The Assignment activity in FLO allows teachers to collect work from students, review it and provide feedback, including grades. The work students submit is visible only to the teacher, not to other students, unless a group assignment is set up (see link below). For students, the assignment activity is generally referred to as the assignment dropbox, as this is where they upload their file/s for marking.

All student assignments generated in electronic form should be submitted by the student and returned to the student electronically (see assessment policy).

When students submit their assignment through FLO, there is no need for them to attach a cover sheet. FLO records their name, FAN, email address, exact date and time of submission, and by default provides them with an academic integrity statement that they must agree to before submitting their assignment (depending on the purpose of the assignment, you may want to disable this in the settings).

1. Plan

For considerations and questions, you might ask when planning/designing for assignments submitted in FLO using the Assignment activity (dropbox):

• Benefits of the assignment tool (PDF file)
• Planning assignments (submission) decision tree (PDF file)
  
• Assignment – planning questions

2. Build

The assignment purpose will determine the settings you use for the assignment activity.

• Create an assignment (for file submissions)
• Create a group assignment 
• Create a video assignment
• Create an iterative assignment
• Create an assignment as a take-home exam
• Create an offline assignment
• Create an online text assignment
• Create an assignment with anonymous submissions
• Create a Mahara assignment
  

Feedback methods

How do you set up your assignment to reflect the feedback method/s you want to use? When reviewing assignments, teachers can leave feedback comments (including short audio / video files using Kaltura) and upload files such as marked-up student submissions, documents with comments or spoken audio feedback (if marking in Word / PDF format offline). 

• Feedback methods and assignment set-up (PDF file)
• Set up a feedback template for offline or online marking
  

3. Test

Once you have set up the assignment, ask your local eLearning support team to check it for you (especially if this is the first time you have set up this activity, or if you are trying a new approach to assignments). It is best to amend mistakes before students submit their assignments.

4. Administer

Receive and manage assignments 

• Manage student assignments (for marking) (includes workflow) 
• Manage individual student assignments (revert a submission to draft, lock a submission, deduct marks for lateness) 
• Grant extensions using: 
  
• Assignment extension tool (formal method) 
• Assignment grading screen (administrative reasons) 
  
• Add a group or user alternative due date (override) (to create multiple due dates)
  
• Allow students to resubmit an assignment
  

Mark assignments 

A topic coordinator/teacher may provide a marking guide (this could also be called a rubric or feedback form) in the assignment activity by:

• adding it to the assignment activity as a file (Word/editable PDF) (for offline marking) OR
• creating an online marking guide, rubric or checklist (for online marking)

Text-matching software (Turnitin)

• Supporting academic integrity through text-matching software
• Interpreting the Turnitin similarity/originality report
• Exclude sources in a Turnitin originality report

Return assignments

• Upload marked assignments, feedback files and grading worksheet (offline marking) 
• Upload a feedback file for a single student (eg late submission)
• Hide and release marks/feedback to students (offline and online) 

5. Review

How did your assignment activity go? Would you set up the activity differently next time around? Do you want to mark differently (eg using an online marking guide)? Talk to colleagues and/or your local eLearning support team to get ideas for improvement.

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Once students have submitted their assignments, you can manage individual or multiple submissions at the same time. You may need to do one or more of the following actions.

• Revert a student assignment submission to draft (pre marking)
  
• Lock a student assignment submission (pre marking)
  
• Deduct marks for lateness (during marking)
  

See also Upload a feedback file for a single student (eg late submission).

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

• Manage the list of student assignments
• Manage large numbers of student assignments
• Use the assignment marking workflow

Manage the list of student assignments

Manage large numbers of student assignments

When assessing work in Mahara, consider how you will provide feedback to students. If work has been submitted through the Assignment tool, you have two 'locations' where your interaction happens: in Mahara (through Comments) and in FLO (through the normal channels of assignment feedback). You will probably need to use a mix of both, as appropriate to your context. 

• Commenting in Mahara
• Providing feedback and marks in FLO
• Saving work as a PDF
  

Commenting in Mahara

When in a student's submitted Mahara assignment you are able to interact using the comments functions, provided the student has not turned comments off. Each page has a comments field, and some items of content also have comments enabled (Journal entries, Notes and files). As a visitor to the student's ePortfolio, you can leave comments here, but note that these comments are then managed by the student - they can choose to delete them if they wish.

Comments in Mahara 'give' the student something they can use in their portfolio as part of their portfolio, for example:

• praise for work well done
• useful extra information, or
• evidence of you having been there

Providing feedback and marks in FLO

Feedback that relates to your judgement on the quality of the work submitted and justifies a grade given is formal and should occur in FLO. This acts as a record of your thinking should there be a grade challenge. 

Saving work as a PDF

In some situations, you may need to save a submitted page as a PDF. This is an extra step and is not required for assessment records. However, you may choose to do this for:

• a record: if a formal record of the work is required, e.g. for accrediting bodies
• annotation: you want to annotate a page with comments (mirroring what you may do with a traditional assignment)
• research: the page is a research artefact
• example: the page is an example of work, intended to be shared or presented with others 

Remember to seek and gain the necessary consent if you are saving a Page for purposes other than assessment. 

