PolyLearn Support

Information Technology Services

Getting Started

1. Select Turn editing on.
2. Click on the Add an activity pull-down list.
   
   
3. Choose the Workshop tool.
4. Under the General section, type the Workshop name (required) of the assignment into the text box.
5. Type the Introduction (required) into the text box.
6. Under the Workshop features section, choose to include any of the following:
   • Use examples: Enables students to assess sample work, and compare it to a reference assessment.
   • Use peer assessment: Enables students to assess other students' work. These assessments will be worth a percentage of each student's grade.
   • Use self-assessment: Enables students to assess their own work. This assessment will be worth a percentage of their grade.
     
7. Under the Grade settings section, select how much weight is in the Grade for submission and the Grade for assessment.
   
8. Select the Grading strategy.
Options
• Decimal places in grades
9. Under the Submission settings section, type the Instructions for submission in the text box.
Options
• Maximum number of submission attachments, Maximum file size, and if Late submissions are allowed.
10. Under the Assessment settings section, type the Instructions for assessment in the text box.
11. Under the Access control section, define the open/close dates for submissions and assessments.
Note: If these dates aren't defined, the Workshop must be manually opened and closed for both submissions and assessments.
Options
• Under the Common module section, choose group mode.
  Note: If you have group projects, the group can submit their files into one area. After the group is created, you can choose the name of the group from the list.
• Visible to students (can be changed later), and a custom ID number of the assignment for easy reference when grading.
• Restrict access allows the instructor to set a condition on the assignment until other assignment(s) are completed:
  • Allow access from and Allow access until determine when students can access the activity via a link on the course page.
    Note: The difference between access from/to dates and availability settings for the activity is that outside the set dates the latter allows students to view the activity description, whereas access from/to dates prevent access completely.
  • Grade condition determines any grade conditions which must be met in order to access the activity.
    Note: Multiple grade conditions may be set if desired. If so, the activity will only allow access when ALL grade conditions are met.
  • Show activity greyed-out, with restriction information / Hide activity entirely determines how the activity displays before conditions have been met.
    
12. Choose either Save and return to course or Save and display.

 

Workshop Workflow

Setup phase

Once the Workshop is created, the next step is the Setup phase. This section is for setting up the parts of a submission that are to be assessed by students, as well as ironing out all the grading details.

1. In the Setup phase column, click Edit assessment form.
2. Type the Description of the aspects of submissions that will be analyzed when grading. Use multiple Aspect sections as necessary
Note: For example, an essay may have separate aspect sections for introduction, body, conclusion, sources, etc.

3. Select the Best possible grade/Scale to use and the Weight of the aspect.
4. Click Save and preview to see how the assessment form looks, and then click Save and close.
   

Submission phase

The Submission phase is for setting up which students assess who (as well as who the instructor assesses, if that is desired). This enables students to begin submitting their work.

1. Click on the light bulb icon near the top of the Submission phase column.


2. Click Continue.
Note: By clicking Continue, students are able to submit assignments for assessment.

3. In the Submission phase column, click on Allocate submissions.
4. Using the pull-down boxes, select who each Participant is reviewed by, and who each Participant is a reviewer of.
5. Return to the Workshop main page by clicking the Workshop's name in the Navigation block (left side of the page).
   

Assessment phase

The assessment phase allows the students to begin assessing others' work.

1. Click the light bulb icon near the top Assessment phase column.


2. Click Continue.
Note: By clicking Continue, students are able to assess other submissions.

3. Any submissions that you must assess (if any were assigned) will appear at the bottom of the page in the Assigned submissions to assess section. Click Assess.
   
Note: If no submissions need to be assessed by students, skip to the Grading/evaluation phase.
4. Complete the fields for each Aspect of the submission and assign grades for each.
5. Modify Assessment settings as necessary--how much the Assessment weight is, option to Override grade for assessment, and any additional Feedback for the reviewer. Click Save and close.
   

Note: The Assessment settings section is only available to the instructor.

Grading/evaluation phase

The Grading/evaluation phase is done when all submissions and assessments have been completed.

Note: The final grade submitted to the gradebook when closed, is calculated as weighted mean of all the reviewers. The value is rounded to a number of decimal places set in the workshop settings. The instructor can influence the grade two ways:

• by proving their own assessment with a higher than the peers
• by overriding the grade to fix the value.
  
  

1. Click the light bulb icon near the top Grading evaluation phase column.


2. Click Continue.
Note: By clicking Continue, students will no longer be able to make modifications to their submissions or assessments.
3. Under the Grading evaluation settings section, select the Grading evaluation method and Comparison of assessments.
4. Click Re-calculate grades.
5. Student grades for submission and assessment are shown below the Grading evaluation settings section.
6. If necessary, choose to Clear all aggregated grades or Clear assessments under the Workshop toolbox section.

Close phase

The Close phase is for submitting grades to the gradebook and closing the Workshop. Workshops can be switched back to the assessment phase to recalculate or override grades and then closed again to update grades in the gradebook.

1. Click the light bulb icon near the top Grading evaluation phase column.


2. Click Continue.

Note: By clicking Continue, calculated grades will now appear in the gradebook for students to look over.

Workshop Grading

Grading Strategies

Grading strategies determines how the assessment form may look and how the final grade is calculated in the gradebook.

• Accumulative grading strategy - a set of criteria is graded separately.
  
• Comments - similar to above but always given a 100% grade. Useful for initial feedback to authors
  
• Number of errors - an assessment method that counts errors in specific criteria (for example, spelling, formatting, creative ideas, lack of examples).
  
• Rubric - a set of descriptions that are associated with a specific criteria (outcome). Each criteria has unique word scale.

Report

During the grading evaluation, Workshop grades report is displayed below the workshop table. The report provides you with a comprehensive overview of all individual grades.