This entry relates to topic administration. 

Staff can be added to FLO through two different methods, depending on the purpose:

• Roles available in FLO via the Student Management System
  E.g. Topic Coordinator, Teacher, Tutor
  These roles are assigned by Student Administration Services teams at a college level, and requests can be made via Service One (Education > FLO - Teaching Team Member Update)
  
  
• Roles available in FLO via direct entry in FLO
  E.g. Guest Lecturer, Learning Support, Observer, Reviewer
  These roles are assigned by eLearning support teams in colleges, and requests can be made via Service One (Education > FLO - General Query)

If you have any questions relating to roles in FLO, contact your local eLearning support team.

Student Management roles

Non-teaching roles available within FLO

This entry relates to topic administration.

A shared topic combines multiple topic availabilities into a single FLO site.  

A shared topic could be useful if you teach a topic in multiple locations or teach multiple topics with the same content (eg for different discipline areas). 

Shared topics can also enable a more social learning experience if they bring together many small groups of students or individuals.

Shared topics must be created before students have access. Contact your eLearning support team to create a shared topic. 

Guidelines for shared topics 

• Let your students know they are participating in a shared topic site 
• Internal and distance – the FLO site must be designed for online delivery (see the Structuring your FLO site tip sheet) 
  
• Undergraduate and postgraduate – activities and assessment must be appropriate to the AQF (Australian Qualifications Framework) level of the student enrolment and clearly communicated to students to avoid any confusion 
  
• Gradebook – grading can be complex in shared topics due to different SAMs. Please make sure you contact your eLearning support team for assistance with setting up the gradebook as early as possible

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What do shared topics look like?

Shared sites are mostly the same as a regular FLO site, but with a couple of minor differences.

Naming

The names of shared topics are a combination of the availabilities in the shared site. The names are kept as concise as possible while still providing the same level of information. For example:

1. PALL8441 ONC-U-S1 + ONL-FLN-S1 2022 Understanding Cancer Is a combination of the ONC-U-S1 (Bedford Park) and ONL-FLN-S1 (online) availabilities.
   
   
2. NURS1004 ONC-U-NS1 + ONC-RV-NS1 2022 Physical Dimensions of Being Human is a combination of the ONC-U-NS1 (Bedford Park) and ONC-RV-NS1 (Riverland) availabilities.
   
   
3. COMP9700(A-D) ONC-TON-S1 2022 Masters Thesis (4.5/18 units) is a combination of COMP9700A, COMP9700B, COMP9700C and COMP9700D. All are taught at the Tonsley campus (ONC-TON-S1).
   
   
4. AMST3013 ONC-ADL-NS1 + GOVT9004 ONC-U-S1 2022 The Alliance and the Re-Emergence of China is a combination of AMST3013 ONC-ADL-NS1 (Undergraduate, taught at Victoria Square) and GOVT9004 ONC-U-S1 2022 (Postgraduate, taught at Bedford Park)

Groups

The Student Two groups will be named differently so you can easily identify which groups belong to each availability. A group will also be created for each availability shared into the FLO site.

Statement of Assessment Methods (SAM)

While students will only see the SAM for the availability they are enrolled in, you will be able to access all of the SAMs from the SAM tool.

This entry relates to topic administration. 

In FLO the role of auditing student has been renamed to ‘Student equivalent’, in order to try to avoid confusion. The term auditing student has a very specific meaning. According to policy, auditing students are not permitted access to FLO. Therefore, asking for someone to be given access to FLO as an auditing student is a conflicting request.

The ‘student equivalent’ role has the same permissions in FLO as a student role. Requests for users to be added to FLO topics using the ‘student equivalent’ role can be sent to your college eLearning support team via Service One.

‘Student equivalent’ may be an appropriate role to assign in the following situations:

• Demo student for testing / reviewing purposes
  
• A student completing a research project who may benefit from access to teaching materials
  
• Students listed as ‘Incomplete’ who may benefit from access to teaching materials
  
• Temporary access to a past topic for students repeating that topic
  
• Access for RPL requirements
  
• Access to an undergraduate topic for a postgraduate student
  

Additional references

• Auditing a topic – University webpage
  
• Auditing a topic – University policy library
  

What is Suspended or Not current status?

