If you are not already using a QMplus assignment manager then you need to add one, which you can do as follows (although of course you may prefer to use different settings from those I describe here). You can also edit the settings after you have created the assignment manager and after you have entered marks.

Adding an assignment manager

  1. Log in to QMplus, go your module page, and turn editing on.
  2. Select where to create the mid-term test assignment manage. I recommend having a section devoted to the mid-term test and/or week 7, with a title such as "Test week (Week 7)", and putting it there. However, if you want to make the assignment manager invisible to students and rely only on the gradebook for displaying marks you can create it in an "orphaned activities" section, such as section 52, which contains the Teaching & Assessment Overview pages. Display the appropriate section (i.e. scroll down to it and open it if necessary).
  3. At the bottom right of the section is a link labelled "+ Add an activity or resource" (by default, or possibly two separate drop-down menus). Click on the link (or menu) and select Assignment, which is at the top of the list of activities. Click on the ADD button at the bottom of the dialogue box. This will take you to the Editing Assignment page.
  4. In the "Assignment name" box, enter a name for the assignment such as "Mid-term test". In the "Description" box immediately below, enter text including something like the following: "Absence of a mark indicates your absence from the test, whether excused or not. Excused absences will be indicated in MySIS at a later date. Please check with our Student Support Officer, William Ng, if you are unsure whether your absence has been excused."
  5. Scroll down to AVAILABILITY and uncheck all the Enable options. Scroll down to SUBMISSION TYPES and uncheck "File submissions".
  6. Click on FEEDBACK TYPES to expand this section and uncheck "Feedback comments" (unless you want to provide feedback comments in QMplus). Uncheck Mahara feedback. If you want to import marks from and/or export marks to a file, check "Offline grading worksheet".
  7. Click on COMMON MODULE SETTINGS and change the Visible setting to Hide. This will prevent students (and most staff) from seeing any marks while you are entering and checking them.
  8. Click on the SAVE AND DISPLAY button at the bottom of the page.

Entering marks manually

To enter marks, click on the VIEW/GRADE ALL SUBMISSIONS button. You may find it helpful to click on the ZOOM IN button at the top of the page. To enter marks by hand, you can sort the table of students in various ways by clicking on the links in the table header and you can collapse columns by clicking on the ⊟ icons. You can enter marks by clicking in the input boxes in the Grade column. Pressing the Return or Enter key will submit all the marks entered so far, as will clicking on the SAVE ALL QUICK GRADING CHANGES button, but make sure that "Notify students" is set to No first and beware that every time you submit marks this option is reset to Yes!

Importing marks from a file

Please see the general guidance on How to mark an assignment using offline grading worksheet. Here is a brief summary.

First download a template file from the assignment manager. With the assignment manager open, click on the VIEW/GRADE ALL SUBMISSIONS button. In the "Grading action" drop-down menu at the top of the page select "Download grading worksheet". You should be able to open this CSV file in any spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel or a text editor. (Don't use a word processing application such as Microsoft Word!) Enter the marks in the Grade column. Marks should be purely numerical and out of 100. Then, in the "Grading action" drop-down menu at the top of the QMplus page, select "Upload grading worksheet". Drag and drop your file onto the indicated region or click on the CHOOSE A FILE… button and use the file picker dialogue to select and upload your file. Then confirm the upload using the button at the bottom of the page. Check that the response from QMplus is correct and if so click the CONFIRM button at the bottom of the page.

If you have marks in a spreadsheet in some other format then it should be easy to transfer them into the QMplus template file by using the Excel function VLOOKUP. Provided you have the same identifier for each student in the same format in both files, using VLOOKUP is a quick and reliable way to transfer data. I’m happy to help with this if you run into problems: just email me your data and tell me where you want it uploaded to.

Releasing marks to students

Please remember to show the assignment manager. You can do this by clicking on the Edit drop-down menu to the right of the assignment manager on the main page and selecting Show. A hidden assignment manager will be visible only to staff enrolled for the QMplus page with teacher access or above, but not by students or by staff who have only viewer access. it will largely defeat the purpose of entering marks into QMplus if you don't show them to students and colleagues!

Printing marks

If you want to print the marks, it is probably best to download them as explained above, tidy up the downloaded file and then print it. Alternatively, you can print the marks displayed in the assignment manager using your web browser's print facility. Before you do that, I recommend that you collapse all collapsible columns except First name / Surname, ID number and Final grade.

Last modified: Monday, 25 January 2016, 3:27 PM