Marking using Rubrics/Marking guides in Moodle Assignments

This refers to Moodle 4.3 from August 2024 onwards

• You can use a Rubric as the Grading Method in Moodle Assignments.  
• This allows you to mark submissions using set Criteria and levels.  
• All Moodle rubrics are Quantitative. This means that the grade is calculated by Moodle from the choices you make in the rubric.  
• You cannot use a rubric and then enter a grade yourself unless you override it in the gradebook, which we don't recommend as it would be confusing for students.
  
  

Things to consider when using rubric/marking guide with an assignment.

• You will not be able to mark offline with a rubric/marking guide as you can within a general Moodle Assignment. 
• The option to download grades before they have been released from within the dropbox assignment is not available with rubrics. 
• Within a rubric or marking guide if you need to change the overall grade for any reasons e.g. penalties need to be applied to the grade, you will not be able to do this within the dropbox.  The only way to change the overall grade would be to release the grades first and then override the grade in the gradebook. A useful workspace guide on this is Grade 2 – Manually editing grades.  This is not recommended as it could cause confusion for students.  REMEMBER – you will need to hide the dropbox and assignment within the gradebook first.  If you decided to override the grade within the gradebook, then please note students should be made aware to prevent any confusion. 
• If you are using anonymous marking with a rubric, you will need to deanonymise the students before you can release grades to the students. 

REMEMBER to make sure when the assignment was set up that rubric was selected as the grading method.  In the Settings for the Assignment , scroll down to Grade and in the 'Grading Method' menu, select Rubric or Marking Guide depending which you are using to mark with.

Tip: More information on choosing and setting up these options is given in How to create a rubric/marking guide for a Moodle assignment. You should look at that first.

This page is about using a rubric that is already set up.  

Important: If a rubric is already set up, do not change it once marking has begun.

How to mark an assignment using a rubric

1. Enter the assignment dropbox by clicking on the assignment name
2. Click on 'View all submissions'
3. Click on the blue 'Grade' marking button of the relevant student 
   
4. The rubric appears under the heading Grade in the grading window for the student
5. Click on the level that best describes the student's work for the criteria
   1. The level will be highlighted when you hover over it
   2. Once a level is selected it will stay highlighted  - you can change your selection by choosing another level instead
6. You can leave comments for the student relating to each criterion, if you have enabled this
   
   
   
7. Add any feedback overall within the 'Feedback Comments' box if required.  The feedback added within 'Feedback Comments' box will appear in the gradebook and assignment drop box for students to see.
8. 
9. Finally, 'Save changes'

Note:  You can set the Marking workflow state to 'Marking completed' if you wish, to highlight at a glance which submissions have been graded so far, thus allowing the convenor to know when the grades can be released to students in bulk. However, be aware that students can also see this status change.

The grade attributed to the submission will be automatically calculated based on the levels chosen in the rubric and the maximum grade set in the assignment dropbox settings.  

See example below.

Once you have marked all submissions to all student to see their grades you will need to change the workflow status to released.

Releasing grades to students

Go to the assessment you would like to release the grades for.  Click on all submissions.

• Use the tick boxes by the side of each student in the grade table to select them. You can select all students by using the tick box directly under the "Select" heading.
• Use the "With selected..." drop-down menu beneath the grade table and, choose ‘Set marking workflow state’. Then click on the 'Go' button.
• A new screen will be displayed with the Selected users listed.
• Choose a ‘Released’ from the "Marking workflow state" drop-down menu.
• If the new status is 'Released' then the Notify students drop-down menu becomes available (You can choose to notify students that their mark/feedback is available, or not).
• Click on the 'Save changes' button.

• The new marking status, ‘Released’ for selected students will now appear in the Status column of the grade table.

After marking submissions and you would like to see a breakdown of all or individual student’s marks, including each individual criteria that the student/s were marked against within the rubric used in the assessment and be able to download such a report is now possible.

NEW: Rubrics Grading Report

In Moodle update in March 2025 a new plug in was added to Moodle.  The rubrics grading report plugin allows you to see any Moodle assignment’s full rubrics results, broken down per criteria, for all students which can be downloaded in one place.  

The rubrics grading report allows teachers and editing teachers to drill down past overall graded marks received to view all individual marks and comments a student has received for each individual criteria within a rubric to create the overall grade.  Being able to look at the individual criteria marks and comments received for all criteria used in grading can be useful to know what areas student’s have done well in or where their performance many need improvement.  

How to access and use the rubrics grading report.

