Moodle: Download assignment to grade offline

Did you know that you can download Assignment submissions in bulk for offline grading/feedback, then re-upload the grades, feedback, and (optionally) marked assignments back into Moodle? This feature works with both anonymous grading (blind marking) and non-anonymous grading workflows.

This article describes the five-step process:

1. Set up an Assignment for offline grading
2. Download a “grading worksheet” (spreadsheet) for recording grades and overall comments.
3. Download students submissions
4. Grade and annotate (if desired) the submitted work.
5. Upload the completed grading worksheet and (if applicable) annotated submissions or feedback files.

If you’d like to mark PDF submissions without downloading them, see Moodle: Grade assignments with Annotate PDF

EAST is happy to help you with the process of offline bulk grading — email help@brynmawr.edu or set up a consultation appointment.

Set up an assignment for offline grading

In order to use offline grading, you need to set up your Assignment with the following settings. You must do this before you start grading, but it’s best to do it before students submit any work. 

To check/adjust Assignment settings:

1. Click the Assignment name and click the gear icon (Actions menu) and choose Edit settings.
   • You can also get to Settings by clicking the Turn editing on button Assignment, then click the Edit drop-down menu attached to the item, and choose Edit Settings.  
2. Under Feedback types, check all of the following (not checked by default):
   1. Feedback comments
   2. Feedback files
   3. Offline grading worksheet
3. Under Grade
   1. Type is set to Point or Scale (i.e., the assignment must be graded, although note that Complete/Incomplete is one of the Scale options).
   2. Set Grading Method to Simple Direct Grading. This is the default.
4. Click Save and return to course or Save and Display to return to the Assignment.

Download the grading worksheet

1. From your Moodle course page, click on the title of your Assignment (do NOT click Edit or Edit Settings).
2. On the next screen or summary page, click View All Submissions. 
3. A new page will appear with the Grading action drop-down menu. Select Download grading worksheet from the drop-down menu.
   
4. Save the .cvs file, making sure to keep it in .csv file format. You can still open this file in Excel or another spreadsheet program.

Download student submissions

1. From your Moodle course page, click on the title of your Assignment (do NOT click Edit or Edit Settings).
2. On the next screen or summary page, click View All Submissions. 
   
3. Under the Options menu, check the box titled Download submissions in folders.
   
4. In the Grading action drop-down menu, select Download all submissions.
5. Unzip the submissions folder downloaded to your computer.
   • Note that each student has a folder:
     • Each folder and file has a unique numeric identifier.
     • If you have not turned on anonymous grading (“blind marking”), folder and file names will also include the students' first and last names.
     • The same number/name identifies the student in the grading worksheet.
   • The submission files will be in the format the student uploaded (e.g., .doc, .rtf, .pdf, etc.). Online text submissions will be downloaded as html files.

Grade and annotate submitted work

1. Click on the students’ submission files (or HTML files, for text box submissions) to open and read them.
2. Fill out the grading worksheet (spreadsheet) that you downloaded in step 2.
3. Open the .csv file in a spreadsheet editor (e.g. Excel).
4. Each student is identified by a unique number and/or name (see above).
5. Enter the student’s grade in the Grade column, using the same scale you set up for the assignment (e.g., Points).
6. If you want summary feedback to appear next to a student's Grade in the Moodle Gradebook, type that feedback in the Feedback comments column.
7. Leave all other data untouched.
8. Save the .csv file.

Upload grading worksheet and files 

You must upload your grading worksheet to add grades and feedback to Moodle's gradebook:

1. From your Moodle course page, click on the title of your Assignment (do NOT click Edit or Edit Settings).
2. On the next page, click View/Grade All Submissions. 
3. A new page will appear with the Grading action drop-down menu. From the drop-down menu, select Upload grading worksheet.
4. Click Choose a file… to browse for and upload the grading worksheet to Moodle, or drag the .csv file to the arrow and wait for the file name to appear in the box.
5. DON’T check the Allow updating records that have been modified more recently in Moodle than in the spreadsheet, unless you want to override grades you’ve already entered.
6. Click Upload grading worksheet.
7. Review the grades and feedback to be imported into the Confirmation window carefully.
8. When you are satisfied that everything is correct, click Confirm, then Continue.

If you created a zipped file with annotations of the student’s submitted do the following: 

1. From the Grading actions drop-down menu (see parts 1–3 of Step 3), choose Upload multiple feedback files in a zip.
2. Click Choose a file… and upload the zipped assignments file to Moodle, or drag the compressed/zipped file to the arrow and wait for the file name to appear in the box.
3. Click Import feedback file(s).
   • The Confirmation box will list all the feedback files and student names that will be imported.
4. Click Confirm; the next page summarizes the changes.
5. Click Continue.
6. From the page containing the Grading Table, you can check your feedback files by enabling Quick grading (see Options at the bottom of that page) and scrolling horizontally, if needed.

For an assignment with no file submissions, see the discussion upload feedback files without student file submissions for details of what to do.

Questions?

If you have any additional questions or problems, don't hesitate to reach out to the Help Desk!

Phone: 610-526-7440 | Library and Help Desk hours
Email: help@brynmawr.edu | Service catalog
Location: Canaday Library 1st floor