Tag: Assignments

Use the Assignments tool to help you set and manage deadlines, unclutter your inbox, and save trees!

The Assignments tool is an efficient way to manage and collect your student's individual and group assignments digitally. You can use the Assignments tool to create and edit assignments, see users’ submission times, view submissions on the Evaluate Submission page, associate assignments to rubrics, and return submissions to learners with their grades and your feedback.

For assignments that included file submissions, you can download the submissions to your computer for review offline.

This blog post answers frequently asked questions about creating an assignment using the Assignments tool.

When you create an Assignment with the new Assignment Creation Experience, the default when you enter points in the “Grade Out Of” field is that the “In Grade Book” option will be automatically selected.

The “In Grade Book” option will automatically create a grade item (column) in the Grade Book. The grade item is created with the same name as the Assignment.

If you setup your Grade Book before creating the Assignment and you already have a grade item (column) for the Assignment in your Grade Book, you would associate the Assignment to the grade item by using the "Edit or Link to Existing" option and then navigate to the grade item in your Grade Book that you want to associate the Assignment with.

If you DO NOT want the system to create a column for the Assignment in your Grade Book, then you should select the "Not in Grade Book" option.

The drop-down menu also allows you to reset the Assignment to ungraded, if necessary.

NOTE: Even though the new Assignment Creation Experience can automatically create a grade item (column) in your Grade Book, we still suggest you setup your Grade Book first and when you create your Assignments then choose the option to “Edit or Link to Existing” grade item in your Grade Book and navigate to the grade item that you want to associate the Assignment with.

Choosing to automatically create grade items in your Grade Book may present a problem when viewing your Grade Book from the Enter Grades tab. If you find the extra wide column headings that are created because of a long assignment name to be problematic, then you can edit the grade items and enter a shorter name for them. You can edit the grade items one at a time or edit them in bulk.

You can edit grade items in bulk from the Manage Grades tab. First, select the grade items you want to edit and then click Bulk Edit.

You will see the short names when you view your Grade Book from the Enter Grades tab.

Want more information?

Brightspace Tip #464: Simplify Assignment Collection
About Assignments
Create an Assignment

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The 'Observed in Person' assignment submission type is for situations where a learner needs to present something or demonstrate something and an instructor needs to confirm that it was completed. This submission type allows instructors to create assignments for a wide variety of activities and provide evaluation and feedback for these assignments in Brightspace.

The ‘Observed in Person’ submission type is meant for scoring and evaluation of a learning activity such as demonstration, presentation, lab test, etc.

There are four submission types to choose from when creating an Assignment in Brightspace. The submission types are:

• File submission: learners upload and submit a file to the assignment.
• Text submission: learners post text, image, or a link to their work in a text box within the assignment.
• On paper submission: learners submit a physical copy of their assignment directly to their instructor. No file upload is required to complete the assignment.
• Observed in person: allows instructors to observe learners as they perform tasks, such as in-class presentations, and evaluate the observation. No file upload is required to complete the assignment.

There are three options to mark an ‘Observed in Person’ assignment as completed:

• Automatically on due date – Brightspace marks the assignment as completed on a pre-set date.
• Automatically on evaluation – Brightspace automatically marks the assignment as complete when the instructor evaluates the assignment using any of the assessment methods in Brightspace.
• Manually by Learner – The student will mark the assignment as complete.

The assignment can be assessed using text/audio/video feedback, Brightspace interactive rubric, or by assigning a grade.

Want more information?

What is an ‘Observed in Person’ assignment?
Evaluate assignments using the Assignments tool
Brightspace Tip #464: Simplify Assignment Collection
Brightspace Tip #204: Interactive Rubrics
Brightspace Tip #299: Video Notes
Brightspace Tip #449: Video Notes - Closed Captions

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Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Updates to the Assignment tool give instructors greater control over the behavior of availability dates for their learners. As a result, instructors can:

• Stop late submissions.
• Let learners view assignment information and submissions after it ends.
• Schedule the visibility of an assignment.
• Allow learners to view an assignment while preventing them from attempting it.
• Post the start and end of an assignment to the Calendar.

