Moodle grading by rubric inability to enter zero for missing without marking the rubric

Definitions and backgrounder

The above window is referred to in the following as the Grader or assignment grader.

Although manually marked grade items can be added directly to the gradebook, grade items cannot be marked using a rubric. Thus an in-class presentation marked with a rubric and generating no submission could only be marked as a raw total score using a manually marked grade item. 

The workaround is to use the Assignment activity and deselect both submission types. Assignments support marking by a rubric. 

The students see a message that the assignment does not require you to submit anything online. 

The following explores how to denote that a student is missing work marked by a rubric, with an endnote on Simple direct grading without a rubric. 

This article was preceded by articles on the lack of an automatic zero, problematic nature of using manual overrides, the issue that manually set zeros do not automatically clear, and the disruptive grading workflow associated with bulk set override zeros for assignments. This is now day six of a deep dive into the rabbit hole of zeros in Moodle. For further background, reference the linked articles.

Grading by rubric

When a score is being determined by a rubric, the instructor cannot set a grade of zero to denote that the assignment is missing other to use the grade override capability, a capability that generates workflow and grading issues which were explained in articles on locking for assignments and automatically marked tests. 

In an assignment marked with Simple direct grading, a zero can be entered and a comment entered that the zero is due to the assignment being missing. 

Assignments marked with rubrics do not have this option, not without invoking the locking override option. 

For an assignment that is using a rubric to grade the assignment and for which there is a grace period after the due date, the zero for a missing assignment should appear at the due date. 

The ability to automate the assigning of a zero at the due date and time for a missing assignment is not available in Moodle. There is also no functional missing code that can be entered for missing assignment.. The zero at the due date would often prompt students to get their assignment submitted during the grace period between the Due date and the Cut-off date. The zero was a useful tool for increasing assignment submission rates. 

Entering a zero on the due date can still be done for Simple direct grading, a zero can be entered as the grade. 

Entering a zero on the due date is not an option for marking with a rubric, other than to mark the rubric at No evidence. Marking No evidence, however, is not accurate. The issue is not that there is No evidence, the issue is that there has been no submission. 

One workaround might be to only mark a single criteria as zero, but this is not an option in Moodle. All criteria must be marked. Again, forcing an override zero has its own issues and generates a more convoluted workflow for the instructor. 

The only other option is to use the override option to enter a score of zero after the end of the grace period for late submissions, but this will certainly engender students asking to be able to submit their missing assignment once the zero appears. The tool of being able to mark assignments as missing on the due date will be missed. 

Post-script

Marking all criterion as No evidence allows a non-locking mark of zero to be saved. 

By leaving the outcomes unresolved, there should be no impact on the Outcomes report. 

The one impact is the attempt number is set to two, which is not accurate. There were zero attempts, the action of saving the rubric counted the null submission as a first attempt. 

Post script two: Follow-up after the actual submission

The student then submitted the assignment with the zero score displayed in the gradebook.

This is the student's first submission, but because the non-submission was marked via the rubric, this shows as the second submission.

Attempts are granted automatically until a passing mark is achieved, a setting that was covered in an earlier article. 

The rubric is open for marking, nothing is locked.

Both the rubric and the outcomes were marked and then saved. The green "No evidence" seen in the fifth criterion is a mouse hover artifact and not a score.

The student now has the maximum possible mark. This approach is functional albeit less satisfactory than being able to directly mark an assignment as missing while still having a grace period for submission. 

Simple direct grading

For assignment marked using Simple direct grading one can enter a zero or any other value without the grade becoming locked if one is using the Grader and not the Override interface.

Although the above is marked with a one, some assignments were marked with a zero (every problem was solved incorrectly) and were subsequently resubmitted with higher marks. No locking occur in the assignment Grader interface.