The Assignment activity in Moodle is a very popular one, because it simplifies the process of collecting student work. When you use the assignment activity:
- Students submit their work to you by clicking on the link for the assignment in your course.
- Moodle time-stamps the submission, recording when the student actually uploaded the file.
- Moodle allows you to download all student submissions as a single Zip file.
- Moodle provides multiple possibilities for feedback, including adding a summary comment in Moodle and also uploading a commented version of the student’s assignment back into Moodle.
Moodle 3.1 added an additional feature. In the past, if you commented on students’ papers electronically, you needed to upload each file containing your comments one at a time, choosing the particular student to whom the file belonged. Now, you can not only download all of the student assignment submissions as a Zip file, but you can also upload your commented versions as a single Zip file as well. To make that bulk uploading possible, Moodle needed to change how it packages the student submissions when you download the file. The Zip file now contains a series of folders – one for each student who submitted an assignment – and the student submission is inside his/her folder:
As the figure just above shows, you have to double-click on the folder (once you have downloaded all the submissions and extracted the Zip file) to find a particular student’s assignment submission.
If you grade those assignments electronically by providing feedback/comments within the file and saving the file under a new file name, you will need to save your version in the same folder that contains the student submission. Once you have provided feedback for all of the students, you Zip up all those student folders, and you can upload that single Zip file back into Moodle. Each one of your comment files gets added to the assignment submission for the appropriate student, so s/he can see your feedback.
You can find detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to download the student submissions, extract the student files, grade those files, and upload your graded version here.