The Assignment list page for both instructors and learners now contain all activity dates and date settings, including:

• Access restricted
• Submission restricted
• Hidden

The availability date settings will let instructors setup assignments to achieve a few different workflows for students:

• To stop late submissions, set an end date that is submission-restricted. Learners will be able to see the assignment information after the end date, but will not be able to submit.
• To let learners access their submissions after the assignment has ended, set an end date that is submission-restricted.
• To prevent learners from attempting an assignment but still allow them to view details like instructions and attachments, set a start date that is submission-restricted.
• To schedule the visibility of an assignment you want students to see at a specific time, set a start date that is hidden to completely hide it from students; or set a start date that is access-restricted to let students see the name and dates of the assignment but no other details.
• To show the start and end of an assignment in the Calendar, include start and end availability dates on the assignment and select Add availability dates to Calendar.

Instructors can choose the default settings for availability dates for any new assignment. The settings are available on the Availability Date Defaults page, which can be found under Course Admin.

Important: Making a change on the Availability Date Defaults page will not affect the availability dates of any previously-created assignment or discussion, but it will affect the date properties of special access dates.

New Properties of Availability Dates for Assignments

The availability dates for Assignments have new properties as described below. These new properties align and behave the same way as the same properties available to Discussions topics and forums.

The Availability Start and End Dates will each have a set of three options. Instructors will be able to select one option for each date. By choosing an option, you are deciding whether learners can see the assignment and access it. The options are:

1. Visible with access-restricted (before start/after end)
   • The assignment will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date, but they cannot click or open it.
   • This behavior is consistent with how Classic Content, Assignments, and User Progress treat assignments outside of availability dates currently.
   • With this setting, learners can see the name, dates, and restrictions. Learners cannot see the assignment description or attachments.
2. Visible with submission-restricted (before start/after end)
   • The assignment will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date and they can click or open it, but they cannot submit or mark it as complete.
   • With this setting, learners can see all details about the assignment including description, attachments, and rubrics, but they cannot upload files, enter comments, or mark the assignment as complete (for observed in person/on paper submission).
3. Hidden (before start/after end)
   • The assignment is hidden to learners until the start date is reached or after the end date passes.
   • Learners will not see the assignment anywhere across Brightspace, including corresponding Calendar events and Notifications.

The Assignment List page contains all activity dates and date settings. The hover tooltip includes the information about start and end dates with settings to explain how the assignment appears to learners before and after these dates.

Assignment Special Access

The special access screens for Assignments remains unchanged when the new dates feature is enabled. However, special access dates inherit the date properties as follows:

• When the parent assignment has an availability date set, its date property is inherited by the corresponding special access date. For example, if the assignment is hidden before a start date, then the special access start date is also treated as hidden.
• When the parent assignment does not have an availability date, the special access date inherits its date property from the course default. For example, if the assignment does not have an end date, then a special access end date is set for a learner. This also occurs if the course default for assignment end dates is submission-restricted, making the special access end date be treated as submission-restricted.

Note: Whenever the availability date settings are changed from the Availability Date Defaults page, those changes will immediately impact the date properties of special access dates.

See the New Assignments Date Feature - Updated Date Availability, Visibility, and Access Options knowledge article for an in-depth look at all the feature and capability changes with this redesign.

Want More Information?

• Brightspace Tip #464: Simplify Assignment Collection
• New Assignments Date Feature - Updated Date Availability, Visibility, And Access Options
• Set Availability and Due Dates for an Assignment
• Brightspace Tip #208: Assignments - Special Access

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
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You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

The Assignments tool is an efficient way to manage and collect your student's individual and group assignments digitally. Students use the Assignments tool to upload and submit assignments directly in Brightspace, eliminating the need to mail, fax, or email their work to instructors. On paper submissions, and observed in person assignments are also available and do not require file submissions to be made in Brightspace.

Did you know that you can quickly create new assignments from existing assignments using the Copy Assignment and the Copy to Other Courses options?

The Copy Assignment feature copies all settings of an existing assignment except the associated grade item and Turnitin settings.

Instructors who teach multiple courses can Copy Assignments to Other Courses. To copy assignments to another course, you must be enrolled in both the source and destination course with a role having the permission Assignments > Copy to Other Courses in order to copy from source to destination.

