Using Assignments

You and your students can use Assignments only after you have added the tool to your course. Depending on how you structure your course, you may want to have Assignments linked on the homepage or you may want to group them with quizzes and self tests on an Assessments organizer page. For more information on adding Assignments to your course, see Add Page or Tool.

Assignments allows you to create and distribute course assignments to your students, and download, evaluate, and assign a grade to the completed work. First, add the assignment to the course by Adding an Assignment, then use Assignment Settings to enter the instructions about the assignment, assign a maximum grade to inform the students of the assignment's value, and set the time and dates for which you want the assignment to be available. You can also attach assignment-related files such as photographs, a spreadsheet you want the student to modify, or articles to which you want students to respond. Students can then view the assignment instructions, submit their completed work, and view their grade after you have assessed it.

Adding an assignment

• Click Assignments. The Assignments screen appears. Select Designer Options.
• Under Assignment Options, select Add, and click Go. The Add Assignment screen appears.
• Type the title of the new assignment in the text box, and click Add. The Add Assignments screen
  appears. The new assignment title appears as a hyperlink.

Specifying assignment settings

• Click Assignments. The Assignments screen appears. Select Designer Options.
• After you have added the assignment, click its hyperlink. The Assignment Instruction screen appears. This screen displays the due date for the assignment, instructions for the completion of the assignment, and its maximum grade. The Assignment Instruction screen also lists assignment-related files.
• Under Edit Assignment Options, click Settings. The Assignment Settings screen opens. The Basic Settings area allows you to title the assignment, give instructions about the assignment to your students, and inform them of the maximum grade possible.
  The Availability area allows you to set the date and time at which you want the assignment to be available, as well as the date and time you want to cut off access to the assignment. You can make the assignment available immediately, or set a future date for its release. The Available Until setting determines the due date that is displayed on the Assignment Instruction screen.
  The Notification area allows you to choose whether or not WebCT will send a message of acknowledgment to each student when they submit an assignment. A second aspect of the Notification feature, which you can turn on and off, is its ability to send you an email message when a student submits an assignment. Note: administrators enable this feature for designers.
  Designers enable this feature for students.
• Type the instructions for the assignment in the text box. Note: you can use HTML to create a hyperlink to an assignment you have created and uploaded to a server. If you choose to do this, you must type in the entire URL for the page, as you cannot browse to create a hyperlink.
• Type the maximum amount the assignment is worth in the Maximum Grade text box.
• Select the dates you want the assignment to be available in the drop-down boxes, or select Immediately and/or Unlimited if you don't wish to set availability constraints.
• To make the changes and save the assignment information, click Update.

Importing assignment-related file(s)

Import allows you to upload and attach assignment-related files such as photographs, a spreadsheet you want the student to modify, or articles to which you want students to respond. Note: you must previously create and upload the file(s) to your My-Files folder, before it can be attached to your assignment.

• Upload the file to WebCT (Uploading a file involves transferring it from your personal computer to the remote server hosting your WebCT course.)
  • From the navigation bar, choose Manage Files.
  • Click in the checkbox next to My Files.
  • Select Upload File in the list box next to File Options.
  • Click Browse to locate the file to upload. Note: the file name cannot contain any of the following characters:
    spaces, tabs, line feeds, carriage returns
    : ~ [ ] ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) + ` } } | \ < > , ? / ; ' "
  • Click Upload.
  • Click Continue to return to the Manage Files screen.
• Click Assignments. The Assignments screen appears. Select Designer Options.
• Click the hyperlinked name of the assignment to which you wish to import a file. The Assignment
  Instruction screen appears.
• To locate the file, click Browse under Edit Assignment Options. The WebCT Browser opens.
• Select the file by clicking on it. Click Pick. The Assignment Instruction screen appears, with the name of the file in the Filename text box.
• To import the file, click Import. The screen refreshes to show the newly imported file.
• To view the attachment, click on the Filename.

Removing assignment-related files

• Click Assignments. The Assignments screen appears. Select Designer Options.
• Click the hyperlinked name of the assignment from which you wish to remove a file. The Assignment Instruction screen appears.
• Select the file(s) you wish to remove.
• Under Remove selected file(s), click Remove. A warning box appears asking you to confirm that you want to delete.
• To delete the file(s), click OK.

