What is it?

The grade transfer tool is a Moodle plugin available to all unit conveners seeking to streamline the transfer of grades from a Moodle Assignment or Quiz Activity to SAMIS. Essentially, it is a tool which aims to reduce the administrative overhead in manually moving data from one service to the other. It was developed jointly by the CLT and computing services in response to academic staff requests, however the teams have also worked closely with academic and administrative staff from across the institution to insure that the plugin is both easy and robust.

How might I use it?

With this plugin, rather than manually entering grades allocated on Moodle to SAMIS and hence opening up great potential for human error, there is the option to automate the flow of grades from the one piece of software to the other. So for instance, you may wish to reveal grades from a piece of assessed coursework on a Moodle submission, but the grade also needs to be input into SAMIS if it could form part of a summative assessment. This grade transfer tool would enable the set of grades from this Moodle assignment to be transferred correctly to each individuals SAMIS account.

How do staff and students use it effectively?

Staff

Only unit convenors have access to the grade transfer tool. However there are a few things that they must be aware of in order to use it effectively. That is:

• Be aware that the Moodle course ID number is extremely important; it defines which SAMIS cohort you will be transferring grades to.
• Grades input into coursework submissions must be whole numbers.
• The Moodle Assignment/Quiz must be marked out of 100.
• Once data has been transferred to SAMIS it can't be overwritten by Moodle. This means that once data has been transferred, all subsequent changes that may be required will need to be made directly in SAMIS

Download the full guide on how to use the grade transfer tool (PDF).

Students

This is a tool for use by unit convenors. Students simply need to follow given instructions and upload submissions into the correct place for marking. Once complete, feedback and marks will appear on Moodle in due course. The grades will be reflected on SAMIS alongside the rest of their course results by the time the assessment marks are released.

What are the pros & cons?

Pros

• There is a reduced risk of human error when entering grades from Moodle to SAMIS.
• Less time spent on the transfer process of moving grades from Moodle to SAMIS.

Cons

• Once grades have been transferred to SAMIS, they can't be overwritten by Moodle and so if errors do arise, grades need to be manually changed.

Further reading

• Transfer Tool Requirements (PDF)
• Grade Transfer User Guide (PDF)