General Assignment Information
The general assignment options are the most basic ones you’ll set for the assignment.
On the screen where you create or edit the assignment, these options show up under the Step One heading.
Note
With most of these options, you can pick values at the time you create the assignment, or you can go back and set them later.
The name of the assignment is the main thing that identifies it, for both you and your students, so you should choose a name that is meaningful. The name is required and must be unique within its unit.
The student will see the name in the default view of the Coursework feature instance (when the assignment becomes visible), and it will also be shown when students display details about the assignment or open the assignment.
Every assignment must be associated with a unit. When creating or modifying an assignment, you select a unit using a drop-down list.
The Unit field is required, but if you don’t actively make a selection, the system defaults to choosing the first unit in the list.
Create a unit by clicking the plus sign.
The system displays a pop-up form, which you use out to create the unit.
The unit will be shown in several places, including when the student clicks through to see more details on the assignment. It will also be displayed on the assignment itself.
Additionally, the unit is shown in automatically generated messages about the assignment.
Every assignment must be associated with a type, which you can select via the Type drop-down list. While the Type field is required, if you don’t actively make a selection, the system defaults to choosing the first type in the list.
Create a type by clicking the plus sign.
The system displays a pop-up form, which you use to create the type.
The type will be shown in several places, including when the student clicks through to see more details on the assignment. It will also be displayed on the assignment itself.
Additionally, the type is shown in automatically generated messages about the assignment.
You use the Audience drop-down list to specify which students will be able to see the exam. The default value for this field is Entire class, but you may also select the Selected students option and then specify a subset of students in the class.
When you select Selected students, the system will display a pop-up window that allows you to select which students will be given the assignment. You may see the following two headings in this pop-up window:
Groups—A list of all roles that have at least one student who is enrolled in the class in them, excluding the Students role.
Individual students—A list of all students enrolled in the class.
You may select any combination of roles and students to include in the audience. If you select a role, all students who are a member of the role will be in the audience for the assignment, regardless of whether they are selected from the Individual students list.
The students selected for the audience will be listed below the Audience drop-down list. You can click the Select students link to change your selection.
Students who are not in the audience will not be able to view or access the assignment, nor will they be included in the statistics displayed on the Assignment Detail screen.
You use the Due date field to set the deadline for students to complete the assignment. This field is required—you will not be allowed to save the assignment until you enter a due date.
The due date is displayed for students in the list of assignments in the Coursework feature instance and when they view the Student Assignment Details screen.
How To
By default, the due date for an assignment will appear in the My Calendar feeds for students and faculty associated with the course. If you want to hide the due date from My Calendar feeds, select the checkbox labeled Hide this assignment from all My Calendar feeds.
If appropriate, you can allow late submissions. To do this, you would select the Accept late submissions until checkbox and then enter the following information:
You must use the date and time fields to specify the latest you will accept late submissions. This is required.
Optionally, you can select the Penalize late assignments checkbox and use the fields in this area to specific a penalty. This is either a percentage or a point value that should be deducted from the score of an assignment turned in late. This deduction can be taken off once, or for each day that the assignment is late.
If you are accepting late submissions, in the student view, once the due date passes, the assignment will be marked with a late icon.
If the assignment shows up in the Due Next area of the screen, the assignment will be marked as “Accepting late work”—although the actual cutoff date for late submissions is not shown.
When you configure the system to include a late-submissions date, then this is the date the system will look to for choosing when to automatically submit assignments for students who didn’t complete them.
When the due date for an uploaded or an online assignment passes, generally the assignment automatically closes for all students. If you move the due date from the past to the future, this action alone will not make the assignment available again. The assignment must be also reopened for any students who should still be able to submit work.
For this reason, when you turn a past due date into a future due date and click Save your assignment, the system will present a pop-up asking whether you want to reopen the assignment for some or all students. The exact choices are:
Reopen for students who haven’t taken the assignment / uploaded files—This option reopens the assignment for all students who did not take the assignment at least once. For example, the assignment will not be reopened for a student who took the test one or more times, even if the student had additional attempts remaining.
Reopen for ALL students—This reopens the assignment for all students. If this is an online test, and if any students already used all available attempts, this option also grants these students one retake each.
Don’t reopen any student assignments—This option does not reopen the test for any students. If you choose this option, then in practical terms extending the due date has no immediate effect. But you may want to choose this option if you plan to make other changes prior to making the test available again to students. (Later you must manually reopen the assignment for each student.)
Note
This same pop-up also displays, with all the same options, if you change the date for late submissions from a past date to a future date, or if you create a new late-submission date for an assignment whose due date is in the past.
If you want to edit all due dates for a single group of assignments on one screen, note that the main view of the Coursework feature includes a link labeled Edit due dates. This link displays near the top of each group of assignments.
