The Assignment upgrade tool is an administrator tool for upgrading assignments in Moodle 2.2 and older to the new assignment module in Moodle 2.3 onwards.
It is recommended that admins upgrade all existing assignments to use the new assignment module as soon as possible, then disable the old assignment module (called 'Assignment 2.2' in Moodle 2.3 onwards), to avoid the confusion of having two assignment modules.
Note: 'Assignment 2.2' should NOT be disabled until the upgrade process is complete and any courses with the old assignment type have been restored too. If this is going to take some time, the capability mod/assignment:addinstance should be removed from the roles of teacher and manager. In this way, any old assignments will appear and may be used, but teachers will not be able to create any new 'Assignment 2.2' instances.
Upgrading assignments
To upgrade existing assignments to use the new assignment module
- Go to Administration > Site Administration > Assignment Upgrade Helper.
- Click List assignments that have not been upgraded to display a list of assignments created in a previous version of Moodle. This page lists the assignments created with an older version of Moodle that have not been upgraded to the new assignment module in Moodle 2.3. Not all assignments can be upgraded - if they were created with a custom assignment subtype, then that subtype will need to be upgraded to the new assignment plugin format in order to complete the upgrade.
- Select the assignment(s) you wish to upgrade and click the Upgrade selected assignments button in the Batch operations box at the bottom of the screen. Or click the Upgrade all assignments button in the Batch operations box.
- Confirm by clicking Continue.
A confirmation screen will appear. From here you can view the courses with the converted assignments.
Settings Mapping
The following table maps the settings in the old assignment module to the settings in the new assignment module.
| New setting | Old setting | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment name | No change | |
| Description | No change | |
| Display description on course page | No change | This was a new setting in Moodle 2.2. The upgrade tool will set this to off if the assignment version being upgraded doesn't contain it |
| Allow submissions from | Available from | Nomenclature change* |
| Due date | No change | |
| Always show description | Hide description before available date | Nomenclature change* |
| Prevent late submissions | No change | |
| Require students click submit button | Enable "Send for marking" button | Nomenclature change* |
| Notify graders about submissions | Email alerts to teachers | Nomenclature change* |
| Notify graders about late submissions | New setting | Will upgrade to the value from Email alerts to teachers |
| Online text | New setting | Replaces old subtype. For an Online Text assignment this setting will upgrade to Yes. For all other subtypes it will upgrade to No |
| File submission | New setting | Replaces old subtype. For a Single File Upload or Advanced Uploading of Files assignment type this setting will upgrade to Yes. For all other subtypes it will upgrade to No |
| Max number of uploaded files | No change | For an Online Text or Offline Assignment this setting will be disabled |
| Max submission size | Max size | Nomenclature change* |
| Submission comments | Allow notes | Nomenclature change* |
| Feedback comments | New setting | Will upgrade to Yes for single file and advanced file and No for the others |
| Feedback files | New setting | Will upgrade to Yes for single file and advanced file and No for the others |
'*'Implies no change in functionality, ie. the equivalent setting will be maintained.
New grading options
Versions of Moodle older than 2.2 did not contain Advanced grading methods. Likewise all versions of Moodle older than 2.3 did not contain the Marking guide grading method included in Advanced grading methods. Owners of any upgraded assignments may wish to investigate the use of the Advanced grading methods feature.
Disabling the old assignment module
Once all existing assignments have been upgraded, the old assignment module can be disabled.
- Go to Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Manage activities
- Hide the Assignments 2.2 module by clicking on the eye in the hide/show column
Teachers will then have only the new assignment module available for selection in the activity chooser.
Restoring course backups from Moodle 2.2 and older
To restore a course backup containing an assignment from Moodle 2.2 and older (e.g. from Moodle 1.9), the following procedure should be followed:
- Ensure that both the old and the new assignment activity modules (called 'Assignment 2.2' and 'Assignment' respectively) are enabled in Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Manage activities
- Restore the course backup
- Run the Assignment upgrade tool to convert all old assignments into new ones
- Once all course backups are restored, disable 'Assignment 2.2' in Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Manage activities
Note: 'Assignment 2.2' should NOT be disabled until all course backups containing assignments from Moodle 2.2 and older are restored. If this is going to take some time, to avoid the confusion of two assignments being listed in the activity chooser, the capability mod/assignment:addinstance should be removed from the roles of teacher and manager. In this way, any old assignments will appear and may be used, but teachers will not be able to create any new 'Assignment 2.2' instances.