To save as a PDF: 

1. Click on three dots on the top right corner of the Page
2. Choose Print
   
3. This will open your computer's printing screen. Go to the destination box and select a PDF option. The name of this option(s) can vary but may be called 'Save to PDF', 'Adobe PDF', or something similar.
   
   

The video submission is only available for online streaming so a reliable internet connection is required. Marking a video assignment is very similar to marking a standard assignment online, please refer to Mark online section in Assignment - main entry.

Tips for marking a video assignment

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

The marking workflow can be used by:

• Markers to keep track and specify the stage they are at in the grading of their assignments
• Topic Coordinators to monitor the progress of the markers and coordinate the release of grades to students.
• Topic coordinators to use marking allocation to allocate markers to specific assignments (optional)

For marking workflow to work successfully, additional work is required from both the markers and the topic coordinator through the marking process. As such, the benefits of marking workflow are only realised in larger topics where there are multiple markers.

In small and medium-sized topics, or in topics with fewer markers, it is more efficient to use email or 1 on 1 communication between the teaching team, and to use a different method to release grades and feedback.

• Enabling marking workflow and marking allocation
• Using marking allocation
  
• Allocate a marker to individual students
• Allocate a marker to a group of students
• Using marking workflow when grading assignments
• Progress a single submission through the workflow
• Progress multiple submissions through the workflow
  

Getting into the electronic mindset is about looking at the different phases of the assignment process. In setting up the assignment activity, the main questions and considerations are around:

• How will students submit their work?
• How do you intend to mark the work?
• How will you return feedback and marks?
• How will you provide support?

Answers to these questions/considerations will determine what settings you apply in FLO and the processes you use.

How will students submit their work?

• What do you want your students to submit?
  • File (Word/PDF etc), video, Mahara ePortfolio creation, nothing as it is a practical assessment.
  • Video submissions should be made via Kaltura and not a direct upload of the video.
  • Instructions are available for each different submission type.
    
    
• If submitting files, consider how many, maximum file size, and what file types you can accept.
  • This will have a bearing on how you will mark and provide feedback.
  • Set your preferences within the submission types settings.
    
    
• Is this a group assessment with the group submitting a single piece of work or do you want the group to collaborate before submitting an individual piece of work?
  • Creating a group collaboration space is different from creating a group assessment (where a single piece of work is submitted for all group members).
  • If you set up a group assessment, it cannot be changed once a submission has been made.
  • If no group has been applied, the whole cohort will be deemed a group and the first submission will be visible to all students.
  • Do you want one group member to be able to submit for everyone or would you like one member to upload the file and all other members to confirm they accept that file as the submission?
  • Check you have the correct settings for your situation.
    
    
• Will students be allowed to continue editing their submission?
  • If students need to submit a draft of their work, you may want them to continue working on their submission. In this instance, you can create an iterative assignment.
  • If you want to prevent students from making any further changes to their submission you can require them to click the submit button to finalise their assessment.
  • If students need to upload multiple files, they can leave their submission in draft mode until all required files are uploaded. They can then click the submit button to finalise their submission.
    
    
    

How do you intend to mark the work?

• Do you want to mark established groups of students?
  • For established groups, you can use Student Two groups or user-created groups. Student Two groups will be updated as students move around. You will need to update User-created groups manually within the FLO site.
  • Adding the correct groups/groupings within the Common module settings will allow the selection of individual groups (eg tutorial, workshop).
    
    
• Do you want to mark random groups of students?
  • Turn on Marking workflow and Marking allocation in the assignment tool grade settings. This allows you to nominate markers for individual or groups of students.
  • Marking allocation cannot be used without Marking workflow.
  • Marking workflow shows students the marking status of their assessment. This status needs to be manually updated by the staff member marking the work, for each assessment they mark. It is not an automated process.
    
    
• For group assessments, will you provide a shared mark and feedback to all members or individual marks and feedback to each group member?
  • There are three methods of marking group assignments offline.
  • You can also mark group assignments online.
    
    
• Will you be marking known students or using anonymous submissions?
  • If using anonymous submissions, advise your students not to include their name in the file name or within their submission so as not to identify themselves.
  • Providing extensions can be tricky due to the hidden nature of the student’s identity.
  • Anonymous submissions must be activated before any submissions are made.
    
    
• Will you and your team have an internet connection whilst marking?
  • If you will not have access to a permanent internet connection offline marking will be easier. You can bulk download and upload submissions, feedback files and marks. Note, you will need to be online to view Turnitin reports and to upload/download documents to/from FLO, but not whilst you mark the submissions. Group assessments can also be marked offline.
  • If you will have a permanent internet connection, you could use online marking. This can be achieved via annotating PDFs within the grading interface or by entering marks and feedback into an online rubric, marking guide, or checklist. Group assessments can also be marked online.
    
    
• How will you provide feedback?
  • Within the feedback types settings, you can turn on or off feedback comments, annotate PDF, feedback files, and commenting inline.
  • If marking offline, you can:
    • annotate MS Word documents
    • annotate PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
    • set up a feedback file for downloading/uploading.
  • If marking online, you can:
    • annotate PDF files within the grading interface
    • set up an online rubric, marking guide, or checklist.
  • As well as providing feedback in text format using one of the above methods, you can also include short audio/video files using Kaltura.
  • You can provide feedback within group assessments either offline or online.
    