Instructors can copy the following assignment attributes to the new destination:

• Assignment folder and its properties, including instructions, assignment category, and visibility
• Assignment properties including description and category
• Attachments like direct file attachments, uploaded from Google Workspace or OneDrive, and audio and video files
• Grade item and grade category
• Availability dates
• Submission and completion information, including the Optional Grade item and the course scheme if used.
• Rubric(s) associated with the assignment. When copying an assignment that uses a shared rubric, instead of linking a copied assignment to a shared rubric, the rubric is also copied. The copied assignment links to the copied rubric. If an assignment uses a rubric that is archived, the rubric is copied and retains its archived state in the destination course.

The following attributes are NOT copied:

• Instruction Quicklinks and attachment resources created with the Attach link to existing activity action
• Instruction images added using Insert Image that were saved to course files
• Availability release conditions and special access settings
• Submission and completion information, including group assignment designation
• Evaluation and Feedback information including Turnitin associations, competency, and outcome associations
• Content topic associations (for example, if the assignment is linked from content)

Note: In some cases, references to links and images that are not copied may result in broken links.

Follow these steps to do it.

To copy an existing assignment, you should:

1. On the NavBar, click Activities and then click Assignments.
2. From the drop-down menu of the assignment you want to copy, click Copy Assignment.
3. The copied assignment opens in edit mode. Update the name, score, due date, instructions and other settings of the copied assignment.
4. After reviewing all the details, click Save and Close to go back to the Assignments page.

To copy an assignment to another course, you should:

1. On the NavBar, click Activities and then click Assignments.
2. From the drop-down menu of the assignment you want to copy, click Copy to Other Courses.
3. Click to select the rubrics and/or grade items if you want those items copied with the assignment.
4. In the Choose Destinations area, search by keyword or semester to find the destination courses for the assignment.
5. Click to select the destination course(s) for the assignment.
   Note: By default, the maximum number of courses you can select is 10.
6. Expand the Destination course to set the assignment location and visibility.
7. Click Next and you will be taken to the progress page.

NOTE: The progress page indicates the status of each destination course and any issues. If you navigate away from the progress page, a minibar notification in Brightspace indicates when the assignment has been copied to all the destination courses. You can click the notification to open the progress page to review the status and logged issues.

Want more information?

Brightspace Tip #464: Simplify Assignment Collection
Copy an existing assignment
Copy assignments to other courses
About Assignments
Create an assignment
Observed in person assignments
Allow Special Access for assignments
Evaluate assignment submissions from Content
Brightspace Tip #143: Annotate Assignment Submissions

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
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You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Use the Assignments tool to help you set and manage deadlines, unclutter your inbox, and save trees!

The Assignments tool is an efficient way to manage and collect your student's individual and group assignments digitally. Brightspace's Assignments Tool allows instructors to create a secure location for students to submit class assignments.

The Assignments tool allows instructors to set up a place for students to submit their assignments digitally, with the ability to:

• Control the window for submission
• Facilitate individual submissions or group submissions (provided the groups have been set up using the Groups tool first)
• Collect and assess submissions (with a connection to the Grades tool, if needed)
• Enable plagiarism detection through Turnitin

Additionally, you can use Brightspace's Interactive Rubrics to increase efficiency. The interactive rubrics allow instructors to establish set criteria for grading assignments. Instructors can attach rubrics to assignment submission folders so that the criteria are visible to students at any time, only after grading has been completed, or not shown to the students at all. The rubrics click-and-score simplicity saves time when grading because rubrics are built into the grading workflow. For more information about rubrics refer to Brightspace Tip #204: Interactive Rubrics.

Follow these steps to do it.

