Data Analysis

This section describes different types of archivable data that can be present inside a Moodle course, primarily within the context of a Moodle activity. Identified types of data are briefly described, along with their structure and size.

Activity: Assignment

Assignments allow students to submit work to their teacher for grading. The work may be a text typed online or uploaded files of any type. Having both a written text response and a file submission simultaneously is also possible.

Besides a rich-HTML question text, teachers can include additional / template files for students to download. The provided assignment files are identical for all students that submit their work.

Grading may be by simple percentages or custom scales, or more complex rubrics may be used. Students may submit as individuals or in groups. Feedback can be given in form of any combination of the following: text feedback, annotated PDF, teacher-uploaded grading worksheets¹, or feedback files uploaded by the teacher.

If the assignment requires uploading PDF files, the teacher can annotate the PDFs directly within Moodle. Moodle automatically generates the annotated PDF files and saves them to be downloaded by teachers and students.

Data Structure

• Assignment activity
  • Assignment metadata (title, description, ...)
  • Assignment instructions
  • Assignment files (additional / template files for students to download)
  • Submissions
    • Submission metadata (user, submission time, ...)
    • Submission status (not submitted, submitted for grading, graded, ...)
    • User metadata (id, name, email, matriculation number, ...)
    • Group metadata (users inside the group)
    • Text submissions
    • File submissions (any type, often PDF)
    • Submission comments
    • Feedback comments
    • Grade
    • Annotated PDF files
    • Feedback files

High-level overview of central data relationships in the Assignment activity

erDiagram
  Assignment ||--o{ Submission : has
  Assignment ||--o{ "Assignment File" : has

  Submission }o--|{ "User / Group" : "belongs to"
  Submission ||--o| "Text Submission" : has
  Submission ||--o{ "File Submission" : has
  Submission ||--o| Grade : has
  Grade ||--o| "Annotated PDF" : extends
  Grade ||--o{ "Feedback File" : extends

Activity: Choice

The Choice activity allows you to ask a question and set up radio buttons which learners can click to make a selection from a number of possible responses. They can choose one or more options, depending on the activity settings. Choices can be useful as quick poll to stimulate thinking about a topic, to allow the class to vote on a direction for the course, or to lock decision about personal topic focus.

It is possible to allow students to update their prior to a given date and time. Results can optionally be published alongside all students.

Data Structure

• Choice activity
  • Choice metadata (title, description, ...)
  • Options (possible responses)
  • Choices / responses
    • User metadata (id, name, email, matriculation number, ...)
    • Selected option
    • Response date and time²

High-level overview of central data relationships in the Choice activity

erDiagram
    Choice ||--|{ Option : has
    Choice ||--o{ Response : has

    Response }o--|| User : "belongs to"

Activity: Quiz

The Quiz is a very powerful activity that can meet many teaching needs, from simple, multiple-choice knowledge tests to complex, self-assessment tasks with detailed feedback. It is one of the two most frequently used Moodle activities for assessing students, the other being the Assignment activity.

Each Quiz consists of a set of questions. These questions can be of different types, such as multiple-choice, true/false, short answer, essay, and more. Students can take the quiz and submit their answers. Every time a student attempts a quiz, a new quiz attempt is created. The Quiz activity can be configured to allow multiple attempts, with each attempt being graded automatically or manually by the teacher. The Quiz activity can also be configured to provide feedback to the student after each attempt, and to show the correct answers after the quiz is closed.

Data Structure

• Quiz activity
  • Quiz metadata (title, description, ...)
  • Questions
  • Attempts
    • Attempt metadata (user, start time, end time, ...)
    • Attempt status
    • User metadata (id, name, email, matriculation number, ...)
    • Questions (question text, answer options, ...)
    • Question answer file attachments ³
    • Answers
    • Response history
    • Feedback
      • General question feedback
      • Individual question feedback
      • Overall attempt feedback
    • Question marks
    • Manual question mark overrides and teacher comments
    • Attempt grade (summative)

High-level overview of central data relationships in the Quiz activity

erDiagram
    Quiz ||--o{ Attempt : has
    Quiz ||--|{ Question : has

    Attempt }o--|| User : "belongs to"
    Attempt ||--|{ "Question Instance" : has
    Attempt ||--o| Grade : has

    "Question Instance" ||--|{ Answer : has
    Answer ||--o| Mark : has
    Answer ||--o| "File Attachment" : has

Activity: Workshop

The Workshop activity is a powerful peer assessment activity. Students add submissions which are then distributed amongst their peers for assessment based on a grading scale specified by the teacher. Students can submit their work as text (online editor), uploaded files, or both. The teacher can provide further text based submission instructions.