The Participants screen shows all students and teaching staff associated with the topic. If you see a user whose status is Suspended or Not current, this means the user is no longer able to access the topic.

Reasons for Suspended status:

• a student withdrew
  
• a staff member was removed from the teaching team
• their access has expired
  
• they have a sanction on their account

Reasons for Not current status:

• their access hasn't started
• their access has expired 
  

How to get a list of active students

1. Open the Participants screen via the Participants link in the Navigation menu (left of your screen)
   
   
   Or open the Topic management window and click Participants in User Links section
   
   
   
   
2. A list of participants will show
   
   
3. In the filter at the top of the screen, select Status from the drop-down menu, choose Active then click the Apply filters button
   
   
   
4. All active participants will show (students and staff)
   
   
5. To only see active students, add a second filter by clicking the Add condition link, choose Role then Student, set the Match filter to All and click the Apply filters button
   
    
   
   By default, the gradebook only shows active students, so you can also view the list of active students in the Grader report screen. See Gradebook – view students’ grades for more information.
   
    
   

Slow internet could be a realistic scenario for students studying online, so the following checklist is designed to help you optimise your FLO site and enhance the student experience.

What to check: Embedded video

For every embedded video on the page, there is significant data downloaded every time the topic page loads. The only video that should be embedded on the homepage is the welcome video.

How to check:

• Scroll down your topic page and count the number of embedded videos you have.
  
• If your topic is using grid layout, turn editing on before you start your count. Although a student only sees one module at a time, all of the content in the modules loads in the background every time the topic is loaded.

How to fix:

• Create a page resource and embed the video within that page. 

What to check: Images

Images can have large file sizes if they haven’t been saved for viewing online. All images should be resized and optimised before inserting into FLO.

The image dimensions and quality and file type all contribute to file size. JPG or PNG file formats are ideal:

•  JPG will allow better quality with smaller file size, particularly for photographs or images with many colours.
• PNG is a good file type for icons or illustrations with limited colour palettes.

How to check:

• Review the file size of all images used in your FLO site.
• If you are using the Firefox browser: right-click the image and select ‘View Image Info’ from the pop-up menu. This will provide file size, pixel dimensions and the file type.
• If you are using the Chrome browser: right click the image and select ‘Open image in new tab’ from the pop-up menu. The tab title will provide the filename (type) and pixel dimension (hover the mouse pointer over the tab to see full image details). Right-click the image and select ‘Save as’ to determine the file size.

How to fix: 

• Right-click the image and save it to your computer. 
• Open the image using graphic editing software – all Flinders staff can download SnagIt from the IDS Support Portal | Install Software.
• Resize the image using SnagIt.
• Edit the FLO site and replace the image with your new version.

What to check: Images used for headings or titles

Images use up more data than text. Additionally, any text in an image can not be read by screen readers, which may be used by some students with vision impairments.

How to check:

• Can you highlight letters and words with your cursor? If yes, then it is text. 
• Can you click on the heading and start to drag it? If yes, then it is an image.
• If you right-click the item does the pop-up menu have image related options? If yes, then it is an image.

How to fix:

• Remove the image and replace it with text. 
• Use a heading style in the HTML editor to provide emphasis. 

What to check: File sizes

Be mindful of the file size of files such as PDF, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, etc. The larger the file the slower it will download. Ensure the file size is displayed to students. Aim for 5-10 MB, the smaller the better, whilst retaining the file readability.
  

How to check: 

• All uploaded files display the file type and size after the link name. 

How to fix:

• Show file size & type in FLO 
• Reduce PowerPoint and Word file size by compressing images.  (tip: choose the option “Apply to all pictures in this file”). This will also reduce the size of PDFs created from these files.
• Reduce the file size of PowerPoint files by removing un-used background layouts or use the PowerPoint template for online teaching.

What to check: Progress bars

There are indications that progress bars can have an impact on load times. If your students are reporting problems loading your site, you may need to consider removing progress bars.

How to fix: 

• Discuss with your eLearning team if your students complain of slow page load times

What to check: Video content

If your students are reporting extremely slow internet and problems accessing video on your site, you may need to consider offering a text-based or audio-only alternative for video resources.

How to fix:

• For videos in Kaltura - create a transcript (turn on auto-captioning and download transcript). Add the transcript to your FLO site as a page or a file.
• For other videos – source an article or another resource that addresses the same content

This entry relates to the Quiz activity.