To create an assignment submission folder:

1. On the NavBar (of the course you want to create a submission folder), click Activities and then choose Assignments from the drop-down menu.
2. Click New Assignment.
3. Enter a Name for your submission folder.
4. To evaluate the assignment with a numeric value, enter a Grade Out Of. A grade item with the same name as your assignment is automatically added to your gradebook. Alternatively, you can click on the "In Grade Book" menu item to reveal a drop-down list. Select the "Edit or Link to Existing" option and then navigate to a grade item that is already in your Grade Book.
5. Set a Due Date.
6. Enter assignment instructions.
7. Upload any files, link to any existing activities or external weblinks, attach any files from Google Drive or OneDrive, and record and/or upload any audio or video notes.
8. Expand Availability Dates & Conditions and do the following:
   • Set a Start Date and an End Date.
   • Attach Release Conditions.
   • Use Manage Special Access to enable the assignment to be available only to a select group of users or to add individualized due dates for certain users.
9. Expand Submission & Completion and do the following:
   • For the Assignment Type, specify if this is an Individual Assignment or Group Assignment.
   • Select an existing category to align your assignment to or click New category to create a category.
   • 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.
   • From the Allowable File Extensions dropdown menu, select an option to restrict file extensions on submissions for the assignment.
   • Use Notification Email to receive email notifications when an assignment is submitted.
10. Expand Evaluation & Feedback and do the following:
    • Click Add rubric and either create and attach a new rubric or add an existing one.
    • Under Annotation Tools, select the Make annotation tools available for assessment check box.
    • To enable anonymous marking, under Anonymous Marking, select the Hide student names during assessment check box.
    • Under Turnitin Integration, click Manage Turnitin to enable the Turnitin integration and click Save.
11. To make your assignment visible to learners, click on the Visibility toggle.
12. Click Save and Close.

Want More Information?

Assignments:

• Create an Assignment full reference guide (pdf)
• Create an assignment
• Deliver Online Assignments
• Copy assignments
• "Observed in Person" assignments
• Allow special access for assignments
• View and evaluate assignment submissions
• Annotate assignment submissions
• Email students who haven't submitted an assignment
• How to submit Assignments video [2:06]

Turnitin:

• Assignments and Turnitin
• Enable Turnitin Feedback Studio® for assignments
• Quick Tips for Mastering Feedback Studio
• Turnitin Quick Submit
• Turnitin Feedback Studio - Student

Rubrics:

• Brightspace Rubrics Tool

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by gabrielle_cc from Pixabay

Use the Assignments tool to help you set and manage deadlines, unclutter your inbox, and save trees!

The Assignments tool is an efficient way to manage and collect your student's individual and group assignments digitally. Brightspace's Assignments Tool allows instructors to create a secure location for students to submit class assignments.

The Assignments tool allows instructors to set up a place for students to submit their assignments digitally, with the ability to:

• Control the window for submission
• Facilitate individual submissions or group submissions (provided the groups have been set up using the Groups tool first)
• Collect and assess submissions (with a connection to the Grades tool, if needed)
• Enable plagiarism detection through Turnitin

Additionally, you can use Brightspace's Interactive Rubrics to increase efficiency. The interactive rubrics allow instructors to establish set criteria for grading assignments. Instructors can attach rubrics to assignment submission folders so that the criteria are visible to students at any time, only after grading has been completed, or not shown to the students at all. The rubrics click-and-score simplicity saves time when grading because rubrics are built into the grading workflow. For more information about rubrics refer to Brightspace Tip #204: Interactive Rubrics.

Follow these steps to do it.

To create an assignment submission folder:

1. On the NavBar (of the course you want to create a submission folder), click Activities and then choose Assignments from the drop-down menu.
2. Click New Assignment.
3. Enter a Name for your submission folder.
4. To evaluate the assignment with a numeric value, enter a Grade Out Of. A grade item with the same name as your assignment is automatically added to your gradebook. Alternatively, you can click on the "In Grade Book" menu item to reveal a drop-down list. Select the "Edit or Link to Existing" option and then navigate to a grade item that is already in your Grade Book.
5. Set a Due Date.
6. Enter assignment instructions.
7. Upload any files, link to any existing activities or external weblinks, attach any files from Google Drive or OneDrive, and record and/or upload any audio or video notes.
8. Expand Availability Dates & Conditions and do the following:
   • Set a Start Date and an End Date.
   • Attach Release Conditions.
   • Use Manage Special Access to enable the assignment to be available only to a select group of users or to add individualized due dates for certain users.
9. Expand Submission & Completion and do the following:
   • For the Assignment Type, specify if this is an Individual Assignment or Group Assignment.
   • Select an existing category to align your assignment to or click New category to create a category.
   • 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.
   • From the Allowable File Extensions dropdown menu, select an option to restrict file extensions on submissions for the assignment.
   • Use Notification Email to receive email notifications when an assignment is submitted.
10. Expand Evaluation & Feedback and do the following:
    • Click Add rubric and either create and attach a new rubric or add an existing one.
    • Under Annotation Tools, select the Make annotation tools available for assessment check box.
    • To enable anonymous marking, under Anonymous Marking, select the Hide student names during assessment check box.
    • Under Turnitin Integration, click Manage Turnitin to enable the Turnitin integration and click Save.
11. To make your assignment visible to learners, click on the Visibility toggle.
12. Click Save and Close.

