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The assignment activity provides a space into which users can submit work for instructors to grade and give feedback on. This saves on paper and is more efficient than email. It can also be used to remind users of ‘real-world’ assignments they need to complete offline, such as artwork, and thus not require any digital content.
User submissions are together on one screen of your course. You can require them to submit one or several files and/or to type text essays. It is possible to have them submit work as a group and you can also choose as an instructor to grade their work ‘blind’ in other words not to see the identities of those who have submitted assignments. Assignments can have deadlines and cut off dates – which you can also extend if necessary.
Assignment (Submission) types
Users can type directly into LMS, upload files or add media. The options are in the Submission types section and if you don’t see a particular option, get the admin to check the Site administration settings in Assignment settings documentation.
Online text: Text typed into the Atto editor is automatically saved and the instructor can set a Word limit which will display a warning if users exceed it.
File submissions: users can upload files of any type the instructor specifies. The instructor can specify the maximum number of files which may be uploaded and a maximum size for each file.
Users may be able to add a note (comment) to their instructor when they submit their work.
Feedback types
The instructor may give feedback in various ways.
Users may upload documents such as .docx, odt and PDF and the instructor can annotate directly on the user’s submission (requires Ghostscript and unoconv or Google Drive converter to be installed by an admin).
With online text submissions, if the instructor sets “Comment inline” to ‘yes’ they will be able to give feedback on the user’s submission directly in one of two ways:
- The user’s submission will appear in the feedback comments box (if enabled) so instructors can annotate on it and add their feedback comments in the same area.
- If the admin settings allow it, the user’s submission will appear in a large box to the left, allowing the instructor to annotate using comments, highlighting, stamps and other features.
Feedback comments: allows graders to leave comments about the users’ submissions as well as grades.
Offline grading worksheet gives the instructor a link to download the grading list as a spreadsheet. They will then be able to enter grades and feedback comments offline and then re-upload the sheet. See Using Assignment for more information.
Feedback files allow graders to upload files with feedback when marking. These files may be the marked-up user assignments, documents with comments, a completed marking guide, or spoken audio feedback.
Grading assignments
Assignments may be graded with simple Grade points or customizable Scales. If you change the Grading method to Advanced grading, you can then use a Marking guide or Rubric.