Your quiz may have a range of question types, including essay and/or short answer. The Essay question is the only one designed for manual grading.

Manually grade an essay question

The Manual grading report enables markers to manually grade written submissions within a quiz. This grading method is automatic for the Essay question type (irrespective of what the quiz is set to).

1. In the topic, click on the Quiz activity
   
2. Click on the Actions menu cog in the top-right corner, then select Manual grading
   
   
3. In the Questions that need grading screen, click on the grade link in the To grade column 
    
   
   
4. Use the Options section to choose which questions to mark and the order in which they appear
    
   
   
5. Underneath the options, you will see a list of student responses to be marked.
   The student's response appears in the blue box. Include your comments and a mark in the green box  
     
   
   
6. Click Save and go to next page when you have finished marking all those displayed. When you have marked all of the questions, you will be prompted to return to the Questions that need grading screen, with the responses that you marked now appearing in the Already graded column. 
     
   
   

Manually grade automatically graded questions

If you want to manually grade questions other than the essay question (eg the Short answer question type), you will have to override the automatic mark for that question. 

1. In the topic, click on the Quiz activity
   
   
2. Click on the Actions menu cog in the top right corner, then select Manual grading
   
   
   
3. Click on Also show questions that have been graded automatically (above the table of questions and grades)
   
   
4. In the next screen, find the Already graded column and click on the Update grades link
   
   
   
5. Use the Options section to choose which questions to mark and the order in which they appear
         
   
   
6. Underneath the Options, you will see a list of student responses to be marked. The student's response appears in the blue box. Include your comments and a mark in the green box. Save the changes. 
   

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Overrides are used to create multiple due dates for different students (eg different due dates for different tutorial groups, or individual due dates for each student), or to facilitate a resubmission. Overrides are not an alternative to granting an extension using the Assignment extension request tool or the Assignment grading screen.

If you want to create a group override, you may need to also set up groups in your topic. 

• Group alternative due date (override)
• User alternative due date (override)

Group alternative due date (override)

1. Open the assignment
   
   
2. Click on the cog in the top right corner of the screen and select Group overrides
   
   
3. Click on the Add group override button
   
   
4. In the next screen, choose a group from the Override group box (required)
   
   
5. Edit the relevant dates for the group you have selected. Allow submissions from, the Due date and/or Cut-off date. You can remove a date by unticking the relevant Enable box.
   
   
   
   
   Timeline block: Group override dates don't currently show to students
   
   
   
6. Click Save (if you need to enter more overrides, click Save and enter another override)
   
   

User alternative due date (override)

 This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

When you set up an assignment activity, you can choose to either automatically give students the chance to resubmit until they receive a pass mark (as specified by you) or manually control when resubmissions are given. If you are using this feature to allow resubmissions as per the Assessment Variation Procedure then it is recommended that the manual setting is used.

The resubmission feature allows both staff and students to review the full submission history (a resubmission will not overwrite a previous submission), including all submissions and feedback.

• The resubmission process
• Enable resubmissions on an assignment
• Granting a resubmission to an individual student
• How to view an earlier attempt

The resubmission process

Students, having met the criteria stated in section 6 of the Assessment Variation Procedures, can request to resubmit an assessment. Students do this by emailing you a Notification of Intent, as outlined on the resubmission page. Depending on the nature of the assessment, you may need to facilitate this resubmission through FLO.

The instructions below cover how to enable resubmissions through the assignment activity. For advice on other activities, contact your local Learning Designer.

Note: When granting a resubmission for an assignment, FLO will consider the new extension date and time as the submission due date and time for that assignment submission and not the original due date and time. In the example above, the assignment was submitted at 12.38 PM on 25 May, 2021. In the image on the left, the original assignment due date was 12.45 PM on 25 May 2021. The assignment is calculated to be about 5 minutes early. In the image on the right, the new assignment extension due date was 12.50 PM on 25 May 2021. The same assignment is then calculated to be about 10 minutes early.

The settings that enable resubmissions to occur

Important: If enabling resubmissions as per the Assessment Variation Procedure, these settings should only be changed AFTER the assignment has been marked and feedback returned to students.