Want More Information?

Assignments:

• Assignments Tool Quick Reference Guide (pdf)
• Create an assignment
• Deliver Online Assignments
• Copy assignments
• "Observed in Person" assignments
• Allow special access for assignments
• View assignment submissions
• Evaluate assignment submissions
• Annotate assignment submissions
• Email students who haven't submitted an assignment
• How to submit Assignments video [2:06]

Turnitin:

• Assignments and Turnitin
• Enable Turnitin Feedback Studio® for assignments
• Turnitin Feedback Studio - Instructor
• Quick Tips for Mastering Feedback Studio
• Turnitin Quick Submit
• Turnitin Feedback Studio - Student
• Students - View your Turnitin assignment feedback

Rubrics:

• Brightspace Rubrics Tool

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by gabrielle_cc from Pixabay

An update to assignment availability dates was introduced with our December Continuous Delivery Updates. Assignment availability dates for the Assignment tool were updated to be consistent with the new availability date model that was previously added to Discussions. Instructors can now include availability dates in the Calendar and have greater control over the behavior of availability dates for their learners. As a result, instructors can:

• Stop late submissions.
• Let learners view assignment information and submissions after it ends.
• Schedule the visibility of an assignment.
• Allow learners to view an assignment while preventing them from attempting it.
• Post the start and end of an assignment to the Calendar.

The Assignment list page for both instructors and learners now contain all activity dates and date settings, including:

• Access restricted
• Submission restricted
• Hidden

The new availability date settings will let instructors setup assignments to achieve a few different workflows for students:

• To stop late submissions, set an end date that is submission-restricted. Learners will be able to see the assignment information after the end date, but will not be able to submit.
• To let learners access their submissions after the assignment has ended, set an end date that is submission-restricted.
• To prevent learners from attempting an assignment but still allow them to view details like instructions and attachments, set a start date that is submission-restricted.
• To schedule the visibility of an assignment you want students to see at a specific time, set a start date that is hidden to completely hide it from students; or set a start date that is access-restricted to let students see the name and dates of the assignment but no other details.
• To show the start and end of an assignment in the Calendar, include start and end availability dates on the assignment and select Add availability dates to Calendar.

Previously, most Brightspace tools restricted access to assignments outside of availability dates with a manually managed visibility toggle.

Instructors can choose the default settings for availability dates for any new assignment. The settings are available on the Availability Date Defaults page, which can be found under Course Admin.

Important: Making a change on the Availability Date Defaults page will not affect the availability dates of any previously-created assignment or discussion, but it will affect the date properties of special access dates.

New Properties of Availability Dates for Assignments

The availability dates for Assignments have new properties as described below. These new properties align and behave the same way as the same properties available to Discussions topics and forums.

The Availability Start and End Dates will each have a set of three options. Instructors will be able to select one option for each date. By choosing an option, you are deciding whether learners can see the assignment and access it. The options are:

1. Visible with access-restricted (before start/after end)
   • The assignment will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date, but they cannot click or open it.
   • This behavior is consistent with how Classic Content, Assignments, and User Progress treat assignments outside of availability dates currently.
   • With this setting, learners can see the name, dates, and restrictions. Learners cannot see the assignment description or attachments.
2. Visible with submission-restricted (before start/after end)
   • The assignment will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date and they can click or open it, but they cannot submit or mark it as complete.
   • With this setting, learners can see all details about the assignment including description, attachments, and rubrics, but they cannot upload files, enter comments, or mark the assignment as complete (for observed in person/on paper submission).
3. Hidden (before start/after end)
   • The assignment is hidden to learners until the start date is reached or after the end date passes.
   • Learners will not see the assignment anywhere across Brightspace, including corresponding Calendar events and Notifications.

