Marking workload and choice

It's 22:43 and I am STILL marking stuff, both on moodle and in books and I've realised a big issue here that, in my opinion will determine the success of a VLE.

I was talking to Brian earlier and he said that when a job is set on moodle, pupils need to be given CHOICE of whether to submit the job on moodle or in a book. I agreeed with him, but tonight after marking some moodle, some books, it seems that the moodle benefits are effectively negated by such a large number of book submissions. I find myself having to flip between the two to try and figure out who has submitted where and all the benefits of quick marking evaporate. In fact the whole thing has been bloody confusing and it's only because I am very aware of the system that I am putting up with it.

My conclusion from tonights all night marking bender is this

If we are to move onto a moodle work submission system, I think it must be made explicit that the pupils are to submit on moodle or die. I think that the pupils should be allowed writing up time and submission time in class and if they genuinely have no computer at home then some provision MUST be made by the school in the form of a computer suite for use at lunch times and break times that the pupils can access.

As long as this school continues to provide substandard computing facilities I wonder if a VLE is viable. I think that the fact that all the kids SHOULD have computers at home really makes online submission in principle at least, a doddle, but so far it hasn't done the job it was intended to do, which is to cut my marking load significantly.