Phase One of our MoodleRooms transition is well underway and the progress made by faculty has been exciting. As we move forward with more and more instructors on board, we will undoubtedly run into issues. Our perspective is to keep you updated on those commonly encountered problems so that we can start to build a bank of “best practices.” I wanted to detail a few of them here. The focus of this post will be on Assignment types.
Moodle allows for instructors to set up an assignment where students must upload a file. This is very similar to the Assignment Link item in Blackboard. There are two options that will achieve this. One is called “Single Upload File” and the other is called “Advanced Uploading of Files.” There has been some discussion about why one would use the single upload file when the advanced uploading of files allows you to restrict users to a single upload. There are a few advantages to the advanced uploading that I want to make you aware of.
Aside from the obvious feature that allows users to upload multiple files, the advanced uploading assignment provides the instructor the ability to make the assignment a work in progress. Once a student uploads a file or files, the assignment can be viewed by the instructor, feedback can be given, and then the student can be given the ability to resubmit. We feel it is a best practice to use the advanced uploading assignment in case you want to take advantage of these settings.
The other assignment type detailed in this post is called Online Text. This assignment requires the user to type directly into Moodle to submit text. We have found this assignment to be a good option for groups that might not be tech savy. It allows the student to forego the steps of browsing for a file and then attaching. It is also a solution for assignments that don’t require a large amount of text. Perhaps assignments requiring a 5 sentence or less response could be done through an online text assignment.
A huge benefit to any of these options over Blackboard is the ability of the student to resubmit if allowed by the instructor in Moodle. This was not a capability of the Assignment Link in Blackboard 8 unless the instructor made an additional assignment.
Dori @ dccc's Blog 
Thanks for the information and clarification on Single File and Advanced File upload. What will the maximum upload file size be for Moodle? Thank you!
Matt
Hey Matt! The maximum upload file size will be 10MB across the board. I know that some of your courses require students to work with files that are by nature on the large side. Will that be sufficient for your course?
Thanks Dori, 10 MB is very generous. Yes, it is true that for a few assignments a larger file size would be helpful, but students typically do not create a single file larger than 10 MB. Students often submit a lab assignment that have several files (3 – 6) ranging from 3 MB – 10 MB as a single zip file. In this case students would submit the files separately. FYI – If a student has a lab file that is 15 MB or larger it is often because they missed some steps in the lab to reduce the file size.
Thank you, Matt