Moodle LMS 4.0 has a redefined user experience that improves teaching and learning for educators, learners and administrators. Here are the improvements Moodle 4.0 has brought to one of the most popular activities on Moodle: the assignment.
Provide instructions for learners
Assignment is an activity that allows students to submit work to their teacher for grading, whether it’s text typed directly on Moodle or by attaching a file.
When a teacher is setting up an assignment, they can include a description which can be displayed on the course page for learners to see as they browse the course content. In Moodle 4.0, assignments have a new area in their settings, called Activity instructions, where teachers can give detailed information about what learners have to do to complete the assignment. The difference with the existing ‘description’ field is that activity instructions are only visible once learners have started working on the assignment, and not before.
Create timed assignments
Another improvement in assignments on Moodle 4.0 is the option to give learners a specific amount of time to complete their work. If an assignment is timed, learners will see a notification before they start which lets them know how long they have to complete the assignment once they begin. As they work on the assignment, a timer is also displayed on screen so they always know how much time they have left. If time runs out, learners can still submit the assignment and it will show up as ‘late’.
This new feature must be enabled by your Moodle Administrator before one can use it.
Set a passing grade as completion criteria
In Moodle 4.0, assignments and all graded activities have a new completion condition, which allows the activities to only show as completed once the learner has reached the required level or grade.
Notify learners of changes and updates
Finally, a new feature available in all activities and resources on Moodle 4.0 is the Content change notification. This feature enables teachers to send a notification to their learners, via email or mobile app alerts, when they create a new activity or make any changes to an existing one.
See all these new features in action in the Moodle 4.0 Assignment video.
Related Articles
Five ways to get your teachers more excited about using ed-tech
Lessons Learned: 8 Strategies for Effective Instruction
AI in Higher Ed: Challenges and Practices
7 Ways to Use Social Media as College Classroom Learning Tools