Provide a Workshop name.

Provide a Description of this activity. Students will only see this during the Setup Phase of the Workshop.

Decide how you want the submissions to be graded. There are four standard methods. However, the simple Number of errors is best for a basic workshop. We recommend you click the “?” in the circle to read about them.

NOTE: Workshops have two grades. The grade students receive from submitting and the grade they receive for the quality of their assessment.

Add instructions for students.

Decide how many (if any) files may be uploaded and the types and size of files allowed.

Provide instructions for the peer assessment.

Provide an overall conclusion and/or file attachments at the end of the Workshop activity.

Useful if students are new to the workshop and need practice assessing.

Next, complete your selections for the remaining sections on the settings page. These are similar to sections for other activities (e.g. Availability, Common module settings, etc.).

Click Save and display at the bottom of the page to continue setting up the Workshop activity.

The summary of the Setup phase is displayed.

Next, set up your Assessment Form.

Click Edit assessment form.

NOTE: Depending on the option chosen for the grading strategy, the terminology will be either Aspect, Assertion, or Criterion.

Add Instructions in the Description fields for as many Aspects, Assertion, or Criterion as you require.

Each Aspect, Assertion, or Criterion includes its own grading scale.

Set the grades for each. More grade items can be added, as needed.

Save the page when you are finished adding the grade items.

The Submission phase is the 2nd part of the workshop.

It is best to review the Allocation options now, before activating the Workshop assignment in your course.

Click the Submission phase radio button to review the Allocation options for the Submission phase.

When instructors switch to the submission phase, students will be able to submit their work. Look at the green arrows to ensure all tasks are completed.

Before moving to the assessment phase, the instructor must decide how the submissions will be allocated.

Click on the Allocate submissions link in the Submission phase.

Manual, Random, and Scheduled Allocations

Choose one of the three allocation methods

Manual allocation (Best for small classes)

Allocate students to review a classmate’s project. This is best for a small class, or if you know your students well and want to control certain allocations.

Students have to submit work before you can assign reviewers.

Choose the dropdowns to select the reviewers and the reviewees.

Random allocation

(Best for large classes)

This is useful if you have large classes, or if you don’t want to be personally involved in the selections. Choose either a number per submission, or a number per reviewer.

You can also allow students to assess without submitting anything.

Scheduled allocation (Set number of reviews based on submission reviews)

We’ve found that this is the best option to use if you are not going to manually select the peer reviewers. Bypass the other two tabs and go directly to Scheduled allocation.

Check-mark the “Automatically allocate…“ sentence.

Next, scroll to the Allocation settings section.

If you want each student to have at least one paper to review, choose “per reviewer” from the dropdown. If you don’t choose “per reviewer”, some students may not get a paper to review.

Choose whether participants can assess without submitting anything.

In this phase, students assess the work of their peers and the instructor monitors the process.

NOTE: It is essential the assessment criteria are easy to understand and unambiguous. Much of the success of the workshop activity depends on the students’ understanding of the peer assessment criteria.

The Student Point of View during peer assessment

During the Assessment phase, students will click on the Assess button. They will complete the Assessment form by answering the questions you listed in each Aspect, Assertion, or Criterion.

The “assessor’s” name will be hidden from the classmate they are reviewing. You can tell them to “sign” in the feedback section if you want their name to be revealed to their classmate.

You may have also allow the student to post Overall feedback for their peer.

CLICK HERE to view a sample of the student experience.

Check the grades

The assessment grade is calculated by, “Comparison with the best assessment,” found on the Workshop settings page.

The grade for assessment is determined by comparing the grade a student gave for each submission, with the grades other participants gave.

The default for Comparison of assessments is fair, but can be changed from very lax to very strict.

This is also where the instructor can edit individual student grades, if needed.

NOTE: Be sure to click on the Re-calculate grades button before moving on to the next phase!

Grades will not appear in the gradebook for the students if you skip this step.

If you need to override a grade, it will appear in a different color.

Override Grades - Manually Set Grades

To override grades, click on the Submission title to grade the student’s submission.

Click on the Grade under the Grades Given column to grade the student’s assessment.

Update the Grade for the Submission or the Assessment (peer review)

After you update or post a grade, scroll down and Save.

Even if you have chosen an end date for the Workshop settings, you have to click on the Close workshop radio button in order for the grades to be posted for your students.

When the workshop is closed, the two grades will appear in the gradebook in separate columns.

View a sample of what your students will experience!

This tutorial is based on Moodle.org instructions, which includes a step-by-step video. https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Workshop_activity.

Please contact the Moodle Team if you need further assistance!