Moodle: Tracking Progress

Completion Tracking, Conditional Activities and Moodle Badges

Moodle offers several tools that can assist the teacher in guiding student
progression, tracking attainment and recognising achievements.

Popular sections
Completion tracking (p1)

Completion tracking allows the teacher to set completion criteria in a

Conditional activities (p3)
specific activity's settings. A tick
appears against the activity when the
Moodle badges (p5)
student meets this criterion. The criterion might be viewing a resource or
obtaining a particular mark for an assignment or quiz. In other cases, activity completion can be configured
so that students are able to manually mark resources and activities as completed.
Conditional activities enable teachers to restrict the availability of any activity according to certain
conditions such as dates, marks obtained, or activity completion. When a conditional activity is enabled by
the teacher, a "Restrict access" setting appears in the settings of activities or resources.
Both of these features can be used to guide student progression through a module. These features can
help the teacher to engage students, monitor progress and identify potential areas of concern.
Additionally, Moodle Badges offer a means of recognising achievement and showing progress. Badges may
be awarded by a teacher and can be based on a variety of chosen criteria. Awarded badges can be
displayed on a user's Moodle profile or downloaded for use outside of Moodle.

Enabling completion tracking

To use activity completion tracking, you must first enable it on your Moodle module.
1. In your module, click edit settings in the Administration
block on the left-hand side of the page.
2. On the page that follows, scroll down to the section
entitled completion tracking and choose yes.
3. Click save changes at the bottom of the page. You will now be returned to your module.

Applying completion tracking to resources and activities

After enabling completion tracking on the module, any subsequent resources or activities added to the
module will feature additional options for configuring completion tracking. Completion tracking criteria for
resources is limited to viewing that particular resource, whereas activities (such as quizzes) can also
include grade-based criteria and further actions on the part of the student.

Adding completion tracking to new resources

1. With editing turned on, go to the add a resource dropdown menu and make the desired choice (i.e.
file).
2. On the page that follows, add the resource in the usual way (i.e. upload a file).
3. Scroll down to the activity completion section. There are three options available for completion
tracking (1) [See figure 1 overleaf]:

Do not indicate activity completion disables completion tracking for this resource.

Students can manually mark the activity as completed permits students to manually mark this
resource as completed.

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Show activity as complete when conditions are met automatically marks this resource as
completed when particular criteria has been met. As discussed, completion tracking criteria for
resources is limited to viewing that particular resource therefore, if this option is selected, the
require view checkbox (2) also needs to be checked.

Figure 1 - configuring activity completion on a resource

The expect completed on option specifies the date when the activity is expected to be completed. The
date is not shown to students and is only displayed in the activity completion report [see the Monitoring
completion tracking section of this guide].
After entering the required criteria, click save and return to module at the bottom of the page.

Adding completion tracking to new activities

To add completion tracking to new activities, follow steps 1 to 3 above, this time adding an activity (i.e. a
quiz) rather than a resource. A grade-based criterion is included within the completion tracking options for
grade-bearing activities such as quizzes, assignments and wikis [see figure 2]. Additionally, activities that
request specific actions on the part of the student (such as choice activities, discussion forums and
questionnaires) offer additional criteria for completion tracking.

Figure 2 grade-based criteria on a quiz activity

In the example above, the activity is considered complete when a student receives a grade. Pass and fail
icons may be displayed if a pass grade for the activity has been set [for setting pass grades, see the Setting
pass and fail grades section of this guide].
After entering the required criteria, click save and return to module at the bottom of the page.
Note: Completion tracking can be added to existing resources and activities by clicking edit settings
next to the relevant resource or activity.
Any completion tracking-enabled resources or activities will now display a checkbox to their right.

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A checkbox with a solid boundary represents an activity with

manual completion tracking enabled, whereas a checkbox
with a dotted boundary represents an activity with criterionbased completion tracking enabled. A ticked check box
indicates that the activity has been completed.

Incomplete activity (manual)

Incomplete activity (criterion-based)
Completed activity (manual)
Completed activity (criterion-based)

Monitoring completion tracking

When completion tracking has been enabled on a module, student
progress can be monitored by the teacher at any time.
To access the activity completion report [Figure 3 below], in your module,
click Reports >> Activity Completion in the Administration block on the
left-hand side of the page.
The activity completion report offers a breakdown of completion tracking per student and per activity. For
any activities in which an estimated completion date has been provided, the date will appear next to the
activity or resource in the report. Activities or resources that have passed their expected completion dates
will be highlighted in red. Clicking on the activity or resource name in the report will then navigate to that
specific activity within the Moodle module.

Figure 3 - activity completion report

At the bottom of the activity completion report, there are options for downloading the report in a .csv
format.

Conditional activities
The conditional activities feature can be used to restrict the availability of any activity according to certain
conditions, such as dates, marks obtained, or activity completion. For instance, a teacher may wish to
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restrict access to a quiz until a student has viewed a required reading or obtained a pass mark in a previous
quiz.
To enable conditional activities
1. With editing turned on, go to either the add a resource or add an activity dropdown menu and make
the desired choice (i.e. quiz).
2. On the page that follows, configure the resource or activity in the usual way.
3. Scroll down to the restrict access section and click add
restriction (1).

4. In the pop-up window that follows, click Activity completion

(2)
A set of activity completion parameters will then be displayed
within the restrict access section [see figure 4 below].

