Downloading assignments to mark

  • Log in to the course site.
  • Locate the assignment you are marking and open it either by clicking on the link on the course homepage or via Activities > Assignments.
  • At the top of the screen you will see the instructions for the assignment and details of the status of assignment submissions. To view the assignments submitted, scroll down and click View all submissions.

There are a number of ways to download assignment submissions. Watch the video below for an overview of these or scroll down for written instructions.

Select the most appropriate method for the submissions you need to mark from the options below.

Download a selection of assignment submissions (recommended)

  1. First, scroll to the bottom of the page, and make sure the Download submissions in folders is not ticked. This will ensure all the files you download have the participant number in the file name.
  2. Select all the submissions you want to download using the check boxes in the Select column (which is located on the far left-hand side of the screen).

Note: this allows you to select only the submissions which have the status Submitted for grading, excluding any that have the status Draft. You should also exclude any submissions marked as late or with a pending extension request until your course administrator has confirmed which ones have been approved.

  1. Scroll down to the bottom of the list of submissions and locate the With selected… drop-down menu (circled on the diagram below).
  2. Choose the option Download selected submissions and click Go.
  3. Save the resulting zip file on your computer. When you unzip the file, you will notice the participant number has been added at the start of each file name. You can keep the same name for your feedback file (followed by ‘-feedback’ for example). This will make it easier to upload the correct feedback files to each participant.

If your course has a lot of submissions, you may find it useful to use the Filter drop-down menu (which is located in the Options section towards the bottom of the screen) to isolate a subset of submissions. For example the filter option Requires grading will show only the submissions that need marking. (Note that you need to use the filter first to display the sub-set of submissions, then follow steps 1. and 5. above to select each submission and download them.)

Download all submissions

If you are to mark all the submissions for a given assignment you can, in a single action, download all files to your computer. To do this:

  • Use the Download all submissions button at the top of the page, above the table. Note: Make sure the Download submissions in folders is not ticked first.
  • A zip file containing all the submissions will be downloaded to your computer. Please note: the participant number will be added at the start of each file to make it easier to manage your feedback.

Please be aware that this method will download all students’ work – whether in draft or submitted for marking, so we would recommend checking against the grading interface, or using the filters as outlined above.

Download a single assignment submission

  1. Locate the submission you wish to download.
  2. Scroll across to the File submissions column (circled on the diagram below).
  3. Click on the individual file to open it.
  4. Save the file on your computer.

Working with the files you have downloaded

If you downloaded multiple assignment submissions, they will be saved on your computer in a zip file. The zip file will be named with the short title of the course followed by the name of the assignment.

To mark the individual assignment files:

  • Double click on the zip file to open it. You will see the list of students’ assignment files named in the following format: ParticipantNumber_StudentFileName.docx (for a Word Document)
  • Open each file to add feedback to each student’s assignment
  • Once you have finished marking the file, use ‘Save as’, and name your feedback file in the following format: ParticipantNumber_StudentFileName_Feedback.docx, where the first part of the file name is the same as for the submission file you downloaded.

Please ensure you keep the same file name, followed by ‘_feedback’, as this will make it easier to upload multiple feedback files and assign them to the correct student. 

Students may submit files in a number of different permitted file types, so in the example above .docx would be for a Word file, whereas .pdf would be a PDF file, .xlsx an Excel file and so on.

How do I mark the assignment and provide feedback?

Open each file to mark it. You should give feedback in two ways:

  • Mark up the student’s assignment script.  Please provide feedback on the student’s assignment script, where possible; for example, by using the Comment or Track Changes features in Word. See the A short guide to on-screen marking for information on how to do this. When you have annotated the student’s script, save the annotated script keeping the same file name, and adding ‘-Feedback’ at the end, for example: ParticipantNumber_StudentFileName_Feedback.docx. The first part of the file name should be the same file name as when you downloaded it initially.
  • Provide an overview of feedback.  This can be done by using the Feedback comments box on the course site, or by using a separate Feedback (or marking) form. If you are providing feedback on a Feedback form, save the file using the naming convention:  ParticipantNumber_StudentFileName_FeedbackForm.docx, where the first part of the file name is the same file name as the submission file you downloaded initially.

When you have finished marking, you will need to upload the annotated student script (and the feedback form if you have used one) to the course site following the instructions below.