Assignments

Assignments are a critical function for schools, enabling faculty to measure student comprehension through various types of work while also helping students see how much they've learned. The Assignment Center is the central location where faculty and students go to access assignments for all of their classes at once.

Faculty members can add new assignments, as well as copy or import existing assignments from the Assignment Center. Once students have submitted their assignments, faculty use the Gradebook and Assignment details page to evaluate the submissions.

Assignments can be added by selecting Add, then Assignment from the Assignment Center or from Assignments on a class page. This will open the Add Assignment modal. You will need to fill in the following information:

Details

Under Details, you will fill in basic information about the Assignment including:

  • Title

  • Description

    Tip: Drag the bottom of the Title and Description text boxes to expand them as needed.

  • Assignment type: Use the available dropdown to select the assignment type.

    Tip: If an assignment type has (GB) next to it, those assignment types will be included in your Gradebook calculation.

  • Assignment notifications: Select Send notification to send a notification for this assignment once it is added.

Evaluation

Under Evaluation, you will set the evaluation method for the assignment. You can set the following information:

Note: If your school uses Competency based education, we recommend using our Faculty Guide to Competency Based Education to create your Mastery assignments.

  • Select Add to gradebook if the assignment should be included in your class's gradebook and enter an optional Abbreviation for the assignment in the gradebook.

  • You have the following Evaluation method options:

    • Total score only

    • Mastery only

    • Mastery and total score

  • If Mastery only or Mastery and total score is selected, you will need to fill in the following under Mastery:

    • Mark as Formative: Formative assignments will not be included in the Mastery calculation.

    • Add classes: Use the edit icon next to No courses selected to add courses to the assignment.

    • Select skills to evaluate: Add Content area and/or Transferable skills to the assignment.

  • If Total score only or Mastery and total score is selected, fill in the following fields under Total score: 

    • Associate rubric (optional): Select Associate rubric if you want to use a rubric for evaluating the assignment. You can choose your rubric under Select from my rubrics. See Rubrics for more information.

    • Max points: Must be greater than 0.

    • Factor: The factor will default to 1. You can include a factor on assignment to add additional weight to an assignment.

    • You have the following Gradebook options available:

      • Publish grade: select if this grade should be published to Students and Parents.

      • Add to cumulative grade: select if this grade should be included in the student's cumulative grade for the course.

      • Mark as extra credit: select if the assignment should be considered extra credit.

        Tip: Extra credit assignments will NOT negatively impact a student's grade. Any extra credit points awarded will be included in the calculation for the student's cumulative grade. See Extra Credit for more information.

Attachments and links

Under Attachment and links, teachers can include files or links for students to use when completing the assignment.

Note: Attachments and Links can be deleted at any time using the available trash can icon for the attachment or link.

To add an attachment, drag a file to the available Drag a file here box or select the box to browse your computer for a file to upload. Once you have selected the correct file, add a description for the file if applicable.

Tip: You cannot edit the File name field. To use a different File Name, you must update the file name before uploading.

If your school has the Google Drive integration enabled, you can select Attach files from Google Drive to open your Google Drive and select files to attach.

To add a link, select Add a link and provide a description and URL.

Learning tool

If your school has enabled any Learning Tool Integrations (LTI), you can select a Learning tool to associate with the assignment. Use the available drop down to select a provider and fill in any fields if needed.

Submission method

Under Submission method, teachers select how an assignment is turned in:

  • No assignment submission: Students do not turn in an online or paper submission for the assignment.

    • Your administrator determines which status is applied to assignments that do not require a submission when the due date and time passes - Complete, Overdue, or To do.

  • On paper submission only: Students may only turn in a hard copy of the assignment.

    • When the due date passes, the assignment status automatically updates to "Overdue" until the assignment is graded or marked as "Collected".

      Tip: If students can choose between submitting their assignment on paper or uploading an in-system file submission, choose In-system submission.

  • In-system submission: Students upload a file submission for the assignment.

    • Select the Number of files allowed per student and select Allow resubmit until due date if students should be able to resubmit files for the assignment.

    Tip: Faculty can annotate files their students submit. For more information, see Assignment Annotations.

    Note: Many file types are supported. For more information, see Supported File Types, Embed, iFrame & Script Code

  • Third party submission: Students submit their assignment through a third party application.

Assignment instances

Under Assignment instances, you can select if you would like to just create one instance of the assignment or multiple instances. If you select to create multiple instances of an assignment, you will need to set the Assigned and Due dates under Assignment instances instead of under Publishing options below. Once you create multiple instances, you can select View/edit instances to edit the Assigned and Due dates and times for each instance. You need to select one of the following options:

  • Create a single instance of this assignment

  • Create multiple instances of this assignment:

    • Date range

    • Due: Select week days the assignment should occur on.

    • Assigned:

      • Assigned on due date: The assignment will be assigned the same day it is due.

      • Assignment before date due: Set the number of days before due date the assignment should be assigned.

Publishing options

Under Publishing options, use Select sections to choose additional class sections that will share the assignment. Then set the Assigned date/timeand Due date/time for each class section. These settings can also be edited for multiple class sections at once using Bulk-edit selected. You'll want provide the following information for each section:

  • Assigned date/time

  • Due date/time

  • Assigned to: This will default to Full section, but you can use the Edit icon to assign the assignment to only specific students.

  • Publish: This setting is for when the assignment should publish to students. Please be aware if Now is selected for Publish, the assignment will automatically be available for students.

    Warning: Online submissions will be lost if an assignment with online submission enabled is unpublished then republished.

You may need to add assignments that only need to be completed by specific students. When you are adding or editing an assignment, you can select which students should have access to the assignment under Publishing options:

  1. Select the edit icon next to Full section.

  2. Select Selected students.

  3. Select students from the available list.

  4. Save when finished.

Once saved, Full section will change to # students. When you save the assignment and return to the Assignment Center and/or Assignments tab, you will see the number of students as well.

Existing assignments from the current or previous school years can be imported to class sections in the current school year. Faculty can also copy an assignment to create a new instance of it within the same class section.

The Publish status for an assignment can be edited inline from the list view in the Assignment Center or the class Assignments tab. To edit additional information for an assignment, such as the Due Date or Title, select the context menu , then Edit.

Faculty can delete assignments even if grades have been recorded. Deleting an assignment removes any student submissions, files, Google Drive links, submitted text, grades, comments, and evaluations associated with the assignment. If an assignment is included in gradebook calculations, the calculations are rerun upon deleting the assignment.

  1. From the list view of the Assignment Center or Assignments tab on a class page, select the context menu next to the assignment, then select Delete.

  2. Select the course section(s) you want to delete the assignment from.

  3. Select Yes, delete for the selected sections to complete the deletion.

You can also delete an assignment from the gradebook by selecting the down arrow in the assignment column, then selecting Delete.

For more information on grading assignments, see Assignment Details