    
• How will you grade the assessment: points, letter grades, or with a scale?
  • There may be a course-wide decision regarding grades. It would be worth checking with your course or topic coordinator before setting up your assessment.
  • When entering the grade settings, consider what will make the most sense for students.
  • If marking in points, you do not need to mark out of the same points value as the weighting, for example, an essay can be marked out of 100 and weighted at 30% toward the final grade. Gradebook will perform all the required calculations.
  • Within quizzes, consider the number and style of questions. Twenty simple questions can be marked out of 20. Twenty complex questions, each with multiple parts, should be marked accordingly.
  • If you want to display letter grades to students, you still need to enter points for the assessment.
  • If displaying letter grades to students:
    • you could mark in increments of 5 rather than increments of 1
    • avoid giving half marks. If the total is 0.5 below the next grade bracket the incorrect grade is displayed, for example, 64.5 is displayed as P rather than CR as the value is not rounded up.
      
      
• Will you deduct marks for lateness?
  • Check with your topic or course coordinator to see if you have a course-wide agreement on how this is processed before you proceed.
  • You can adjust a grade if required.
    
    
    

How will you return feedback and marks?

• Will you be using an online rubric, an online marking guide, or feedback files?
  • Online rubrics and marking guides offer a very efficient way to return marks and feedback to students, especially if the assessment is completed outside of FLO.
  • Feedback files can be returned in bulk or for a single student. They are useful if you and your team want to mark online.
    
    
• Do you want to display letter grades rather than numerical marks?
  • There may be a course-wide decision regarding grades. It would be worth checking with your course or topic coordinator before releasing anything to students.
  • If you want to display letter grades to students, you still need to enter points for the assessment and change the display type within Gradebook.
    
    
• If displaying letter grades to students:
  • you could mark in increments of 5 rather than increments of 1
  • avoid giving half marks. If the total is 0.5 below the next grade bracket the incorrect grade is displayed, for example, 64.5 is displayed as P rather than CR as the value is not rounded up.
    
    
• Do you intend to moderate marks within your team before returning them to students?
  • Make sure the grades are hidden from students before any of your team begin marking so as not to inadvertently release them before you intended.
    
    
• How will you release marks/feedback to students?
  • In most instances, good practice is to release marks/feedback to all students at the same time. Make sure marks/feedback are hidden until you are ready to release them.
  • If students are completing the assessment at different times (eg placement) you may want to release marks/feedback as they become available. In this instance do not hide the grades from students and the marks/feedback will be accessible as soon as the marker enters them into FLO.
    
    
    

How will you provide support?

• Do your students know how to use the FLO tool you have chosen for your assessment?
  • Link to FLO Student Support resources from assessment instructions, especially for video assessments.
  • Clearly explain how the tool will function for each assessment (eg what type of file is expected, how many files are expected, what is the required word count, etc).
  • Try to provide students with an opportunity to practice using the tool before their assessment. This could be in an earlier topic.
    
    
• Will you discuss the assessment task and rubric/marking guide with your team before the assessment begins?
  • It is a good idea to ensure all members of your teaching team understand both the task and how it will be marked before the assessment is released to students.
  • This will ensure everyone provides the same information to students to eliminate any confusion.
  • It is good practice to produce a short video explaining the assessment task and rubric for both students and staff, especially if you have a large teaching team. Everyone hears the same instructions.
    
    
• Does your teaching team know how to use the FLO tool you have chosen for your assessment?
  • If you have new staff members, are using different features within a tool (eg marking workflow), or are using a less common tool (eg Self and peer assessment) make sure your team knows how to use the tool, both for marking and to answer students' questions.
  • If any of your team need assistance, you can refer them to relevant pages within these FLO Staff Support (FLOSS) pages or ask them to contact their local eLearning support team.
    
    
    

The following assignment setting guides focus on ways you might want to use the Assignment activity.

• Create an assignment (for file submissions)
• Create a group assignment 
• Create a video assignment
• Create an iterative assignment
• Create an assignment as a take-home exam
• Create an offline assignment
• Create an online text assignment
  
• Create a Mahara eportfolio assignment (see 4.2)

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Quick grading allows you to enter a grade and a feedback comment directly on the grading screen that displays all submissions. If you are providing a mark/grade and brief text-based feedback AND you have relatively low numbers of students, then quick grading is a good option. If you wish to provide a more detailed or formatted feedback comment consider using the individual marking form.

Steps

 This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Flinders University is committed to the principles of academic integrity:

• Honesty
• Trust
• Fairness
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Courage

Breaches of academic integrity include:

• Plagiarism
• Collusion
• Cheating (including exam and contract cheating)
• Fraud (including fabrication of data)

To promote academic integrity

• Encourage students to visit the academic integrity website
• Designing assessment to support academic integrity (Tip sheet)
  
• Make sure students know the meaning of academic integrity
  Visit the Academic integrity for students to discover resources available for students
• Develop student’s academic writing and research skills
  Refer students to the Student Learning Support Service or Library help desk
• Construct course and assessment design that promotes learning and discourages misconduct
  Academic integrity for staff is a FLO site that contains resources to support course and assessment design, a self-paced online tutorial, and a practice text-matching software dropbox
• Use text-matching software
  

  Flinders University has a licence for using text-matching software via Flinders Learning Online (FLO). Staff are reminded that it is their responsibility to ensure that they are familiar with the use of text matching software and the interpretation of text-matching similarity reports, as, all text-based student assignments are subject to text-matching. In special circumstances exemptions may be granted. A self-paced online tutorial is available for staff to familiarise themselves with general principles and practices around academic integrity as well as the interpretation of similarity reports produced by text-matching software. This tutorial is equivalent to the face-to-face academic integrity workshop that is offered by the University.
  