1. Edit your existing assignment
   
   
2. Expand the Submission settings section
   
   
3. Select either Manually or Automatically until pass from the Attempts reopened list
   
   
   If you are using this feature to allow resubmission as per the Assessment Variation Procedure then you should choose Manually, and use the settings in the individual marking form (see instructions below: Granting a resubmission to an individual student).
   
   Note: If Automatically until pass is selected, you will need to open the Grade section of this page and configure the Grade to pass setting so that FLO knows when to re-open the submission for the student. 

4. Select the maximum number of times a student can resubmit by choosing a number (or Unlimited) for the Maximum attempts setting
   
   Note: this field is most important if using the 'Automatically until pass' option for the 'Attempts reopened' setting, as this can limit the number of times a student is able to resubmit. Configuring this field when 'Manually' is selected for the Attempts reopened setting will limit the number of times a student can resubmit.
   

Granting a resubmission to an individual student

1. Grade the student using the individual marking form (View all submissions > Grade).
   
   
2. At the bottom of the right panel is the Attempt settings section. In this section, change Allow another attempt to Yes.
   
   
   
3. If the new due date extends past the due date or cut off date, you will need to add a user override to set a new due date and cut off date.
   

How to view an earlier attempt

1. Open the individual marking form for the student (View all submissions > Grade). 
   
   
2. Scroll down to the very bottom of the panel on the right side of the screen. Click on the button titled View a different attempt.
   
   
3. Select the attempt you wish to review and click on the View button.
   
   

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

The online annotation feedback method allows you to open PDF assignments in your browser (eg Chrome, Firefox, Safari), provide comments and annotations, and save without needing to download and upload submissions into FLO.

Students can submit in either Word, Open Office (.odt) or PDF file format. If they submit in Word, FLO will generate a PDF file, as you will use PDF annotation tools to mark it up online.

• Annotate online – steps
• Add a comment to a quicklist (save time)

Annotate online – steps

When marking online, you can annotate student assignments, provide a grade and feedback all in the one screen. In the 'individual marking form' for each student, you will see the student's 'Submission status' (eg Submitted for grading – once you have graded the assignment this will change to Graded). Depending on how the assignment activity is set up, you will also see a Grade box, a Feedback comments box (if enabled), and a Feedback files box (if enabled).

1. Click on the Assignment link in your topic
   
   
2. In the next screen you will see a Grading summary – how many students have submitted, how many need grading etc. Use the Visible/Separate groups box (depending on how the assignment has been set up) to select a group you need to mark (if applicable)
   
   
   
3. Click the View all submissions button to see the list of students, and then click on an individual student's submission (Grade button). Alternatively, you can go straight to the first student assignment listed in the Grading summary screen by clicking on the Grade button (next to the View all submissions button).
   
   
   
4. To move between students, use the arrows in the Change user box (top of screen) to move to the next student's submission. You can also select a specific student from the drop-down list
    
   
   
5. Look at the bottom right side of the screen for the individual student – there are options for how the screen is displayed. Your choice will depend on what you want to do at that time – mark the submitted file, complete the feedback file (rubric, marking guide, checklist), or provide feedback and a grade. You can switch between each of these screens as you mark. How you have set up the assignment (eg with a marking guide/rubric/checklist) will determine your viewing options
    
   
   
6. The first page of the PDF submission is displayed. The annotations toolbar appears at the top of the page. You may need to click the down arrow to see all tools.
   
   
   
   The following table outlines the tools and keyboard shortcuts available for online annotation. Note: Keyboard shortcuts are activated by pressing Alt + Shift + Keyboard shortcut.

