Want to know what your students need help with?
See Student Questions About Assignments. Then, use your browser's back function to return to this topic.
How do I create assignments?
You can create assignments alongside other content. Students can access their work next to the content they need, right when they need it. You can also create a group assignment and release it to one or more groups in your course.
Feel free to experiment! Students can't see what you add until you make your assignments visible.
On the Course Content page, select the plus sign wherever you want to add an assignment. In the menu, select Create to open the Create Item panel and select Assignment. The New Assignment page opens.
You can also expand or create a folder and add an assignment.
When you create an assignment, a gradebook item is created automatically.
After you post assignment grades, students can view their scores on their grades pages or in the activity stream. They can also access an assignment, their submissions, your feedback, and their grades from the assignment link on the Course Content page.
How do I grade assignments?
You can choose where you want to start grading!
Want to see how many assignments are ready to grade in all your courses? In the list where your name appears, you have immediate access to all your courses' grading tasks on the global Grades page. All your grading tasks are organized by course. You can quickly scan your progress, set priorities across the board, and even begin grading. No need to navigate to each course to see what's ready for grading.
The page only displays information if you need to take action. You see assignments that are ready to grade or which assignments are overdue for how many students.
Want to narrow your focus? In a course, you can access the course gradebook on the navigation bar. You can see who has made submissions and start grading.
From the activity stream, you're alerted when student submissions are ready for grading. Or, select an assignment on the Course Content page to see how many students have made submissions.
Watch a video about grading assignments
The following narrated video provides a visual and auditory representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.
Video: Grading assignments explains how to grade assignments.
Can I edit, reorder, or delete assignments?
Yes! You can drag and drop assignments to different locations in the course outline, and edit or delete assignments!
How do I use SafeAssign?
SafeAssign is a plagiarism detection service you can enable within assignments and tests.
- Open the assignment where you want to use SafeAssign. In Assignment Settings, select Enable Originality Report. Choose whether to allow students to view the Originality Report for each of their attempts.
- When students begin their submissions, SafeAssign starts to analyzes the attempt and attachments automatically. While the Originality Report processes, this statement appears: Report in progress... You can view the Originality Report from the Submissions list after it's finished processing. Select an attempt to view the Originality Report in the context of the submission content.
- Percentages appear in the SafeAssign Originality Report panel. SafeAssign analyzes each part of the attempt, including text responses and attachments. Select an entry in the Originality Report list to view the detailed results in a new window.
A student says they submitted their work but I don't see it. How do I know if they really finished the assignment?
We know there are times when students believe they submitted their work only to find out later that it wasn't sent at all, or it wasn't sent successfully. After a student submits an assignment or test, a modal window with a submission confirmation number appears. Student are encouraged to copy and save this number as proof of their work, and evidence for academic disputes.
Instructors can search for a receipt confirmation number at the top of the gradebook submission view. This helps instructors find student submissions when extra verification is needed. Using this receipt confirmation number, the instructor can find the following information:
- assessment name
- assessment grade
- the number of attempts for an assessment the student who submitted the assessment
- the size of any file included with the submission; this allows the instructor to insight into what a student has attached for marking
- submission date and time stamp
To find a submission with the receipt number in the gradebook, select the Search by submission receipt number button at the top right of the Gradebook.
In the receipt search panel, enter the submission receipt number provided to you by the student to look up the corresponding submission.
If a submission is found, select it to open the grading page for the submission. The receipt number also appears on the grading page.
If no submission is found, you will see the message “Sorry! No submission receipt was found for that number. Check the receipt number and try again.”
Watch a video about submission receipt enhancements
The following narrated video provides a visual and auditory representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.
Video: Submission receipt enhancements shows expanded submission receipt functionality for instructors and students.
