University of St Andrews

1. Coursework Tool

Introduction

The Coursework tool is one of the Core tools in MMS and is used to store submitted coursework files and grades. MMS uses the term assignment to describe an item of coursework, presentation or any other task which will be handled by the coursework tool. For example a literature review may be considered a single assignment. This tool was introduced to deal with all aspects of coursework within a module. This includes:

• Electronic Submission - The coursework tool can easily be set up so that students can submit coursework electronically.
• Turnitin LTI link - The coursework tool may also be configured to allow students to submit electronically to Turnitin. A link through to the Turnitin scores and the Turnitin report will then be linked from the assignment. For more information please see the MMS Turnitin pages.
• Mark and Feedback Storage and Tracking - One of the primary uses of the coursework tool is to record marks and feedback. MMS provides an easy to use interface where assignment marks and feedback can be entered for either electronic or paper submissions.
• Automated Lateness Penalisation - The coursework tool can be used to automatically implement lateness policies. School specific lateness policies can be attached to the coursework tool to enable MMS to compare an assignment’s submission date with the due date to adjust a students mark accordingly.
• Tracking Dissertation Titles - The coursework tool also provides an area to store dissertation and other student specific assignment titles.

This Guide

This guide was written to be a comprehensive guide for staff, both administrative and pedagogical. The guide comprises of 10 chapters broken down into sections. Some sections are labeled 'Advanced'. Advanced information is not usually needed for everyday use of MMS but may be of interest.

One thing to remember about using MMS is that much of what is available to you will depend on your role, so some material in this guide may cover aspects of MMS which you do not have access to. If you feel you are missing something please contact the administrator for your school who will ensure you have the correct role.

The guide can probably be broken down thusly:

• Chapters 1-4: These discuss configuration of the coursework tool so are probably more useful to members of staff administering the module.
• Chapters 5 & 6: Will discuss the layout of the main pages in the coursework tool, give examples of any tables and highlight any useful features.
• Chapters 7 - 10: Will discuss activates related to marking, such as downloading student submissions, Turnitin for plagiarism detection, entering marks and feedback and how to give a student an extension. These sections are probably more useful to teaching staff.

Terminology