  

• Visit the Academic integrity for staff FLO site
• View the self-paced tutorial
  
• Contact your eLearning support team
  
  

• Familiarise yourself with the Academic integrity policy
• Read the Managing student academic integrity issues page
  

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Questions/problems

• A student claimed they submitted their assignment, but their submission is not in the list 
  
• A student submitted the wrong file for their assignment - what can I do?
  
• My students can't submit their assignments
  
• Why are my students' assignments showing as a draft?
  
• I have a group assignment but when I download all submissions I am getting one assignment for every student. Why?
  
• My marking guide isn't calculating grades properly
• I have granted an assignment extension for one of my students, but they tell me that there is no submission button. Why?
  
• I’ve marked the assignment for my tutorial group and put the marks into the grading worksheet, but it won't upload
  
• How do I exclude sources in a Turnitin originality report?
  
• How do I refresh a Turnitin report?
  
• A student's assignment shows that it has been 'Submitted for grading', however, I can't see their file, only their word count declaration 
• I can't modify a grade in my assignment

A student claimed they submitted their assignment, but their submission is not in the list 

You can see whether a student attempted to submit an assignment by looking at the FLO logs.

Steps

1. In your topic, click on the assignment link
   
   
   
2. Click on the Topic Management link 
   
   
   
3. Click on Logs
   
   
   
4. Choose the student's name from the All participants
   
   
5. Make sure the date is set to All days
   
   
   
6. Click on Get these logs

A student submitted the wrong file for their assignment - what can I do?

You can use the revert the submission to draft functionality to allow the student to delete the file, upload a new file and submit.

My students can't submit their assignments

There are a few reasons why your students might not be able to submit their assignments:

• Students can't see the assignment if it is hidden. To solve this problem, unhide the assignment.
  
• Students won't have a submit button past the cut-off date. To solve this problem, check if the cut-off date is set correctly, or if the student is late either change the cut-off date to allow for submission or give the student an extension.
  
• Students won't be able to submit certain file types if you have restricted the file type options. To solve this problem, ask students to submit the correct file type, or add their file type in your restricted file type list, or remove the restriction on file types.
  
• Students won't be able to submit files that exceed the file size limit. To solve this problem, ask students to submit a smaller file or change the file size limit.
  
• Students can experience problems submitting files if their internet connection is not reliable. To solve this problem, ask students to submit from a different location or internet connection. 

Why are my students' assignments showing as a draft?

Student assignments may show as a draft because:

• You have changed the assignment setting for 'Require students click submit button' from the default 'Yes' to 'No' (if all student assignments are submitted as draft)

• A student has not clicked the 'Submit' button when they submit their assignment to FLO (if one or only a few student assignments are showing as draft). This may be because the student simply did not see the button or did not realise they needed to click it.
  
  To solve this problem, once you are ready to start marking you may want to prevent these students from making further submission updates by locking the submission so that you can ensure you are marking the correct version. 
  

Note: if the student did not submit they also did not agree to an academic integrity statement. If this is relevant for your assignment, you will have to ask the student agree to the statement and press the submit button.

If you have concerns whether or not the student submits a different file (which would be the same as a late submission), you can download the draft file and compare this with the submitted file. 

I have a group assignment but when I download all submissions I am getting one assignment for every student. Why?

The download all submissions option for group assignments downloads one assignment per student, rather than one per group. Unwanted assignments can be deleted from the downloaded zip, or alternatively you can use the online marking interface.

My marking guide isn't calculating grades properly

Your marking guide may not be calculating grades properly because it scales the lowest grade to 0. So if you scale your marks from 1-10, it will recalculate '1' to 0. To solve this problem you must use a scale that starts at 0.

I have granted an assignment extension for one of my students, but they tell me that there is no submission button. Why?

The most likely cause is that the extension date is after the assignment cut-off date. There are several dates in an assignment’s settings. Some or all of these dates can be enabled. These are:

• Allow submissions from: Use this if you want to stop students submitting before a given date.
  
• Due date: This date shows to students on their topic home page and on the assignment summary page.
  This is when the assignment is due. Submissions will still be allowed after this date but any assignments submitted are marked as late unless students have been granted an extension. To prevent submissions after a certain date, set the assignment cut-off date.
• Cut-off date: This date is not shown to students.
  If set, the assignment will not accept submissions after this date. An extension can be given beyond the cut-off date; however, late submissions will not be accepted.

Tip: When granting extensions, check what your cut-off date is, and if necessary advise the student that they will not be able to submit late. Alternatively, change the cut-off date for the assignment, or apply a ‘User override’ for the student (Assignment > Assignment administration).

I’ve marked the assignment for my tutorial group and put the marks into the grading worksheet, but it won't upload

There are two common causes:

1. You have typed the marks into the wrong column. The grading worksheet is a CSV file that opens in Excel. The columns are a standard width and some of the contents seem to spill over into the next column. Drag the divider between column headings to make the columns wider so you can see where the grades should be. In this situation FLO wants you to ’Confirm changes in grading worksheet’ but nothing is listed, just a Cancel button.
   