   Icon	Keyboard shortcut	Description
   	h g	h = Search comments  g = Expand/collapse all comments
   	q h	Rotate – You can use the rotate icons to change the orientation of an uploaded document, for example, if the student submitted it in landscape mode  q = Rotate 90 degrees to the left   w = Rotate 90 degrees to the right
   	z	Comments – Adds a comment box to the PDF. Once a comment has been typed into a comment box, it can be added into your comment 'quicklist' (see instructions below). Any comments in your quicklist can be inserted again by clicking the small box (top right of the comment box) and selecting from the drop-down list. To delete a comment, click in the small box and choose 'Delete comment' from the menu. Note: The colour of the comment box can be chosen using the Comment colour picker, or by using the shortcut key 'x' to select the colour picker.
   	c	Select – Used to move or deleted previously added annotations. (Deleting comments can be done using the comments tool – see above.)
   	y	Pen – Adds a freehand colour line to the submission.   Note: The colour of the freehand line can be chosen by the colour picker, or by using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
   	u	Line – Adds a coloured straight line to the submission.  Note: The colour of the line can be chosen by the colour picker, or by using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
   	i	Rectangle – Adds a coloured rectangle to the submission.  Note: The colour of the rectangle can be chosen by the colour picker, or by using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
   	o	Oval - Adds a coloured oval to the submission.  Note: The colour of the oval can be chosen by the colour picker, or by using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
   	p	Highlight – Adds a highlight line to text/images.  Note: The colour of the highlight can be chosen by the colour picker, or by using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
   	n	Stamp – Adds a stamp to the page. The stamp appearance is chosen from the stamp drop-down list. A stamp can either be simply applied by clicking the screen, or by clicking and dragging the stamp to the size you require.

   
   
   
7. To navigate between pages, either use the Previous page / Next page buttons, or select a specific page number from the drop-down list activated by selecting the current page number:
   
   
   
8. Once you have finished annotating the submission, you can insert a grade, leave feedback comments or attach feedback files on the same screen:
   
   

   Grade

    
   
   

   
   Feedback comments

   In the Feedback comments section, you can provide feedback using the HTML editor . Types of feedback  include: 

   • Text – type directly into the box provided 

   • Audio – click the Record audio icon to create a short audio file ( up to 2 minutes  long)   
      

   • Video – click the Add media icon to embed a pre-recorded video from the topic Media Vault. See  Manage topic video content with the Media Vault (Kaltura)  
      
     

   
   
   
   

   Feedback files

   
   
   
9. Save changes on the individual marking form – this will return the annotated document to the student. Note: If the assignment is hidden in the gradebook, the student will not be able to see the feedback file. Grades and feedback are only made available once the assignment is visible in the gradebook
   

Add a comment to a quicklist (save time)

Using the comment quicklist can save time when providing comments to submissions using online annotation. To save a regularly used comment to your comments quicklist, complete the following steps.

1. Select the icon in the comment box of the comment you wish to save
   
   
2. Select 'Add to quicklist' from the menu
   
   
   
3. To add this comment elsewhere on the document, add a blank comment box and select the icon in the top right corner. All previously saved comments will appear in a list. Select the comment from the quicklist
   
   

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Group assignments are used when students work on an assignment in teams and upload one submission per team. Note: Before creating your group assignment, you will need to organise your students into groups and add these groups to a grouping.  

Create a group assignment

Create an assignment (for file submissions) and make the following adjustments to the settings.

Group submission settings

Setting	Description
Students submit in groups	Set to Yes to create a group assignment (this will activate the next three settings)
Require group to make submission	If enabled (Yes), students who are not members of a group will be unable to make submissions
Require all group members submit	This setting is enabled if Require students to click the Submit button is Yes in the Submission settings. This setting controls whether every member of the group must click the Submit button, or whether one member can 'submit' on behalf of the group:  No — When one member of a group submits an assignment it will count as submitted for the whole group Yes — The assignment will not be submitted until every member of the team has clicked the Submit button (students in the group will be notified about who still needs to click the Submit button) As with individual assignments, if students forget to press the Submit button you will still be able to view and mark their assignment in draft mode. We recommend that you lock the submission to prevent changes while you are marking.
Grouping for student groups	Choose the grouping you wish to use for the group assignment. Select the grouping that you created when you organised your students into groups. Important: It is vital to have your students in the right group/grouping. If you do not include a grouping for this setting, FLO will take your entire topic as a group, so the first student to submit will be submitting for everyone and their assignment submission will be visible to everyone. If this isn't set up correctly it cannot be changed once someone submits – you need to recreate the entire assignment.

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Mahara ePortfolio is an evolving resource that records, stores and archives a student's artefacts of learning and reflection. It has the potential to demonstrate professional and personal growth, exemplify evidence-based practice and provide a planning space for future professional development needs and experiences

Create a Mahara assignment

Create an assignment (for file submissions) and make the following adjustments to the settings.

Submission settings

For Submission types:

• Untick file submissions
  
• Tick Mahara portfolio.