Each workshop goes through five phases:

1. Setup phase: The teacher sets up the workshop, defines the grading scale, and sets the submission deadline.
2. Submission phase: Students submit their work and are assigned submissions to assess.
3. Assessment phase: Students assess the submissions assigned to them.
4. Grading evaluation phase: The teacher reviews the assessments and can provide feedback and override grades.
5. Closed: The teacher releases the grades and feedback to the students. Grades are final at this point and ready to be archived⁴.

Submissions are graded by one or more students, as assigned either manually by the teacher or randomly. Students receive two grades: one for their submission and one for their assessment (peer review). The teacher can choose independent grading scales for both grades. Students can either enter a grade and a reason or answer a number of yes / no questions provided by the teacher via the assessment form. After the assessment phase, teachers can review the assessment and provide feedback and override the grades if necessary.

After the teacher reviewed all assessments, the teacher can provide a final conclusion and release the grades and feedback to the students. Once this is done, the workshop is considered closed and grades are final.

Data Structure

• Workshop activity
  • Workshop metadata (title, description, ...)
  • Workshop state / phase (see above)
  • Garding settings (grading strategy, grading weights)
  • Submission instructions
  • Assessment instructions
  • Workshop conclusion (global teacher feedback)
  • Example submissions / assessment examples
  • Submissions
    • Submission metadata (user, submission time, ...)
    • Submission status (not submitted, submitted)
    • User metadata (id, name, email, matriculation number, ...)
    • Text submissions
    • File submissions
    • Grade for submission
    • Grade for assessment
    • Final feedback
  • Submissions allocation
    • Submission metadata
    • Reviewer user(s) metadata
  • Submission assessment
    • Submission metadata
    • Reviewer user metadata
    • Assessment aspects
      • Aspect grade
      • Aspect comment
    • Overall grade
    • Overall feedback

High-level overview of central data relationships in the Workshop activity

erDiagram
    Workshop ||--o{ Submission : has
    Workshop ||--o| "Example Assessment" : has
    Workshop ||--o{ "Submission Allocation" : has
    Workshop ||--o{ "Submission Assessment" : has

    Submission |o--|| User : submitted
    Submission ||--o{ "File Attachment" : has

    "Submission Allocation" }|--|{ User : "is reviewer"
    "Submission Allocation" ||--|| Submission : "assigned to"

    "Submission Assessment" }o--|| "Submission Allocation" : "based on"
    "Submission Assessment" ||--o| "Assessment Aspect" : has

    "Example Assessment" ||--o| "Submission Assessment" : references

    Workshop {
        mixed metadata
        enum state
        mixed grading_settings
        string submission_instructions
        string assessment_instructions
        string conclusion
    }

    Submission {
        mixed metadata
        enum status
        string text_submission
        float submission_grade
        float assessment_grade
        string final_feedback
    }

    "Submission Assessment" {
        int overall_grade
        string overall_feedback
    }

    "Assessment Aspect" {
        int grade
        string comment
    }

    User {
        mixed metadata
    }

Course Completion and Grades

Moodle provides a feature to track activity completion and assign grades on a course level.

Course completion shows if a course has been completed by a given student. It can show the progress a student is making towards finishing the course according to specific criteria. The criteria can include meeting an activity's grade level or a manual checking "complete" by either the student and/or teacher. The report can also show if the student has completed another course(s) that is marked as a "completion dependent" course.

Every course has its own Gradebook which aggregates grades from all gradable activities in the course, allowing the teacher to calculate an overall grade for the course.

Since the course completion and gradebook data are aggregates of the data from the activities, they are not considered archivable data themselves. Instead, the data from the activities should be archived directly for now.