Moodle Assignments – Which one should I use?

There are four assignment types that come with a standard Moodle installation.  They appear very much the same to the student, but they have very different applications, especially for business training.  Knowing which one to use for your needs is important before you begin building your content, because assignment types can not be switched with the click of a mouse.  Each is its own entity; if you want to change type, you’ll have to completely redo the activity. 

The four types are:

• Online Text
• Offline assignment
• Upload a single file
• Advanced uploading of files

In order to determine which assignment type you want to use, you must first ask yourself what you want to achieve with this activity and how much of yourself you want to give to it.  It wouldn’t hurt to start with Purpose-Objectives-Goals for the course; this will help you determine your objective for each activity.

Online Text

This is great for short answers when you don’t care to save a copy of the file on your local drive.  It allows the student to enter an answer, using just about any type of computer (because the text is typed directly into the browser, not using any type of software like Word^®).  As the instructor, you can grade and comment on this text, or you can simply use it to gather comments and ideas from your students.

Offline Assignment

I use this type frequently for my business courses.  Although grading is still an option with this assignment type, the uploading of files is not.  My rationale for using the Offline type in asynchronous, non-coached courses is that when a student does upload a file, he expects someone to read it!  If the instructor wants only to tell the student “this is an exercise to reinforce your understanding”, grading isn’t necessary.  Unless you (the instructor) are prepared to review and comment on submissions, I would stick with this type. 

One suggestion is to use the offline assignment type for your basic level courses; consider using the next two for your “premium” courses where fees include some personal coaching from you.

Upload a Single File

This assignment type performs up to its name.  Students submit their assignments as one file, in any format requested by the instructor.  When that file is submitted, it may be graded.  There is an option to allow the student to resubmit an assignment, which I think could get tricky if it happened all the time.  Use this assignment type if you plan to read, review, and comment on your students’ work. 

Advanced uploading of files

This is similar to the previous assignment type, but with some important functional additions:

• Students may upload as many files as you allow in the settings (from 1 to 20)
• They may delete uploaded files and add more (up to the limit)
• These files are not submitted for grading when they are uploaded; an additional step for the student is to “submit for marking”
• Notes may be added by the student, which are similar in feel to the Online Text assignment

This assignment type is perfect for project work, where there may be many files, of several types, completed over a period of time.  This assignment type allows the student to upload each file as it is ready, and send it to the instructor for grading when all are complete.  The ability to add notes only enhances the activity.

There are other assignment types in the Moodle contributed code.  Some look very promising, especially the ones for team (group) submissions.  I plan to play around with them this winter; I’ll let you know what I find out!

Tags: assignment types, e-learning for business, eLearning for Business, Instructional Design, moodle assignments, moodle for business

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 21st, 2010 at 11:59 am and is filed under Business Training, eLearning for Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.