One of our favorite new features of Moodle 4.2 is the addition of a duration setting to the Assignments feature. In previous versions of Moodle, the only way to set a limited time for the completion of something you wanted your students to do was to set it up as a Quiz. Now you have this important capability for assignments in Moodle!

How to set it up

To set up a duration for an assignment, such as a take home assignment, or really anything for which it’s important, set up the assignment as usual. However, in the Availability section of the Assignment Setup, on the new Time limit line, check the Enable box, and then set a duration in seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks.

Keeping students informed

This will enable a count-down timer for students who begin the assignment in your Moodle course. This example is for an assignment that requires the student to enter text online in a browser.

Feedback

When done, the system will report the assignment submission status, as well as the time under, or over the time limit that was provided.