Setting up a Timed assessment in Moodle using Turnitin assignment
This guide will help you understand how to set up and restrict access to a timed Turnitin assessment in Moodle. Turnitin assignments can be used for appropriate text-based assessments.
Limitations with Take-Home Exams
There are several limitations you will need to be aware of to inform your decisions when designing your timed assessment.
We do not have the technology to lock down users’ machines or monitor their use during the exam process, therefore, you may want to consider designing questions so they do not focus on the recall of facts but rather applying knowledge to scenarios, solving problems, analysing, critiquing, and evaluating.
Please also refer to Registry guidance on Covid-19 alternative assessments
A few general considerations:
Keep things simple and if possible use technology that students are already familiar with and have access to.
Make sure you communicate any changes to assessment to students clearly
If they will need support using technology, contact the Digital Training team to arrange this for your students
Consider the accessibility of assessments you are planning - will students have access to software/laptop/internet connection, think of any assessment need too.
Give students more time where possible
Set up draft assignments/formative assessment wherever possible so students can practise using the technology
How do I create an online timed assessment using Turnitin?
There are a couple of steps involved in creating a timed assessment.
Setting up and restricting access to the Turnitin submission link
Setting up and restricting access to the exam paper (Restricting access must be in place here so that students are not able to access exam questions papers early)
Step 1- Setting up your Turnitin submission link
In your Moodle course, Turn editing on and in the section you want to add your Exam submission link, click on add a resource or activity and choose Turnitin Assignment 2.
Add a Turnitin Assignment Name i:e: Take-Home Exam and in the Description box, explain clearly what the students have to do, give any additional information including time limits and any pre-exam requirements and so on, including instructions on how and where they need to submit the paper. Ensure you tick the box to ‘Display description on course page’ and these instructions will show on your Moodle page in advance of the exam.
This is an example of what you could add in the description:Example Instructions
Your exam paper will be available as a Word document above this submission link from 12pm on [DATE}
This submission link will become available from 12pm on [DATE] and will become available at this time for you to submit.
The deadline for submission is 12pm on [DATE]
Your answers should be word processed.
Ensure you are adequately prepared; have everything you need to hand and a comfortable location to work in
If you have any questions in advance, please contact [email address]
In the general section Under Number of Parts consider how many files your students might need to submit and make any amendments if they are required to submit more than one document.
Under anonymous marking If you wish to use anonymous marking, ask students not to include their name or ID number in their submission, and enable this setting.
You can keep other options in the general section as the default.
In the Assignment Part 1 section ensure you add the ‘Start date’ and ‘due date’. The post date is when feedback and marks go back to the students, so keep this in mind when setting the post date. (ie do you want to put a post date in after the board of examiners for example?) Our example below shows that students can start submitting work from the day and time the exam opens to the student i.e: 9th January at 12pm and the student will be able to submit work until 10th January at 12pm. Remember to put a post date to reflect when you wish the feedback and marks to go back to the student.
In the Similarity Report Options Section, under Store student papers, if this is a formative assessment, you can leave this as no repository. If it is a summative assessment, set this to Standard Repository. You can keep all other defaults in the section the same but make other amendments where you want to.
In the GradeMark Options choose your rubric if you are using one.
Restricting the view of your Turnitin submission link
Next, you will need to restrict this assignment activity so students are not able to access take-home exam submission link before a certain time. To set a restriction scroll down until you find the Restrict Access and select Add restriction
select Date
Amend your date and time restriction as required. In this example, students will be able to access the assignment from 9th January at 12pm. If you want this information to show on your Moodle page, ensure that the eye above the date box does not have a line through it (see example in picture below). If it does have a line through it, students will not be able to see the exam paper submission link or the instructions in the description.
Once you are happy with all other settings, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save and return to course and confirm the restrictions on your Moodle page. This is how it will look to students. If restrictions have been set up, students will not be able to gain access to the submission link, until the available from date and time.
Step 2 - Setting up and restricting your exam paper
Write your exam paper (If you write your exam paper on a Word document, you can let your students use this exam paper to type their answers to the exam questions, or you can ask them to write on a separate word document.
Once you have written your exam paper, you can upload this to Moodle and place it above the Exam paper submission point.
In your Moodle course, Turn editing on and in the section you want to add your Exam paper, click on add a resource or activity and choose File.
Add a name, for example ‘Exam paper available from 9th January 2021’ and in the Description box, you can give any additional information that you didn’t add onto the Turnitin submission point. Ensure you tick the box to ‘Display description on course page’ and these instructions will show on your Moodle page in advance of the exam paper release.
Restricting the view of your Exam Paper (This is a very important step in the process and restrict access must be in place)Next, you will need to restrict your exam paper so students are not able to access take-home exam before a certain time. To set a restriction scroll down until you find the Restrict Access and select Add restriction
select Date
Amend your date and time restriction as required. In this example, students will be able to access the assignment from 9th January at 12pm. If you want this information to show on your Moodle page, ensure that the eye above the date box does not have a line through it (see example in picture below). If it does have a line through it, students will not be able to see the exam paper link or the instructions in the description.
Once you are happy with all other settings, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save and return to course and confirm the restrictions on your Moodle page. This is how it will look to students. If restrictions have been set up, students will not be able to gain access to the exam paper or the Turnitin submission link until the available from date and time.
Move your exam paper to above the Turnitin exam submission point. This is how they should both look together to the students before the exam is due to take place.