The workshop is a powerful peer assessment activity. A student submits their work and then receives submissions from their peers to assess according to the teacher's specifications. They can also assess their own work if you add this setting.

Students receive two grades: one for their own work which has been assessed by their peers, and one for their own assessment of another student’s work. These will both appear in the gradebook.

In this guide:

• How does workshop work?
• Creating a workshop activity
• Workshop phases

How does workshop work?

The workflow for the Workshop module contains five phases: Setup, Submission, Assessment, Grading/Evaluation, and Closed. The typical workshop activity can cover days or even weeks and, importantly, the course leader switches the activity from one phase to another manually.

Creating a workshop activity

1. In the Moodle space, click Turn editing on.
2. Click Add an activity or resource.
3. Select Workshop from the list.
4. Give the Workshop a Name.
5. Give the Workshop a Description. This could contain instructions to the participants.
6. Control grading under Grading settings. Students get two grades: one for the work they submit and one for the quality of their peer assessments. You can change the default 80% and 20% and set pass grades for both scores. For more detailed information, see the Moodle Docs Workshop grading strategiesLink opens in a new window
7. Under Submission settings, explain what students must do for this task. Specify which file types they are allowed to upload and allow late submissions if desired.
8. Under Assessment settings, briefly outline how students will assess their peers' work. Check the Use self-assessment box to allow students to assess their own work.
9. Feedback will allow students the option to add comments when they peer assess.
10. Example submissions will allow you to prove examples for students to practice on before assessing their peers.
11. Under Availability, allow students to start assessing their peers as soon as the submission deadline is over.

Workshop phases

Phase name	Phase description
Setup	The instructor reviews the settings for the activity. This includes adding a description, providing instructions for submission, and providing instructions for students leaving comments on their peers' work. The activity is closed to students during this phase.
Submission	Students submit their work. You can set a submission start date and time and a submission end date. Click Allocate submissions to decide if you yourself want to select which students mark whose work (manual allocation), or if you want Moodle to do this for you (random allocation). You can also choose whether students who haven't submitted anything themselves are able to assess their peers' work.
Assessment	Students access and mark the submissions allocated to them for the peer review.
Grading/Evaluation	The final grades for the submitted work and peer assessment are calculated. You can manually override these grades and provide the students with feedback on the work they submitted and their peer assessment.
Closed	This ends the peer assessment process and releases grades to the gradebook.

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For more guidance on the workshop, see:

More information on the Workshop activity is available at Moodle Docs.Link opens in a new window