When you click Edit due dates, the system makes the due dates for all assignment editable, as well as the date for the unit (if assignments are grouped by unit). If an assignment is closed, the system will include a link for reopening the assignment.
FAQ
You have the following two options for setting the due date:
On a selected date—If you select this option, you must then select a date and time.
Before the end of the course—If you select this option, the assignment will be due before the end of the course section’s end date, which is displayed next to this option.
Note
Use the calendar icon to select a date and the system will automatically format the date correctly.
In general, the following actions automatically occur if a due date is reached, and a student has not yet finished:
For an online assignment for which automatic grading is enabled, if the student has not yet submitted the assignment, the system gives the student a zero. If automatic grading is not enabled, no grade is assigned.
For an uploaded assignment for which automatic grading is enabled, if the student has not yet uploaded a file, the system automatically gives the student a zero. If automatic grading is not enabled, no grade is assigned. If the student has uploaded a file (or files) but failed to click the Mark as Final button, the system submits the file(s) on the student’s behalf.
If the assignment is a basic or forum assignment, there are no automatic grading actions taken when the due date arrives. (However, the assignment is considered closed.)
Tip
You may also set up the assignment so that late submissions are allowed. If you do this, then these automatic actions will occur only when the deadline for late submissions is reached.
The Open setting determines whether an assignment is active. This is a required setting that defaults to Later.
When an assignment is open, then all of the following are true:
The assignment is visible to its audience in the student view of the feature, and audience members can display a screen that lists details about the assignment (the Student Assignment Details screen). They can use this screen to leave comments for you or read your comments for them.
If the assignment is an online test, students in the assignment’s audience can view the test. They will not be able to take the test, however, unless you have also built the test in the Test Builder.
If it is an uploaded assignment, students in the assignment’s audience can upload their files and mark them as final.
If it is a forum assignment, students in the assignment’s audience can begin creating forum posts and replies tied to the assignment.
When you create the assignment, you have the following options for specifying when it will open:
Immediately (now)—The assignment will be open as soon as you save it.
Unspecified (later)—The assignment will not open when you save it. You would select this option if you only want to save the assignment for now so that you can edit it later and specify when it should open by selecting one of the other two options.
Based on rules I define—Allows you to define rules for determining when the assignment will open (Selective Release).
Note
You can also open an assignment from the main feature view by clicking the light switch icon. This icon will appear only for Open Later assignments or those that have a single date rule set for the future.
You can optionally select the checkbox labeled Display to students before it’s open. When you do this, students in the assignment’s audience will be able to see the assignment listed in their view of the Coursework feature and display the Student Assignment Details screen, but they will not be able to submit work.
You can grant an individual student a personalized start date. When you do this, the assignment will open for that student on a different day than it does for the rest of the class.
The selective release of assignments is made possible when you select Based on rules I define from the Open drop-down list.
When you choose to open an assignment based on rules that you define, eLearning allows you to selectively release the assignment to its audience according to one or more rules based on any of the following:
A date and time—For example, you can create a rule to open an assignment on March 8, 2025, at 8:00 a.m.
A student’s completion of another assignment—For example, you can create a rule to open Assignment B as soon as a student has completed Assignment A.
A student’s performance on another assignment—For example, you can create a rule to open Assignment B only if a student has scored at least 80% on Assignment A.
For each student who is in the assignment’s audience, an assignment will not be visible unless the rule requirements have been met (unless you select the Display to students before it’s open checkbox).
After selecting Based on rules I define from the Open drop-down list, several options for defining rules will appear.
The system will add the first rule automatically. You must supply the parameters for this rule. You can add additional rules using the Add a rule function.
At the top of the rules you define is a drop-down list that allows you to specify which of the rules or groups must be satisfied before the assignment will open for its audience. This drop-down provides the following two options:
All—The assignment will open as soon as all of the rules and groups of rules that you define are satisfied. This is the default value.
Any—The assignment will open when any one of the rules or groups of rules that you define are satisfied.
When defining a rule, you can choose to base the rule on either a date or an assignment.
If you choose a date from the drop-down list, you must then specify a date and time to open the assignment.
If you choose an assignment from the drop-down list, you must then select an existing assignment and then choose one of the following options:
is complete—If you've created pre-defined rules used to determine an assignment's completeness.
has a score less than or equal to—If you select this, you must then enter a value for the score.
has a score greater than or equal to—If you select this, you must then enter a value for the score.
Rules that are grade-based (the second and third options above) will not allow the rule condition to be met if there is no grade.
You can also define groups of rules that function as a single rule within the overall ruleset. For example, in the following screen shot we have defined both a rule and a group of rules. This assignment will open for a particular student when both of the following conditions have been met:
July 20, 2024, 11:00 AM has passed.
The student has scored 80% or higher on either Weekly Quiz #3 or Essay Assignment.
