Contents

Assignments

The Assignments tool provides functions for managing the submission of assignments. From Assignments, you can:

Create categories of assignments.

Associate the assignments with grade items that appear in the grade book.

Check assignment submissions for plagiarism.

Associate grading rubrics with assignments.

Create and attach restrictions on the assignment submission folder.

Provide feedback and grades to the student.

Creating an Assignments Submission Folder

Step 1: Select Assignments from the navigation bar.

Open

Step 2: If this course shell is new (not copied from a previous D2L class), the list of assignment folders will be empty. Select New Folder to start building assignment folders.

Open

Step 3: Specify folder properties on the Properties tab of New Folder. After entering a folder name, the following properties may be set.

Folder Type: Select an Assignment Type, Individual assignment, or Group assignment. Group assignment enables you to have one submission per group, but you must associate the assignment with a Group Category. Any group member can submit and view files for a group assignment.

Select a Submission type.

• For File submissions, set the number of Files Allowed Per Submission and the Submissions rules.

• For Text submissions, set the Submission rules.

• For On paper submissions, set Marked as completed to one of the available options: Manually by learners, Automatically on evaluation, or Automatically on due date.

• For Observed in person assignments, set Marked as completed to one of the available options: Manually by learners, Automatically on evaluation, or Automatically on due date.

• To receive an email message when a new submission is uploaded to this assignment, in the Notification Email field, enter your email address, or a comma-separated list of email addresses.

• To associate the assignment with a category, select a Category or click New Category.

• To assign a score, in the Score Out Of field, enter a value. If there is also an associated grade item, maintain consistency by matching the value of the Out Of field to the grade item's Max. Points value.

• To associate the assignment with a grade item in your grade book, select a Grade Item, or click New Grade Item. Note that only numeric grade items can be associated with assignments.

• To change the display settings for the assignment's grade item, select the Student View Preview context menu, then Edit Display Settings.

• To associate a rubric to the assignment, select Add Rubric, or Create Rubric in New Window.

• Default Scoring Rubric: This sets the default rubric used to generate a score for each student as you score each users submission to the folder. This only applies when a score is recorded for the folder and multiple points-based rubrics are used for evaluation. 

• To hide annotation tools in the document viewer, under Annotation tools, uncheck the Make annotation tools available for assessment check box.

Step 4: Select Save and Close to save the new assignment folder.

Set Availability and Release Conditions for an Assignment Folder

Assignments Availability allows you to specify when the student will have access to this Assignment folder.

Release Conditions allow you to associate a submission folder with other items in the course. For example, you can require that users meet some criteria, such as reading a set of lecture notes in the Content tool, before they can access the Assignment Folder.

Setting Assignment Folder Availability

Step 1: For the assignment folder you want to edit, select Edit Folder from the dropdown menu.

Step 2: Select the Restrictions tab on the Edit Folder screen.

Step 3: In the Availability section, set Start, Due and End Dates as desired.

Creating Assignment Release Conditions

Release Conditions allow you to associate an assignment submission folder with other activities in the course. For example, you can require that users meet some criteria, such as viewing a document or watching a video, before they can submit their work to the assignment submission folder.

Step 1: Under Release Conditions, select Create and Attach.

Step 2: Select the Release Condition Type, specifying what type of condition must be met.

Step 3: Select the activity that must be completed and select Create.

Step 4: The release condition will appear. Select Save and Close.

The release condition icon will appear next to the folder, indicating that there is a release condition associated with the assignment folder.

Enabling and Configuring Assignments Submission Folder Originality Check Options

Turnitin is a cloud-based solution with capabilities in originality checking and online grading through the use of their OriginalityCheck and GradeMark tools. Turnitin saves instructors time and facilitates personalized feedback for learners.

OriginalityCheck enables you to monitor assignments submissions and identify potential cases of plagiarism by automatically comparing submissions to an online database of original content. You can then view Originality Reports which highlight key areas, show a breakdown of matching sources, and provide direct links to the matching content.

You can also take advantage of the integrated GradeMark which enables you to add comments, inline text, and highlight sections in file submissions, directly from the Assignments tool. Learners can view GradeMark feedback in User Progress under Assignments, in Grades, in Assignments, in User Progress under Grades, and in Content.

Note: The use of Turnitin combined with the special access features in the Assignments tool is not supported. If you set a due date for a user with special access that is different than the due date set on the Turnitin tab, the Turnitin due date does not change.

Enable Turnitin for an Assignment Folder

Step 1: On the Edit Folder page select the Turnitin tab.

Step 2: Under GradeMark®, select Enable GradeMark for this folder. Select the Transfer frequency.

Step 3: Under OriginalityCheck, select Enable Turnitin for this folder. You can set the Display option to allow learners to see their own similarity scores by selecting the checkbox. You can also set Frequency options.

Step 4: To set more advanced options, select More Options in Turnitin. Save and Close when done.

Assessing Assignment Submissions

There are several ways you can assess assignments:

• Use built-in annotation tools to markup submissions using highlighting, free hand drawing, shapes, and associated commenting.

• Evaluate anonymized user submissions to remove bias in the grading process.

• Evaluate submissions and leave feedback directly on the Submission page.

• Evaluate submissions directly within attached rubrics and leave feedback directly on the Submission page.

• Evaluate external submissions and leave feedback in an assignment.

• Use the GradeMark functionality to add comments, insert inline text, and highlight sections in file submissions directly in Assignments.

• Download user submissions and leave feedback within the files, then upload them back into the appropriate assignment so they appear as attachments to each user's submission evaluation.

The Submissions page lets you view and assess assignment submissions. You can view submissions from a list of students who have submitted assignments or a list of files that have been submitted.

Step 1: On the Assignment Folders page, select the folder to navigate to its Folder Submissions page to view submitted files.

Select the dropdown arrow under the Submissions heading to select a sort option, options include:

• Show Everyone

• Users with submissions

• Users without submissions

• Users with preview submissions

• Users with graded unpublished submissions

Step 2: After selecting your desired option, select the search button (indicated by the magnifying glass).

Step 3: Scroll down to view your search results and select Evaluate next to the student that you would like to assess.

Step 4: On the Evaluate Submission page you can:

• View Document, download, and markup the submitted file(s)

• View the Turnitin originality report for the submitted file(s)

• View the Folder Submission History for the student

• Enter a score for the assignment

• Edit the student view of the grade.

Provide Feedback via text, file, or audio

Note: If you are using rubrics, students submitting to an assignment folder from Content can view the rubric before submission and after the evaluations are published.

Submissions can also be evaluated using the Annotations Tool bar. Submissions will automatically load with the new Annotations Tool bar within the Evaluation Submission screen if Turnitin is not enabled.