There are useful Moodle improvements to anonymous assignments in Moodle this 2025/26 academic year. This helps to support a fairer assessment experience for student, make it easier for staff to use anonymous marking and align with University policy (QA16 Assessment, Marking and Feedback).
What's new?
Three key changes have been made to how anonymous grading works in Moodle:
- Anonymous marking is now enabled by default: No more forgetting to get anonymous submission or finding the setting! Anonymous marking is now the standard for new assignments.
- Anonymous group filtering for extension groups: Staff can now filter extension submissions without revealing student identities.
- Partial grade release for anonymous submissions: Grades can now be released in stages to students, even when anonymity is enabled.
Why this matters
These improvements to anonymous marking make assessments fairer for all students, helps staff meet QA16 requirements and improves consistency across the University. Also making anonymous the default alongside these feature updates, simplifies the setup for staff: the anonymous marking setting is sometimes forgotten and cannot be enabled retrospectively. However, you can also turn it off anytime if it's not needed.
Supporting You to Make the Most of New Features
We're here to support you with these new features through:
- Updated guidance: The Teaching Hub has been refreshed - see Anonymous marking in Moodle to get started, and also Managing anonymous extensions with groups
- Assessment workflows: Moodle Assignment workflow steps and Moodle group Assignment workflow steps
- TEL-Bytes webinars: TEL-Bytes cover anonymous marking workflows.
