Overview
This guide explains how to create and use the Workshop activity.
Contents
- Video guide
- What is the Workshop activity?
- Creating the Workshop activity
- Setup phase explained
- Submission phase explained
- Assessment phase explained
- Grading evaluation phase
- The student experience
- Further support
Video guide
The following video will show you the basic steps required to setup the Workshop activity in Learning Space.
What is the Workshop activity?
The Workshop activity is a peer assessment tool that staff can use to allow students to evaluate each other's work. Students add their submissions which are then distributed amongst their peers for assessment.
The Workshop activity has five phases that can be switched to automatically (if availability dates are set) or manually.
- Setup phase
- Submission phase
- Assessment phase
- Grading evaluation phase
- Closed
Creating the Workshop activity
Navigate to the module / course page that you want to add the Workshop activity to and ensure that you have editing enabled by clicking the "Edit mode" toggle.
Scroll down to the section on the page that you want to add the activity to and select 'Add an activity or resource'.
From the pop-up window click on 'Workshop'.
Enter a name and description for the Workshop. The description could be used to explain how a workshop works or when the next workshop is taking place.
The next step is to select a grading setting. The table below explains the different options in more detail.
| Grading strategy | Description |
| Accumulative Grading | Grades provided are an average of all reviewers marks along with an allowance for comments. |
| Number Of Errors | A series of yes or no questions on aspects of the assignments along with an allowance for comments. |
| Comments | Comments can be provided but no grade is given. |
| Rubric | A level assessment is given regarding specified criteria. |
The next five settings sections allow you to select various settings to tailor the workshop activity to suit your requirements.
- Submission settings - Share information and instructions about the submission, indicate how many files students can submit and what file types are allowed.
- Assessment settings – Provide guidance on how work should be assessed and select whether students can mark their own work.
- Feedback settings - Staff to provide overall feedback.
- Example submission (optional) - Staff can provide an example submission for students to assess.
- Availability (optional) – Here you can set dates/times to open submissions, set a deadline, open the assessment phase and set a deadline for assessments to be completed by. This setting is optional. If dates/times are not set here, you can manually switch to each phase (as shown in the example below).
When you have selected the settings you want and added instructions and guidance, click "Save and display".
Setup phase explained
In our example we are using the "Comments" grading strategy, this allows students to provide other students with comments about their work, but no grade is given.
In the setup phase you must complete the following three elements of the workshop activity:
- Set the workshop description
- Provide instructions for submission
- Edit the assessment form
Set the workshop description:
The description should be used to provide students with more information about the workshop activity and what it is used for.
Provide instructions for submission:
This section provides an opportunity to instruct students how to submit their work. Staff can set the maximum number of attachments, the types of file types allows and the maximum submission size.
Edit the assessment form:
The assessment form allows staff to specify what aspects of work students need to assess, for example you may want students to assess; understanding of the subject matter, spelling and referencing.
Once you have selected the settings you want, entered submission and assessment information and are ready to open up the Workshop for student submissions, click "Switch to the next phase".
Note: A message will warn you that you’re about to move to the next phase. Click ‘Continue’ to open the workshop to students
Submission phase explained
The workshop is now open for student submissions.
You will be able to see the number of submissions along with a list of students and the titles of their submissions.
Once all students have submitted you can allocate who is to review each submission.
Allocate submissions:
This is an important section that sets out whose work each student will assess.
Staff can either allocate work manually or randomly. Manual submission could for example be useful to pair students who are stronger at different learning objectives and could provide their peer with useful feedback in a certain area. Random allocation is the quickest method of allocation and staff can set how many reviews each student should receive and if students can assess without having submitted anything.
The "Scheduled allocation" tab contains a tick box that automatically allocates submissions at the end of the submission phase, which staff may want to consider.
The "Allocate Submissions" heading provides useful stats regarding the expected number of submissions (based on number of participants on a module), how many students have submitted and how many are to be allocated. Staff can also see if there are any students who are yet to submit work.
Once you have filled in all of the information click "Switch to the next phase".
Assessment phase explained
In the assessment phase you can access each student submission via the submission title, review the feedback left by their peer(s) and add your own comments. You can also provide feedback to the reviewer.
Staff don't need to do anything during the assessment phase other than end it by clicking "Switch to the next phase" once the assessment deadline has passed.
Grading evaluation phase explained
In our example we are using the "Comments" grading option, which allows students to provide other students with comments about their work but no grade is given, so this phase is not relevant with the example used. For further information about the grading phase refer to Moodle Workshop guidance.
In the submission phase you must complete the following three elements of the workshop activity:
- Calculate submission grades
- Calculate assessment grades
- Provide a conclusion of the activity
Calculate submission grades
The final grade for every submission is calculated as an average of all of the grades given by reviewers of the submission (if a grading strategy is enabled).
Calculate assessment grades
The workshop activity uses artificial intelligence to estimate the quality of assessment provided by a students peers and provides a grade (if a grading strategy is enabled).
Provide a conclusion of the activity
Finally staff should provide generic feedback for the conclusion of the activity, this could be as simple as "Thank you for taking part", or something more meaningful for the subject matter.
To end the workshop click "Switch to the next phase".
The student experience:
Please refer to the student student guide for information about how students use the workshop activity.
Further Support
For further support on Learning Space, or to report any issues with this guide, please get in touch with the Digital Learning Team via dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk. Alternatively, please refer to the numerous help guides found on our Knowledge Base.
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