• To access the rubrics grading report go to the module in Moodle you have a Moodle assignment in that has been marked via a rubric.
• Under the title of the module, click on the menu option, Grades.

• Click on the arrow next to ‘Grader report’ and then choose the option ‘Rubrics report’. 

• Click on the box ‘Select activity’ and then select from the drop down menu which rubric assignment you would like to look at.
• There is a arrange of filters to define what information you would like to see appear on the report.  To use the filters click on ‘Data to include’. 

• Click on the boxes next to each of the filter options to either add the filter or to take the filter off.  The default filters that are set and shown on the report is the display level, display remarks and display summary.
• Once you have set or unset the filters click on the ‘submit’ button. 

• The rubric report will appear, with all criteria scores broken down for each student.

If you would like to download the rubric report, the option appears when the report is on the screen.  Best practice is to use the ‘download in spreadsheet format (UTF-8.CSV)’ option.  This will download the report as a excel spreadsheet. 

How to mark an assignment using a Marking Guide.

1. Enter the assignment dropbox by clicking on the assignment name
2. Click on 'View all submissions'
3. Click on the blue 'Grade' marking button of the relevant student 
   
4. The Marking Guide will appear under the heading Grade in the grading window for the student.
5. Each criterion section of the marking guide has a feedback area, click in to the relevant criterion remark box e.g. introduction criterion remark to add feedback comments.  Under the criterion remark box there is a a section to add the chosen grade from within the allocated amount given to that section.  

Finally, 'Save changes'

Note:  You can set the Marking workflow state to 'Marking completed' if you wish, to highlight at a glance which submissions have been graded so far, thus allowing the convenor to know when the grades can be released to students in bulk. However, be aware that students can also see this status change.

The grade attributed to the submission will be automatically calculated based on what was added to the individual  in the rubric and the maximum grade set in the assignment dropbox settings.  

See example below.

Once you have marked all submissions to all student to see their grades you will need to change the workflow status to released.

Releasing grades to students

Go to the assessment you would like to release the grades for.  Click on all submissions.

• Use the tick boxes by the side of each student in the grade table to select them. You can select all students by using the tick box directly under the "Select" heading.
• Use the "With selected..." drop-down menu beneath the grade table and, choose ‘Set marking workflow state’. Then click on the 'Go' button.
• A new screen will be displayed with the Selected users listed.
• Choose a ‘Released’ from the "Marking workflow state" drop-down menu.
• If the new status is 'Released' then the Notify students drop-down menu becomes available (You can choose to notify students that their mark/feedback is available, or not).
• Click on the 'Save changes' button.

• The new marking status, ‘Released’ for selected students will now appear in the Status column of the grade table.

After marking submissions and you would like to see a breakdown of all or individual student’s marks, including each individual criteria that the student/s were marked against within the marking guide used in the assessment and be able to download such a report is now possible.

NEW: Marking Guide Grading Report

In Moodle update in March 2025 a new plug in was added to Moodle.  The making guide grading report plugin allows you to see any Moodle assignment’s full marking grade results, broken down per criteria, for all students which can be downloaded in one place.  

The marking guide grading report allows teachers and editing teachers to drill down past overall graded marks received to view all individual marks and comments a student has received for each individual criteria within a marking guide to create the overall grade.  Being able to look at the individual criteria marks and comments received for all criteria used in grading can be useful to know what areas students have done well in or where their performance many need improvement.  

How to access and use the marking guide report.

• To access the marking guide grading report go to the module in Moodle you have a Moodle assignment in that has been marked via a marking guide.
• Under the title of the module, click on the menu option, Grades.

• Click on the arrow next to ‘Grader report’ and then choose the option ‘marking guide report’.

• Click on the box ‘Select activity’ and then select from the drop down menu which marking guide assignment you would like to look at.
• There is a arrange of filters to define what information you would like to see appear on the report.  To use the filters click on ‘Data to include’. 

• Click on the boxes next to each of the filter options to either add the filter or to take the filter off.  The default filters that are set and shown on the report is the display remarks and display summary.
• Once you have set or unset the filters click on the ‘submit’ button. 

• The marking guide report will appear, with all criteria scores broken down for each student.

If you would like to download the marking guide report, the option appears when the report is on the screen.  Best practice is to use the ‘download in spreadsheet format (UTF-8.CSV)’ option.  This will download the report as a excel spreadsheet.

Note to remember: download capabilities for downloading rubrics and marking guides report, is not available in archived modules.

See also:

How to create a rubric/marking guide for a Moodle assignment