2. You have already uploaded the annotated marked assignments and/or feedback files. In this situation, you will get a list of errors. ’Error: Grade for student name has been modified more recently in FLO so this grade from the offline worksheet will not update the latest grade in FLO’. If so, after choosing your upload file, you will need to tick the box Allow updating records that have been modified more recently in FLO than in the spreadsheet. See Upload marked files and grading worksheet for more information.
   

How do I exclude sources in a Turnitin originality report?

Removing a source from an Originality Report will 'recalculate' the similarity index without consideration to the removed source in question. This feature is often used when a paper has been submitted twice or more to Turnitin, and the Originality Report is reporting a high match (eg 100%) to a previous submission. Removing a source from an Originality Report may provide a more clear similarity index (percentage). See the entry Exclude sources in a Turnitin originality report.

How do I refresh a Turnitin report?

If a Turnitin report doesn't generate, Contact your local eLearning support team.

A student's assignment shows that it has been 'Submitted for grading', however, I can't see their file, only their word count declaration

If the assignment has the Word count declaration submission type enabled, students can finalise their submission without uploading a file (likewise if the assignment is set up to accept online text). 

If this occurs, revert the student's submission to draft to allow them to upload their file.

I can't modify a grade in my assignment

If you have entered grades directly into gradebook, they override the grade in the assignment and can no longer be modified in the activity. 

There are two ways in Gradebook to remove overrides from grade items:

• through the Single view screen
• through the Grader report 

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

To upload feedback files, you will need to compress them into a zip file first AND ensure they have the correct naming convention (all files starting with FAN_ for example demo1234_feedback.docx). The zip file should only contain feedback files that you want returned to students. All feedback files within a zip file will be returned to the student regardless of whether they have been changed since downloading. Therefore, delete any unwanted feedback files from the zip file being returned to FLO.

If uploading a feedback file or marked assignment for a single student, it is not necessary to zip the file first. 

• Upload marked assignments/feedback files (all students)
  
• Upload the grading worksheet (all students)
• Upload a feedback file for a single student (eg late submission)
  

Upload marked assignments/feedback files

To create the zip file:

1. Select the files you wish to upload
   
   
2. On Windows computer:
   Right-click on one of the files and choose Send to, then Compressed (zipped) folder. The zipped folder will by default use the name of one of the students' files (you can rename this if you wish)
   
   
   On Mac computer:
   Right-click on one of the files and choose Compress Items. The zipped folder will be named Archive.zip by default
   
   
   
3. In FLO, click on the assignment link and then click the View all submissions button
   
   
4. Select Upload marked assignments and feedback files from the Grading action menu (top of the screen)
   
   
   
5. In this screen, you can use either the Choose a file... button to navigate to your zip file or simply drag and drop it into the box. The zip file will appear in the box once it has been added
   
   
   
6. Click the Import feedback file(s) button
   
   
7. You will be provided with a detailed list of the file changes being made. Here you can see the summary of files added. Click the Confirm button
   
   
   
8. You will see a summary of how many users have had feedback updated, how many existing feedback files have been updated and how many files were added
   
   
   
9. Click the Continue button to go back to the grading screen where you will see that the feedback files have been added. Note: Any feedback files with the same name will overwrite any existing files
   
   Important: Even though the marked assignment and feedback files have been uploaded, they will not be released to students until the students have been formally graded.

Upload the grading worksheet

The grading worksheet should not be zipped prior to uploading. It is a separate process.

1. Click on the assignment link and then click the View all submissions button
   
   
2. Select Upload grading worksheet from the Grading action menu (top of the screen)
   
   
   
3. This will take you to the Upload grading worksheet page. The grading worksheet should not be zipped. It should be uploaded in the same format you downloaded it (csv).
   

   Check that the Separator option is set to Comma.

   You can either use the Choose a file... button or drag and drop your grading worksheet into FLO. The file will then appear in the box:
   
   

   Important: If grades were entered into FLO after the grading worksheet was downloaded and you wish to change them, make sure you click the checkbox Allow updating records that have been modified more recently in FLO than in the spreadsheet. If you do not, then the more recent marks will not be changed. Otherwise, leave as default (unticked).
   
   
4. To commit the changes, click the button 'Upload grading worksheet' button.
   
   
5. FLO will then provide you with a detailed list of the changes to be made:
   
   
   
6. Click the Confirm button and FLO will provide a summary of changes
   
   
   
7. Click the Continue button to go back to the grading screen where you will see the uploaded marks and feedback
   
   

Upload a feedback file for a single student (eg late submission)

Sometimes, primarily in the case of late submissions, it may be necessary to grade a small number of individual assignments. Feedback files and marked assignments are typically uploaded in bulk as a zipped file in the View all submissions display. However, a single feedback file or marked assignment need not be zipped and can instead be uploaded via the individual marking form.

1. Click the assignment link and then the View all submissions button
   
   
2. Locate the student for whom you would like to upload a feedback file
   
   
3. Click the Grade button beside the student's name
   
   
4. Scroll down to the Feedback files upload area
   
   
   
5. Upload your feedback file by dragging and dropping it into the box, or browse for the file by clicking the Add file button
   
   
6. Click the Save changes button

This entry relates to the Assignment activity.