For each group that you define, you can apply an Any or All setting to specify which of the rules within the group must be met for the group to be considered as having satisfied the condition.
The Grading option is relevant only for basic, uploaded and forum assignments—online assignments are always graded.
For all assignment types, you can select from the following four grading methods.
Option | Point value required? | Description | Factored into Gradebook? |
|---|---|---|---|
Graded | Yes, you enter the point value on the screen where you create and edit the assignment, in the field directly below the Grading drop-down list. | Each student will get some number of points for the assignment, and a grade determined by the letter grade scale in the Gradebook feature. | Yes, the result will be factored into Gradebook and affect the student’s overall grade for the course section (but only if the assignment is not set to Not included in final grade). |
Graded (Rubric) | Each student will be graded according to the rubric that you set up for the assignment. | ||
Credit / No Credit | Each student will either get all credit or no credit (all points or no points), like a pass/fail option. | ||
Not graded | No | There will be no grade and no indication of whether the student has completed the assignment. | No |
You must choose a grading method using a drop-down list or the system will default to Graded.
If you choose Graded or Credit/No Credit, the screen includes a field for you to enter the total number of points that the assignment is worth.
If you choose Graded, Graded (Rubric) or Credit/No Credit, you can also specify whether you want the grade to be included in the students’ final grade or not, or if you want the assignment to be extra credit only. To do so, you would select the appropriate value from the rightmost drop-down list in the Grading area.
If you choose Graded (Rubric), the screen also updates to display fields for setting up your rubric.
Note
Rubric grading is not available for online tests.
When the student is viewing details about the assignment, the feature includes messaging that indicates whether the assignment is scored out of a certain number of points (graded), whether it is graded using a rubric (graded/rubric), whether it is not graded, or whether it is credit/no credit. If the assignment is credit/no credit, the system does not display the number of points that the assignment is worth.
Rubrics can be used for a variety of assignments to assess and articulate specific components and expectations for an assignment.
While creating or editing an assignment, select Graded (Rubric) from the Grading drop-down list.
The system displays a form that allows you to set up your own rubric or import an existing one.
In the Rubric name field, enter a name for the rubric. (By default, the system creates a rubric name using the name of the assignment, but you can change this.)
If you would like to include a description of the rubric, click Include a description and enter the description in the text editor that displays. For more information on using this editor.
In the Name field, enter a name for the first criterion.
If you would like to change the default point value, which is 5, click Change this point value and enter a new value.
In the Description field, enter a description for the criterion.
Click Save.
Now you are ready to define the criterion for each possible score. To do so, click the link labeled Define criterion name at the score name level.
The system displays a text editor for entering a definition.
Enter a definition and click Save.
Repeat steps 8 and 9 to define the criterion for additional scores.
To add additional criteria, click Add a criterion and repeat steps 4 to 10.
Instead of creating a new rubric for an assignment, you can import an existing one from a different assignment in the current course or in your File Cabinet.
While creating or editing an assignment, select Graded (Rubric) from the Grading drop-down list.
The system displays a form that allows you to set up your own rubric or import an existing one.
Click import an existing one.
The system displays a pop-up window that allows you to select an assignment for which a rubric is already defined. This pop-up window lists all rubrics that have been defined for assignments in the current course as well as those defined for assignments in your File Cabinet.
Click the name of the rubric you wish to import.
The system imports the rubric into the assignment you are creating or editing. You may edit this rubric as you see fit.
Take the following steps to change the ordering of criteria in a rubric.
Click the pair of black arrows located to the left of a criterion, and while holding down the mouse button, drag the criterion up or down to a different location.
Release the mouse button to drop the criterion in its new location.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 to reorder additional criteria.
By default, the system provides five scoring levels (1 to 5) for a new rubric. Take the following steps to edit these default scores.
Click the score’s point value.
The system displays fields for editing the score.
Edit the name and point value as you see fit, and then click Save.
Alternatively, you may delete the score by clicking Delete this score.
Click the plus sign located in the rightmost column of the rubric table.
The system displays fields for entering information about the new score.
Enter a name and a point value for the score.
Click Save.
The Show grade field lets you specify when students should be allowed to see the grade they got on the assignment. This value is not displayed for students.
You can choose to show the grade at any of the following times:
As soon as the grade is available.
As soon as the grade is available, and a specified date has passed.
As soon as the grade is available and after the due date has passed.
You set this using a drop-down list. If you select As soon as grade is available, and a specified date has passed, additional fields will display so that you can specify a date and time.
The Linked options area appears only if the assignment is linked to another. This area will tell you if any copies exist in users’ File Cabinets or other course sections. If the assignment is a copy that is linked to its original, this area will tell you where the original resides and provide a link to the original (if you have permission to access it) along with other options. For more information on assignment linking, see Working with Linked Assignments.