use of the Project template will result in assessments not being automatically populated to the Schedule tab
Key assessment information such as learning outcomes and weightings are displayed on the Assessment Summary table at the level of handbook assessments, but not at the level of individual assessment items. If you want to show these details for individual assessment items, follow these steps.
Best practice solution
1. Ensure that all essential assessment information is entered into the assessment into the Assessment description or the related Activity instructions.
2. Include your learning outcomes at the beginning of the assessment description.
3. Put the weighting for each assessment in the assessment title, or in the description. For example, Assessment 1 (15% of total marks).
When a Moodle unit has multiple cohorts attached, the Assessment page dynamically generates assessment sections for each assessment item from CourseLoop in the order courses are listed in the Callista block. Depending on if multiple cohorts have the same or different assessment regimes, there are different approaches for managing the assessment sections.
For more information, see Manage Assessment sections for multi-cohort units.
Assessment types where there is a scaffolding resource, such as an online lesson to be completed before it launches into the assessment prep. For exmaple, group work ePortfolio.
Best practice solution
1. Ensure each scaffolding resource has completion tracking enabled. For more information, see Track activity completion.
2. Use completion tracking to check the activity/resource has been completed.
3. In Assessment description let students know that their work will not be assessed until the related activity/resource has been completed - add this reminder in the post class section of the relevant week.
The unit requires the creation of a supplementary assessment that only appears on the Assessment summary table of students who are eligible. For more information, see Supplementary assessment.
Best practice solution
1. Create a group specifically for the students undertaking the Supplementary assessment. You will need to create one group for each supplementary assessment. For more information, see Create groups and groupings.
2. Create an Assignment activity and include “Supp” or “Supplementary” in the assessment name. This helps the spec con team clearly identify that the assessment is not eligible for special consideration.
3. In the Special Consideration settings for the assessment, specify the following:
  - No - Is Special consideration available/applicable?
  - Yes - Is this a graded activity that contributes to the final mark?
  - Yes - Has the Dean (or delegate) approved that Special consideration is not available for this activity?
  - In the Reason why Special consideration is not available for this activity comment box, specify the following: "Supplementary assessment - not eligible for Special consideration”.
4. Restrict this assessment to only those in the group undertaking the supplementary assessment. For more information, see Restrict access to a resource or activity: Conditional restrictions.
5. Provide the relevant information around the supplementary assessment (including a link in the supplementary assessment information page) in the Unit information section.
The activity/assessment needs to have separate due dates for each student/group without being replicated/multiple versions displayed in the assessment section.
Best practice solution
1. Use the group override feature and set a separate due date for each group. For more information, see Set up extensions and resubmissions (group overrides).
Oral presentations and other forms of individual assessment often take place over a period of one or two weeks, where individuals or groups are asked to present at random or with little notice. As such, the individual presentations have no fixed due date.
Best practice solution
Please note: The following solution may cause additional challenges in regards to individual extension dates.
1. Set the Allow submissions from date to the first date the activity will be run. For example, Week 9 of your unit.
2. Set the due date for the activity be set the to the last date the activity will be run. For example, Week 10.
3. Let your students know that the assessment will be conducted during the Week 9-10 tutorials - do this in the Assessment description.

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Common assessment scenarios

Best practice for common assessment scenarios

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Best practice solution

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Best practice solution