Blind Marking, Group Assignments and Assignment Extensions
After discussing the institutions Moodle upgrade plan and e-submission developments with the deans last week I decided to research further into the new assignment engine available in Moodle 2.4.
I came across some great new additions to the assignment tool on Mary Cooch’s Moodle blog (http://www.moodleblog.net/moodle-blog/). These included:
• Blind Marking
• Group Assignments
• Assignment Extensions
The issue with regards to Moodle not supporting anonymous marking in the past has been a real concern for some tutors. Blind marking essentially enables tutors to mark student assignments without knowing who it belongs to. It also has a nice feature which enables tutors to reveal student identities once assignments have been marked. This is something that can’t be reversed. I’m sure this feature would be welcome addition to our installation of Moodle.Below is a screencast from Mary Cooch on how blind marking will work in Moodle 2.4
Group Assignments is another nice addition to the new Moodle assignment tool. This option allows students to work collaboratively in groups and submit work as a group. What I really like about group assignments is the setting than ensures all students in the group click submit before the group assignment is marked.
A feature that tutors will like is the collaborative marking. Once you have marked the group work for one student you can then apply the grade and feedback to the entire group. The screencast below talks you through the group assignment feature.
Assignment extensions are another interesting feature to the new assignment tool. Previously, tutors have had to create duplicate assignments in Moodle for those students who missed the deadline due to mitigating circumstances. In Moodle 2.4, tutors have the ability to set an extension for a particular student. I can see this being a big positive for our academics because it will be a big time saver. The screencast below introduces how assignment extensions work.
Moodle 2.4 is released in December this year. YSJ plan to upgrade to this version of the system next summer in preparation for the new 2013/14 academic year.
