Late Penalty

The Late Penalty

The Late Penalty plugin automatically applies progressive grade deductions to any Moodle activity when a student submits after the deadline.

Unlike Moodle's native late-submission penalty — which is limited to Assignments — this plugin listens to the Gradebook's user_graded event and works with every activity type that records a grade: Assignments, Quizzes, SCORM, Forums, Lessons, Workshops, and more.

" Features

• 📋 Universal activity support: Works with every activity type that uses the Moodle Gradebook, not just Assignments.
• 📅 Flexible deadline resolution: Resolves the effective deadline through a priority chain: Plugin per-user override ' Plugin group override ' Module-native user/group override ' completionexpected ' Module deadline field.
• ' Group overrides: Teachers can set custom deadlines, daily rates, and maximum caps for groups. If a student belongs to multiple groups, the most lenient values are used.
• 📉 Progressive daily penalty: Configurable percentage deducted per day late.
• ' Maximum penalty cap: Deduction never exceeds the configured cap and the final grade is always ≥ 0.
• 🔄 Event-driven: Real-time processing using user_graded. No cron jobs or scheduled tasks required.
• " Gradebook audit trail: Every modification is recorded in Moodle's grade history.
• ' Backup and restore: Rules travel with activity backup, restore, and duplication.
• 🔔 Dynamic status badge:
  • Grey ' before deadline
  • Yellow ' overdue with accumulated penalty
  • Red ' maximum penalty reached
  Badges disappear automatically after completion.
• 🔁 Automatic penalty recalculation: Existing penalties can be recalculated automatically when deadlines or penalty rates change.
• 📊 Penalty report: Teachers can access a filterable report with CSV and Excel export.
• 🌐 Bilingual: English and Brazilian Portuguese.

🎓 Educational Purpose

The Late Penalty plugin is designed to:

• Encourage students to meet deadlines across all activity types
• Provide teachers with consistent and automated late-submission policies
• Provide transparent and auditable grade adjustments
• Inform students of consequences before submission

Suitable for:

• Courses with assignment deadlines
• Blended and fully online learning
• Courses using multiple activity types
• Institutions with formal late-work policies

- How It Works

1. Teacher opens a Moodle activity with grading and completion conditions enabled.
2. Teacher sets a submission deadline:
   • Assignment and Forum: use native due date fields.
   • Quiz, Lesson, SCORM and others: require "Set reminder on timeline" under Completion conditions.
3. Enable Enable progressive penalty in the Late Penalty section.
4. Set:
   • Daily penalty (%)
   • Maximum penalty (%)
   Example:

   10% daily penalty + 50% maximum cap

   The system deducts 10% of the student's earned grade for each late day, up to 50%.

5. After saving, a badge appears beside the activity name showing status and penalties.
6. When students submit after the deadline and a grade is assigned, the plugin applies the penalty.
7. Deadline overrides are resolved according to priority:
   1. Plugin per-user override
   2. Plugin group override
   3. Module-native override
   4. completionexpected
   5. Native deadline field
8. Late days are calculated.
9. The adjusted grade is written back through Moodle's Grade API.

📊 Calculation

1. Days late: rounded up to whole days.
2. Discount: days late - daily rate.
3. Final grade: raw grade ' discount.

Example:

📅 Deadline Priority Chain

📊 Penalty Report

Teachers and managers with capability local/latepenalty:viewreport can access a course report.

The report includes:

Export options