Using a grading worksheet is part of the offline marking process. 

First, you need to download the grading worksheet (Offline grading worksheet will need to be enabled in the Feedback types settings of the assignment).

Steps

1. Once you have done the steps to download the grading worksheet (see link above), open the file (the file is a CSV file type, the program is Excel). You will see a table containing student data as well as columns for Grade and Feedback comments
   
   
   
2. Expand the columns for easier viewing – Click in the top left corner of the sheet, which selects the whole sheet, then put your cursor on the line between any two columns (A|B, C|D etc) and double click – this should automatically expand all columns so data is viewable
   
   
   

3. As you mark the student submissions, a mark can be entered in the Grade column and if desired brief feedback can be entered into the Feedback comments column (optional). The Feedback comments column may be left empty if you plan to upload feedback as files. These are the only two columns that should be modified and it is important that other table sections are not modified in any way.
   

   These two columns provide an alternative to Quick grading directly into FLO
    

4. If you have set up your assignment to use a predefined scale rather than simple grading, enter the name of the level awarded (eg Distinction) into the Grading worksheet. Note that scales must be entered exactly as they appear in FLO and are case sensitive
   
   

1. Plan

2. Build

You have planned your attendance activity. Now you are ready to set up your attendance activity. 

• Step 1: Create an attendance activity
• Step 2: Add session(s)
• To create sessions to allow students to record their attendance, see Attendance - Student self recording.
• Step 3: Set up grade acronym, description and points

Step 1: Create an attendance activity

1. Click Turn Edit On button
   
   
   
2. Click Add an activity or resource to open the activity chooser
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Attendance icon
   
   
   
   
4. Name the attendance sheet (eg Tutorial Attendance)
   
   
   
   
5. Assign a grade type other than None to create an entry for this activity in the Gradebook. You are advised to select Point, not Scale, for the grade type. If you wish to use Scale, select Point as the grading method until all attendances are marked (ie all data is in the Gradebook), then change the grading type to Scale. Keep the grades hidden until you change to Scale (close the eye for this activity in the Gradebook), then release the grades. Students will still be able to view their attendance during the topic 
   
6. To mark attendance for a group of tutorials, under Group mode select Visible groups. Under Grouping, select the appropriate option. If your topic has scheduled tutorials in the timetable, you should see an option starting with the topic code and ending with 'Tutorial' (for example, NURS1003_2018_NS1_Tutorial)
   
   
   
7. Click Save and display 

Step 2: Add session(s)

1. Click the Add session tab
   
2. There are two types of sessions: All students and Group of students. Ability to add different types depends on activity group mode (refer to step 6 under 'Create an attendance activity')
   • In group mode "No groups" you can add only All students sessions.
   • In group mode "Visible groups" you can add All students and Group of students sessions.
   • In group mode "Separate groups" you can add only Group of students sessions. 

Note: If you want to link the sessions to the Student Management groups (for example, Tutorial or Practical), add your sessions using Group of students. This will also keep the list of students within the groups updated via the integration.

Click and hold the Ctrl key to select multiple groups.

3. Fill in details about the session you wish to record attendance for
   
   
   
4. To create a repeating series of sessions (eg weekly tutorials), open the Multiple sessions section, and tick 'Repeat the session above as follows'. Select the day the specific session repeats on (if a tutorial session this will most likely be one day per week), frequency (Repeat every) (again, if a tutorial session this will most likely be one day per week), and session end date (Repeat until):
         
   
   
   
5. Click Add
   
   
6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 to add sessions if required 

Step 3: Set up grade acronym, description and points

By default, the status descriptions are Present, Excused, Late, Absent and the allocated points are 2, 1, 1, 0 respectively.

1. Click the Status set tab
   
   
2. To update an existing text/value, select the text box and enter a new text/value
   
   
3. To set up a new status, fill in the line starting with an * and click the Add button
   
   
4. Click Update
   

3. Test

4. Administer

To administer your attendance activity, you can use a variety of functions (listed below). 

• Mark attendance for my topic
• Change a student's attendance record
• Edit sessions

Mark attendance for my topic

1. Enter the Attendance activity
   
   
2. Make sure the Sessions tab is selected
   
   
   
3. To mark attendance by group (for example Tutorial group), select the dropdown list under Sessions
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Take attendance icon next to mark the session
   
   
   
   
5. Give each student a mark:
   
   P (present) - worth 2 points
   E (excused) - worth 1 point
   L (late) - worth 1 point
   A (absent) - worth 0 point.
   
   You can also enter remarks for each.  These grades will be available in the gradebook.
   
   If the activity is set to 'visible', students will be able to view their status and any remarks
   
   
   
   
6. Click Save attendance

Change a student's attendance record

1. Locate the session you wish to alter, and click the green Change attendance icon.
   
   
   
2. Update the attendance record and click Save attendance

Edit sessions

1. To edit a session, click the Edit session icon
   
   
   
2. To delete a session, click the Delete session icon
   
   

5. Review

How did your attendance activity go? Would you set up the activity differently next time? Talk to your colleagues and/or your local eLearning support team to get ideas for improvement.

 This entry relates to the Attendance activity.