Figure 4 - configuring access restrictions

The resource/activity dropdown menu lists all of the resources and activities in your module that can be
used as a source of the access restriction (1). This is followed by the criterion dropdown menu (2), which
contains four options:

Must be marked complete

Must not be marked complete

Must be complete with pass grade*

Must be complete with fail grade*

*Pass and fail grades are discussed in the Setting pass and fail grades for activities section of this guide.
To add further access restrictions (i.e. by date or time), click Add restriction (3). To remove an access
restriction at any time, click on the X icon (4). Once the relevant criteria has been set, you can click Save
and display at the bottom of the page.
The resources and activities in your Moodle module will now indicate that an access restriction is in-place.
The conditional criteria will be listed beneath the activity or resource (1).

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Note: Conditional criteria can be added to existing resources and activities by clicking edit settings
next to the relevant resource or activity.

Setting pass and fail grades for activities

In some cases you may wish to specify a particular pass grade as a conditional criterion for an activity. To
set a pass grade for an activity:
1. In your module, click Grades in the Administration block on the left-hand side of the page.
2. On the page that follows, click on the Categories and
items tab.
3. Click on the cog icon next to the relevant activity in the table (1).

4. On the page that follows, click on the show more option.

5. Enter a figure into the Grade to pass field (2). This
setting determines the minimum grade required to
pass. The value is used in activity completion, and in
the gradebook, where pass grades are highlighted in
green and fail grades in red.
6. Click save changes at the bottom of the page.

Note: Pass grades are set on a per-activity basis and cannot be set globally for all activities in a
module.

Moodle Badges
Moodle Badges offer a means of recognising achievement and showing progress. Badges may be awarded
by a teacher and can be based on a variety of chosen criteria. Awarded badges can be displayed on a user's
profile or downloaded for use outside of Moodle.
Teachers may wish to design their own badges using a graphics package of their choice. Alternatively,
teachers can create and download badges using online services such as Makebadges, or similar.

Adding badges
Badges can be added by teachers and conveners on a per-module basis. To add a badge or series of
badges to a Moodle module:
1. In your module, click Badges >> Add a new badge in the Administration
block on the left-hand side of the page.

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2. Enter the details for your badge, including a name and a description. Click on the choose a file option
(or use drag and drop upload) to upload your badge. This is the image that will be used when this badge
is issued. To add a new image, browse and select an image (in JPG or PNG format) then click "Save
changes". The image will be cropped to a square and resized to match badge image requirements.
3. Enter a name of the person issuing the badge (i.e. your name).
4. Within the badge expiry section, specify any required expiry options for your badge.
5. Click create badge to complete the process.
Repeat the above steps for any additional badges.

Setting badge criteria

After adding new a badge, you will be taken to the criteria tab (1).

Figure 5 - badge criteria

Click on the Add badge criteria dropdown menu (2). There are three available options:

Manual issue by role

Course completion*

Activity completion
*Course completion is not discussed in this guide.
Manual issue by role allows a badge to be awarded manually by users who have a particular role within
the module (such as conveners, teachers, non-editing teachers and support staff). Selecting this option
offers a series of checkboxes for selecting which roles are permitted to award badges.
Activity completion allows a badge to be awarded automatically based on the completion of particular
resources and activities (as discussed earlier in this guide). Selecting this option offers a list of resources
and activities in the module that have completion tracking enabled [see figure 6 below].
Check the relevant boxes for any completed resources or activities youd like to award badges for (1). If
youd like to also include time-based criteria, remember to enable the complete by fields (2).

Figure 6 - awarding badges automatically through completion tracking

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After clicking save (3), you will then be returned to the criteria tab [see figure 7 overleaf].
Existing activity completion criteria is displayed on this page (1). There are options for deleting or editing a
particular criterion (2). In addition to this, you may add further criteria by using the add badge criteria
dropdown menu (3).
Before badges can be awarded (either manually or automatically), they must first be made available to
users. Click enable access (4) to enable a badge.

Figure 7 - badge criteria

Managing and editing badges

To manage and edit existing badges:
1. In your module, click Badges >> Manage badges in the Administration block on the left-hand side of the
page.
2. The page that follows provides an overview of the badges for this module [see figure 8 below].

Figure 8 manage badges page

To view the details of a badge, click on the badge title (1). The availability status of particular badges is
displayed in the badge status column (2). Badge criteria - the conditions in which a badge will be awarded
to a student is listed in the criteria column (3). The number of students who have received a particular
badge are listed in the recipients column (4). Within the actions column (5), there are options for hiding,
editing, duplicating and deleting badges.
To edit an existing badge, click on the cog icon
Note: Badges that have already been made available to users cannot be edited. You must first
disable access to the badge in order to make any changes.

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Awarding badges manually

To manually award badges to your students:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Click Badges >> Manage badges in the Administration block on the left-hand side of the page.
On the page that follows, next to the relevant badge, click on the figure in the recipients column.
On the page that follows, click award badge.
On the page the follows, select the relevant student(s) from the list on the right hand side and then
click award badge.
5. You can now return to the Moodle homepage or return to your module by clicking on the module code
in the breadcrumb trail at the top of the page.

Badge administration
From the manage badges page, clicking on the figure in the recipients column presents a table of all of the
users who have been awarded this particular badge.
Clicking on view issued badge (1) will display additional details for this badge, including the time and date
that it was issued.

Any badges awarded to students will, by default, appear on the students profile page. Students can
choose to disable the visibility of their badges by clicking on their name in the top right corner of Moodle
and then choosing badges >> preferences from the administration block on the left.

Help & Support

For general help using Moodle, contact your Faculty Learning Technologist (FLT). If you are having
problems accessing Moodle, contact the Helpdesk on 01227 82 4888, or email [email protected]. Other
training guides are available on the E-Learning website.

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