Locked submitted pages

Note that with any of these options, a student may at any time make a copy of their submitted work and keep editing it. Hence it is helpful to think of submitted work as a 'version' or a snapshot in time. If you need to see another version at a later time, create another Assignment dropbox.

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Create an assignment (for file submissions)

• Add an assignment activity

• General settings
• Availability settings
• Submission types settings
• Feedback types settings
• Submission settings
• Notifications settings
• Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings
• Grade settings

Add an assignment activity

1. Turn editing on using the green button available top left of screen on the topic page
    
   
   
2. Go to the module where you would like the assignment to appear
   
   
3. Click the Add an activity or resource link at the bottom of the module
   
   
   
4. Select Assignment from the Activities tab
   
   
   
5. You will be taken to the Adding a new Assignment screen where you can set the parameters (settings) for your assignment (see information below)
   

General settings

Availability settings

Submission types settings

Add a word count field to an assignment submission

Under the Submission types section, enable Word count declaration by ticking the check box:

Student view

A compulsory word count field will form part of the submission process for the assignment:

Feedback types settings

Feedback comments

The Feedback comments box enables 'rich' constructive feedback (links, video etc) using the HTML editor, and is great for overall feedback on an assessment item. 

Submission settings

Notifications settings

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Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings

Turnitin is integrated with the Assignment activity. It produces Originality reports that provide a summary of matching or similar text found between submitted work and other materials, such as online sources (eg webpages, journal articles and other electronic information).

Most of the Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings cannot be changed, however, you have the option of excluding the following elements of a paper from an Originality report:

Setting	Description
Exclude Bibliography	The default setting is No. If Yes, text appearing in the bibliography, works cited, and references sections are excluded.
Exclude Quoted Material	The default setting is No. If Yes, text appearing in the quotes of student papers can be excluded.
Exclude Small Matches	The default setting is No. If Yes, matches that are not of sufficient length can be excluded (the options available are Words or Percent – either the number of words or percentage of text to be excluded can be entered into the box that will appear underneath this field).

Note: For Turnitin to generate an Originality report, the student’s submitted file must:

• be less than 40MB
• include a minimum of 20 words
• be less than 400 pages.

If the use of text-matching for the assignment is nonsensical or will throw an error, it can be turned off (contact your local eLearning support team).

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Grade settings

Setting	Description
Grade	Select the type of grading you want to use. The options are: None – The assignment will be ungraded and worth no points, however, feedback can be given if enabled in the Feedback types settings. Scale – The assignment is graded using a non-numeric value. Choose a scale from the dropdown list (eg Non-graded Pass). If a new scale is required, contact your local eLearning support team. Point – The assignment will be graded out of a maximum number of points. This is the default setting (maximum grade = 100).
Grading method	If Scale or Point for the Grade setting is chosen, the following options are available: Simple direct grading (default setting) — This is the most used method, where a final grade and feedback is provided. Checklist | Marking guide | Rubric — These are advanced grading methods for online marking. All methods will require a template to be set up.
Grade category	Controls the category in which the assignment’s grades are placed in the gradebook.
Grade to pass	This setting determines the minimum grade required to pass. The value is used in activity and topic completion, and in the gradebook, where pass grades are highlighted in green and fail grades in red.
Anonymous submissions	Hides the identity of students from markers. Anonymous submissions settings will be locked once a submission or grade has been made in the assignment. Note: students will need to be instructed to exclude personal information (eg name, ID number) in their submission. Further information: Create an assignment with anonymous submissions
Hide grader identity from students	Hides the identity of markers from students. If enabled, the identity of markers is not shown to students when they view their feedback through the assignment link. Note: This setting does not affect the Comments link (Submission comments column) on the grading page. If you add a comment, your identity is not hidden.
Use marking workflow	If you choose Yes, the Use marking allocation setting will appear where you can choose to allocate markers to each student. Note: Allocating markers is done on the grading screen. Marking cannot commence until markers have been allocated.

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Hide assignment grades until ready for release

After creating an assignment, we strongly recommend you hide the grades. This will prevent students from seeing their grades until you are ready to release them (both in the assignment activity and in gradebook). As soon as you have created an assignment (and clicked Save and display), you will see the Grading summary screen.

You can hide the assignment grades at this point, by clicking on the eye in the Grade visibility row. Once hidden, the Grade visibility row will change.