• Set up grade acronym, description, points and options specific to student self-recording attendance
  
• Add session(s)
• Create repeating sessions
• Student self-recording options
• Managing attendance
• Session(s) with QR code enabled and password protected
• QR Code scanner on mobile devices
• Session(s) with automatic marking

Set up grade acronym, description, points and options specific to student self-recording attendance

By default, the status descriptions are Present, Excused, Late, Absent and the allocated points are 2, 1, 1, 0 respectively. 

Click the Status set tab 

  

To update an existing text/value, select the text box and enter a new text/value


To set up a new status, fill in the line starting with an * and click the Add button


Two options are specific to student self-recording of attendance:
• Available for students (minutes) – Enter the number of minutes after the session starts that this status is available. If empty, this status will always be available, If set to 0 it will always be hidden to students. Refer to the screenshot below for an example of how to restrict the first 10 minutes of the session for students to mark their attendance as Present 
  
  
  
• Automatically set when not marked – In a session's setting, if automatic marking has been set to 'Set unmarked at end of session', the selected status takes effect if a student has not marked their own attendance. Refer to screenshot below for an example where students are marked as Absent if they have not marked their own attendance.
  
  
  
Click Update 

Add session(s)

1. Click the Add session tab 
   
   
   
2. There are two types of sessions: All students and Group of students. Ability to add different types depends on activity group mode (refer to step 6 under Create an attendance activity)
   • In group mode "No groups" you can add only All students sessions.
   • In group mode "Visible groups" you can add All students and Group of students sessions.
   • In group mode "Separate groups" you can add only Group of students sessions. 

* If you want to link the sessions to the Student Management groups (for example, Tutorial or Practical), add your sessions using Group of students. This will also keep the list of students within the groups updated via the integration.

Click and hold the Ctrl key to select multiple groups.

3. Fill in details about the session you wish to record attendance for

Create repeating sessions

Student self-recording options

1. To allow students to record their attendance, go to the Student recording section
   
   
2. Tick Allow students to record own attendance
   
   
3. Under Automatic marking, choose one of the following options
• Disabled – Students will need to access the Attendance activity and mark themselves as Present
• Yes – Students will be automatically marked depending on their first access to the topic
• Set unmarked at end of session – Any students who have not marked their attendance will be set to the unmarked status selected. (Note: For this option, the unmarked status needs to be set first before you can add the session(s))  
  
  
4. Under Student password, you can enter a custom password or tick Random password for the system to automatically create a random password. There is also the option Include QR code which displays a QR code containing a URL that students can scan with a mobile device to take them directly to the page where they record their attendance (see instructions below – this happens just before or during class time)
   
   
5. Click Show more... to see more options
   
   
6. Under Require network address, you can restrict attendance recording to particular subnets by specifying a comma-separated list of partial or full IP addresses. Untick this option if it is not relevant
   
   
7. Under Prevent students sharing IP address, select Yes to prevent students from using the same device to take attendance for other students
   
   
8. Click Add
   
   
9. Add session(s) for other groups of students if required   

Managing attendance

Sessions with QR code enabled and password protected 

For sessions where Automatic marking has been set to either Disabled or Set unmarked at end of session, the Include QR code option is ticked, and a password has been entered manually or randomly generated, you can display a QR code containing a URL that students can scan with a mobile device. 

To display the QR code:

1. Select the Sessions tab
   
   
   
2. The list displays sessions in the current week by default. To see all sessions, click the All button
   
   
   
3. Click the key icon next to the session
   
   
   
4. Click Show QR code
   
   

Note: The QR code is unique and specific for each session. When students scan the QR code with their mobile device, it takes them directly to the page where they record their attendance, and fills in the password for them too. They only need to select the status 'Present' and record their attendance. 

To view attendance:

1. Click the green icon next to the session
   
   
   
2. In this case, the remarks contain the text 'Self-recorded'. You can change a student's attendance status at this point if required
   

QR code scanner for mobile devices 

• iOS - iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 11 or newer has QR code recognition built into the camera app. More information at Scan a QR code with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. For older versions of iOS, search the app store using keywords such as 'QR code' to find free QR code scanners.
  
• Android - The Google Lens app supports scanning of QR codes. Download it from the Google Play store.

Sessions with automatic marking

1. Select the Sessions tab
   
   
   
2. The list displays sessions in the current week by default. To see all sessions, click the All button
   
   
   
3. Click the green icon next to the session to view the attendance
   
   
   
4. In this case, the remarks contain the text 'system auto recorded'. You can change a student's attendance status at this point if required
   
   

1. Plan  |  2. Build  |  3. Test  |  4. Administer  |  5. Review  ||  Support  

Questions/problems

• I've marked attendance incorrectly for the wrong session

I've marked attendance incorrectly for the wrong session

Once attendance has been marked, unfortunately it is not possible to undo it. You could either:

• Delete the session and create a new session, or
• Mark the incorrect attendance as 'Excused' and enter a remark

Audio can be a powerful tool to use, allowing you to convey information in a more personable way, or allowing students to improve their language skills by listening to native speakers. 

You can record short snips of audio (up to two minutes in length) inside FLO, and add them to any page, label, book, forum, or any activity’s description. Note that this feature is not available when marking assignments.

