Moodle 3.3 feature review – Assignment types

It’s now possible for Teachers to choose specific file types that Students can upload as Assignment submissions …This is an interesting one, because we have a couple of clients that asked about this possibility.  The clients had Assignments they wanted Students to submit as a .pdf (so they could use the .pdf marking system), but some Students would upload a Word document instead 🙁

So Moodle 3.3 has a new feature that allows a Teacher to specify what type of file is acceptable.  The allowed file types are added by using their file extension, such as .doc, .pdf, or mp3.

If the file types have been restricted, then when Students attempt to submit the Assignment, they will see a message informing them which file types are accepted.

The only issue here is probably for Teachers that are not so technical, and are not so familiar with file extensions.  For example with Microsoft Word you would have to anticipate both .doc and .docx.  If you are going to require ONLY a Microsoft Word document format, then you need to know the different extensions possible

And what if the Assignment indicates “Upload an image you have created” … should the Teacher anticipate every possible image format (almost impossible) or just specify .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif ?   In this case, leaving the ‘Assignment files types’ field blank will continue to allow all file types – which might be best 😉

• About
• Latest Posts

Stuart Mealor

Managing Director at HRDNZ

Stuart is interested in all things e-learning, with specific interests in Moodle, e-learning strategy, and business development.His experience in education over 30 years, MBA in International Business, and knowledge of e-learning systems implementation, together with graphic design background, give him a unique skill set for e-learning projects.

Latest posts by Stuart Mealor (see all)

• H5P periodic table – 8th September 2023
• Moodle 4.0 – 15th May 2022
• Moodle 4.0 other highlights – 14th May 2022