Students can still see the assignment and details of their submission, but they won't be able to see their grades until you unhide them (see Hide and release marks/feedback to students).

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

The assignment tool in FLO can be used to deliver take-home exams. In this format, students get access to the exam question/topic at a particular time, then need to submit (either by uploading a file or by typing text directly into FLO) by the due date.

Create an assignment as a take-home exam

Create an assignment (for file submissions) and make the following adjustments to the settings:

General settings

Enter the instructions for the exam in the Description box and include any additional files if required.

Availability settings

Set the Allow submissions from date/time – this is when the exam instructions will be released to students.

Note: The Always show description box should not be ticked – this will ensure that the instructions to students only display after the Allow submissions from date/time.

Remember to set the Due date and the Cut-off date as usual (see Cut-off date/time setting additional information below).

Important: Cut-off date/time setting

If the Cut-off date is not enabled, late submission (after the Due date) is possible.

The images above depict a scenario where students are provided with the exam instructions 2 days before the Due date. The instructions in the assignment description state that ‘late submissions will not be accepted’, so the Cut-off date is the same as the Due date.

For an exam that has a strict time limit (for example, a 3-hour exam), ensure the Cut-off date is set to at least 15 minutes after the Due date to allow for last-minute technical issues. If students submit after the Due date but before the Cut-off date, their exam will be accepted but will be recorded in FLO as being late.

Student view

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Anonymous submissions hide the identity of students from markers. When marking, instead of student names, markers will see a randomly generated participant number.

It is important to be aware of the following when using anonymous submissions:

• You will need to advise students not to include their name in the file name or within the file as FLO is unable to remove this identifying information
• Providing assignment extensions, due to the hidden nature of student identification, can be tricky
• Anonymous submissions cannot be enabled once submissions have been made

Consult your eLearning support team before using anonymous submissions.

Create an assignment with anonymous submissions

Create an assignment (for file submissions) and make the following adjustments to the settings.

Grade settings

Scroll down to Anonymous submissions and change to Yes.

Note: Topic coordinators and teachers in FLO can reveal student identities, but once this is done the assignment cannot be made anonymous again.

Marking an anonymous submission

When the teaching team mark the assignment, students' names will be obscured. Each submission will be identified by a unique Participant number, for example:

Once marking is complete, the topic coordinator (or teacher) must release the grades into the gradebook. Students will not be able to access marks and feedback until this has been done.

1. Using the Grading action menu to Reveal student identities. Note: This action cannot be undone.
   

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

In some cases, assignments are iterative – students are asked to provide work for formative feedback rather than summative feedback and a mark, or students are providing drafts. In these cases, it may be appropriate to disable the Submit button.

Create an iterative assignment

Create an assignment (for file submissions) and make the following adjustments to the settings.

Submission settings

Change Require students to click the submit button to No.

Note: The benefit of setting Require students to click the submit button to Yes is that once students click submit, they will be prevented from making changes to their submission during marking. Setting Require students to click the submit button to No should be used with the knowledge that students will be able to continue editing their submission.

Once a student enters their assignment (file upload or online text) the submission status will be displayed as Submitted for grading, however, they will continue to be able to edit their submission. At no point will they need to finalise their submission.

If you want to prevent students making further submissions, you can lock individual or multiple submissions.

Availability settings

Depending on the nature of your assignment, you may want to disable the Due date and Cut-off date by removing the tick from the enable boxes. (You also have the option to Remind me to grade by.)

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

An offline assignment can be used when students do not need to upload any work into FLO – for example, when doing presentations, posters or lab books. The assignment tool can be used to manage and return marks and feedback.

The benefits of creating an offline assignment:

• Communicates assignment requirements to students
• Adds the due date to the topic calendar
• Allows for electronic management of feedback and marks

Create an offline assignment

Create an assignment (for file submissions) and make the following adjustments to the settings.

Submission settings

For Submission types, untick File submissions.

Availability settings

It may not be necessary to set a due date for offline assignments, as no submission occurs through FLO. If this is the case, you might like to untick the box next to the Due date to disable the date for the assignment. However, if a due date is noted in the Statement of Assessment Methods (SAM), you should include it in the assignment settings. If a due date is included, it will appear in the topic calendar.