1. Plan

The two-minute time limit encourages concise and succinct communication, so some planning can be helpful if you are unsure of the length of what you are going to say. You may also want to look at information online on how to communicate concisely.

If your audio will not fit under two minutes, you can use My Media to upload longer audio files, or upload a video.

2. Build

1. Create or edit the activity (eg forum post) or resource (Label, Page etc). Click on the microphone icon in the text editor
   
   
2. Click on the Start recording button
   
   
   You may be asked to approve FLO accessing your computer’s microphone – you will need to give FLO permission for this to work. You may also be given an option about which microphone to choose – generally the option it picks is the correct (or only) option
   
   
   Permission window in Firefox (in March 2019)
   
   
3. FLO will start recording immediately. When you have finished speaking, press the Stop recording button. You will have a chance to listen to your audio. If you are happy with what you’ve said, select Attach recording. Otherwise you can select Record again to try again
   
   
   
   

3. Review

Once you've attached your recording and saved your activity (eg forum post), your recording will appear like this:

The Clock block displays the time in both Adelaide and the student's location elsewhere in the world. It helps students determine how times referred to in FLO relate to their local time.

The Clock block is a handy resource for enrolled students from different time zones (overseas or interstate). This feature is particularly relevant if the topic is fully online, if students will be interstate or overseas, and can be helpful for time-dependent activities such as Collaborate, quizzes and assignments.

How it works: when a student accesses your FLO site from a computer or device in another time zone, in the Clock block they will see the time according to the FLO server in Adelaide and their local time, according to the device/computer used to access FLO. 

Whilst the Clock block provides a useful visual help for students to understand time zone differences in their topics, it is important to provide clear guidance to students on why you have added the Clock block to your topic site and how you expect students to use it.

Important Clock block tips

• The Clock block is a visual guide and like many online tools, accuracy may depend on the functionality of the user's browser and security settings.
• The Clock block will show the current time for the student, based on their local computer time settings.
• If a student changes their computer time zone, or the computer time is incorrect on the computer they use to access FLO, this could make the Clock block inaccurate.
• If a student changes their time zone settings in their FLO profile settings, the Clock block time will not reflect this change.

The Clock block displays the time as 12-hour by default. We do not recommend changing this setting to 24-hour because students see the time displayed in 12-hour format in FLO. If you are using the Clock block for international students, you may want to edit the Clock block setting Show day name to Yes.

To add the Clock block in your FLO site:

1. In your topic Turn editing on
   
   
2. Open the Block menu in the top-right of the topic's home page.
   
   
3. Locate the Add a block menu (usually on the right-hand side) and select Clock
   
   
   
   

The newly created Clock block will display two clocks; Server time and your time




4. To reposition the block, hover over the move icon then click and drag. We recommend positioning it under the 'Topic links' block (the top block), so it is readily visible each time students go to your topic.
   

Blocks appear in the Topic Blocks menu in the top right corner of each FLO site. 'Topic Links' is a standard block, with links to topic information, grades, SETs etc. Different kinds of blocks can be added (eg Activities, Teaching team, Upcoming events), or you can add an HTML block and use it to feature the textbook/s or for some other topic-related purpose.  

1. Plan

Some blocks are standard in topics, as part of the college template or starter site. Others you will need to add yourself. You can also move blocks up/down to emphasise important ones.

The Activities block is particularly useful if you have lots of activities and resources in your topic, as it is a navigational tool for students.

Types of blocks

2. Build

• Add blocks to your topic
• Add a teaching team block
• Change your user image (via the Topic welcome block)
• Add a Clock block (separate entry)
  
• Timeline block (separate entry)
  

Add blocks to your topic

1. In your topic, click Turn editing on
   
2. Locate the Add a block menu (usually on the right-hand side)
   
3. Select the type of block you wish to add
   
   

Add a teaching team block

The teaching team block lists the names, photos and optionally contact details of the teaching team. Your block is included in the FLO sites so you will not have to create it yourself unless it has been deleted. 

Note: To add/alter your profile picture displayed in the Welcome block, see how do I upload a profile photo.

1. In your topic, click the Turn editing on button
   
   
2. Open the Topic blocks menu
   
   
3. Locate the Add a block dropdown menu (usually on the right-hand side) and select Topic welcome
   
   
4. When the new block appears, click the cog icon to configure the block (see more information below)
   
   
   
5. In block title, add the text 'Teaching team'
   
   
6. In Roles to display, tick 'topic coordinator', 'teacher' and 'tutor'.
   
   
7. To show more contact methods change the Contact methods to display options.
   
   
8. In Course welcome text
   
   If your topic uses the starter site, enter a space into the text box. If you want to introduce yourself to students, use a welcome video instead
   
   If your topic is not yet using the starter site, you can add some introductory text for students here. Try to keep the text short – if you have a lot of content, consider using a welcome video or page resource instead.
   
   
9. When you have finished configuring the block, click Save changes
   
   

Change your user image (via the Topic welcome block)

1. If you have previously uploaded a profile image, it will automatically display in the welcome block. To add or change your user image, click the edit your profile here link in the block
    
2. Upload your user image clicking the Add button or by dragging and dropping the file into the area indicated
   
   
   
   
3. Click Update profile
   
   
4. Your chosen image will now appear in the Welcome block, in addition to many other locations in FLO (eg forum posts)