Grading student submissions

Grading assignments involves four steps:

• download them from WebCT to your computer
• open them on your desktop
• print them out for reviewing and grading, or review them onscreen
• assign a grade and enter comments about the assignment in WebCT

To download an assignment

• Click Assignments. The Assignments screen appears. Select Designer Options.
• To view the submitted assignments, click Submissions to the right of the assignment you wish to grade. The Submissions screen appears, containing a table with hyperlinks to the ungraded assignments.

The Student Submissions screen

• To see a list of the student's submitted assignments, click the hyperlink in the Status column for that
  student. The Grade Assignment screen appears. This screen contains links to files the student has
  submitted, a text box in which to type the grade for the assignment, as well as another text box in which you can type your comments on the assignment itself (see below). Note: you need to have the software with which the assignment was created in order to view it. If you do not, you need a program that can convert the file to a format you can use.

The Grade Assignment screen

• To download the file for grading, click the hyperlink to the assignment you wish to grade in the Student files table. A dialog box appears. Follow the instructions in the dialog box to save the file on your computer.
• If necessary, close the WebCT Browser by clicking Close. You can now open the file on your desktop, print it out, or read and review it onscreen.

To assign a grade

After reviewing the assignment, you must enter a grade in WebCT.

• Click Assignments. The Assignments screen appears. Select Designer Options.
• Click the Submissions hyperlink beside the assignment for which you wish to enter a grade. The
  Submissions screen appears, with a table listing all students who have submitted assignments. A
  hyperlink stating Not Graded appears in the status column.
• To assign a grade to an assignment, click its Not Graded hyperlink. The Grade Assignment screen
  appears.
• Type a grade in the Grade text box, and type your comments about the assignment in the Comments text box. Click Grade at the bottom of the screen to complete this task and return to the Submissions page.

Helping your students get started

Your student's view of Assignments varies from the course designer view in a number of ways. For example, to upload completed assignment files, students must navigate through a series of screens that you, as a course designer, do not see. The following set of instructions is written with the student in mind. You could copy and paste them into the instructions in your course.

• To upload completed assignments, click Assignments. The Assignments screen appears.
• Click the hyperlinked name of the assignment you want to submit. The Assignment Instruction screen appears.
• To choose the file to upload, click Student Files. The View/Upload Files For Assignments screen
  appears.
• Click Upload. The Upload File For Assignment screen appears.
• To locate the file, click Browse to open your local computer's browser.
• Select the file by clicking on it. The Upload File For Assignments screen reappears, with the name of the file in the Filename text box.
• To upload the file, click Upload. The View/Upload Files For Assignments screen reappears.
• Click the Return to Assignment hyperlink. The Assignment Instruction screen reappears.
• To submit the assignment, click Submit Assignment. The Submit Assignment screen appears. If the
  instructor has enabled WebCT's email notification feature, you can receive email notification that your assignment was submitted successfully. Type your email address into the text box. If your instructor has not enabled the email notification feature, this text box will not appear.
• Click Submit Assignment. A confirmation box appears asking you to confirm the procedure.
• Click OK. The Assignments screen reappears, with the message Not Graded appearing in the Status column. When the assignment has been graded, this message changes to a hyperlink that says Graded and your grade appears in the Grade column. Click the hyperlink to view your instructor's comments about your work.

Note: students use their own software applications to complete assignments. When naming an assignment file which they intend to upload, they must use single-word filenames or insert an underscore between words. WebCT will not recognize filenames with spaces, or characters that are not numbers or letters.

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Instructional Tips for the Assignment DropBox

• The assignment tool works best if students and instructor have the same word processing software, such as Word or WordPerfect. However, to get around this problem, you could also have students save their files as .rtf or .txt before turning in assignments. This way you will be able to read the files.
• If students are turning in writing assignments, or you want to make comments within the file, and not just in WebCT, you can use some little tricks to write within the file.
  • You can write in ALL CAPS in their paper.
  • Or you can use color changes or font changes to mark off your writing from theirs.
  • Or if both you and the students are using Word, you can use the Comments feature. As the instructor, to insert a comment, choose Insert,Comment. Type your Comment. Close. As the student, choose View Comments. This can work quite well.
• Avoid asking for simple summary assignments. Ask for assignments that connect to the student's world and that help them make application of their reading. For example you can use the KQLA strategy [pdf]. Also see the AVLN standard for stimulating learning experiences.