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Online text assignments allow students to type their assignment directly into a text box in FLO. Online text assignments are good for assignments with small word counts or for short-answer responses. It should be noted that the text entered by students is stored in FLO and cannot be downloaded.

Create an online text assignment

Create an assignment (for file submissions) and make the following adjustments to the settings.

Submission types settings

Untick File submissions (the default setting) and tick Online text:

Note: If you want to provide students with a choice, or if the assignment requires both types of submissions, you can tick both File submissions and Online text. Students can then upload a file(s) and/or type directly into the online text box.

With the Online text option, you can set a Word limit (tick to enable) – a warning will display to students if they exceed the set word limit at the time of submission:

Feedback types settings

Set Comment inline to Yes to annotate the text the student has submitted. This will copy the submitted text into the Feedback comments box, where you can use different font, colours etc to show your mark up.

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

The best experience for students doing video assignments is for you to design the assignment submission so that students submit their video using My Media, which is part of Kaltura (the online video platform in FLO). Unlike the standard file upload option in FLO, My Media doesn't have a file size upload limit, so students won't need to compress their video files before submitting. Having to compress their video can affect the graphics and sound quality, which may make it difficult for you when watching and marking their video. Using My Media means that students will be able to provide a higher quality video file, and won't need to go through the additional stress of using a compression software prior to submission. 

Uploading to My Media can still take a little while if students have produced full-HD or very high resolution videos (which they tend to do when filming on mobile devices and/or using modern video editing software), so please encourage students to allow plenty of time for uploading and submitting. For example, testing on a high-speed home internet network and on the University network showed that uploading a 2GB video took around 20–30 minutes. Upload times depend on the speed of the internet connection students are using. 

Create a video assignment

Create an assignment (for file submissions) and make the following adjustments to the settings.

General settings

In the Description section, outline your assignment requirements for the video/s you want students to create including relevant privacy considerations. Include a link to the help documentation for students located in the FLO Student Support site: Assignment Submission > Video assignments.

Submission types settings

Essential step: Tick to enable the Online text submission type. Students will submit their video by embedding it from their My Media using the text editor. If students are only required to submit a video, you should also untick File submissions. 

 

Optional step: If students also need to submit a text document or other additional files along with their video, you will need to select File submissions and restrict the accepted file types. It's recommended that you untick any video file types, as this will ensure students can't upload their video via this method (rather than via embedding from My Media).

• Google Chrome – will display the download file in the bottom bar in the left corner. Click the arrow and select Open
  
• Mozilla Firefox – a window will display. Select Open with… and click OK
  
• Safari – the zip file is saved under Downloads
  

On Windows computers

You will need to extract the files out of the zip by clicking Extract all files in the toolbar (instructions may vary depending on what version of Windows you are using).

By leaving Show extracted files when complete ticked a window will open containing the files you extracted, ready for use.

On Mac computers

Go to Downloads and double-click on the zip file. The file will automatically be decompressed by Archive Utility into the same folder the zip file is in.

Download feedback files 

Download the grading worksheet

1. Open the assignment
   
   
2. Scroll down and click the View all submissions button
     
   
   
3. Select Download grading worksheet from the Grading action menu (at the top of the screen)
   
   
   
4. To open the grading worksheet:

• Google Chrome – will display the download file in the bottom bar in the left corner. Click the arrow and select Open
• Mozilla Firefox – a window will display. Select Open with… and click OK
• Safari – go to Downloads and double click on the csv file
  
  

5. The grading worksheet is not a zip file and therefore you will not need to extract anything. Save the grading worksheet in a location you will be able to remember
   
   

Next step

 This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Removing a source from a similarity report will 'recalculate' the similarity index without consideration to the removed source in question. This feature is useful when a paper has been submitted to Turnitin multiple times, and the originality report is reporting a high match (eg 100%) to the previous submission. Removing a source from a similarity report provides a clearer similarity index (percentage). 

Steps

1. Open the assignment and click on the View all submissions button
   
   
2. Click on the percentage to load the Turnitin Feedback Studio document viewer
   
   By default the Filter and Settings will load
   
   
3. Click the graph icon to load All sources
   
   
   
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Exclude sources button
   
   
   
5. Select the sources you wish to exclude
   
   
6. Click on the Exclude button to save your changes.
   
   
   

Your report will then recalculate (excluding the sources you selected).