Assignment Special Access

The special access screens for Assignments remains unchanged when the new dates feature is enabled. However, special access dates inherit the date properties as follows:

• When the parent assignment has an availability date set, its date property is inherited by the corresponding special access date. For example, if the assignment is hidden before a start date, then the special access start date is also treated as hidden.
• When the parent assignment does not have an availability date, the special access date inherits its date property from the course default. For example, if the assignment does not have an end date, then a special access end date is set for a learner. This also occurs if the course default for assignment end dates is submission-restricted, making the special access end date be treated as submission-restricted.

Note: Whenever the availability date settings are changed from the Availability Date Defaults page, those changes will immediately impact the date properties of special access dates.

See the New Assignments Date Feature - Updated Date Availability, Visibility, and Access Options knowledge article for an in-depth look at all the feature and capability changes with this redesign.

Want More Information?

• New Assignments Date Feature - Updated Date Availability, Visibility, And Access Options
• Brightspace Tip #208: Assignments - Special Access

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

There were some changes with the New Assignment Creation Experience that has led to a few questions about creating assignments. I’m writing this blog post to address those questions.

When you create an Assignment with the new Assignment Creation Experience, the default when you enter points in the “Grade Out Of” field is that the “In Grade Book” option will be automatically selected.

The “In Grade Book” option will automatically create a grade item (column) in the Grade Book. The grade item is created with the same name as the Assignment.

If you setup your Grade Book before creating the Assignment and you already have a grade item (column) for the Assignment in your Grade Book, you would associate the Assignment to the grade item by using the "Edit or Link to Existing" option and then navigate to the grade item in your Grade Book that you want to associate the Assignment with.

If you DO NOT want the system to create a column for the Assignment in your Grade Book, then you should select the "Not in Grade Book" option.

The drop-down menu also allows you to reset the Assignment to ungraded, if necessary.

NOTE: Even though the new Assignment Creation Experience can automatically create a grade item (column) in your Grade Book, we still suggest you setup your Grade Book first and when you create your Assignments then choose the option to “Edit or Link to Existing” grade item in your Grade Book and navigate to the grade item that you want to associate the Assignment with.

Choosing to automatically create grade items in your Grade Book may present a problem when viewing your Grade Book from the Enter Grades tab. If you find the extra wide column headings that are created because of a long assignment name to be problematic, then you can edit the grade items and enter a shorter name for them. You can edit the grade items one at a time or edit them in bulk.

You can edit grade items in bulk from the Manage Grades tab. First, select the grade items you want to edit and then click Bulk Edit.

You will see the short names when you view your Grade Book from the Enter Grades tab.

Want more information?

Brightspace Tip #329: Simplify Assignment Collection

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call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

The 'Observed in Person' assignment submission type is for situations where a learner needs to present something or demonstrate something and an instructor needs to confirm that it was completed. This submission type allows instructors to create assignments for a wide variety of activities and provide evaluation and feedback for these assignments in Brightspace.

The ‘Observed in Person’ submission type is meant for scoring and evaluation of a learning activity such as demonstration, presentation, lab test, etc.

There are four submission types to choose from when creating an Assignment in Brightspace. The submission types are:

• File submission: learners upload and submit a file to the assignment.
• Text submission: learners post text, image, or a link to their work in a text box within the assignment.
• On paper submission: learners submit a physical copy of their assignment directly to their instructor. No file upload is required to complete the assignment.
• Observed in person: allows instructors to observe learners as they perform tasks, such as in-class presentations, and evaluate the observation. No file upload is required to complete the assignment.

There are three options to mark an ‘Observed in Person’ assignment as completed:

• Automatically on due date – Brightspace marks the assignment as completed on a pre-set date.
• Automatically on evaluation – Brightspace automatically marks the assignment as complete when the instructor evaluates the assignment using any of the assessment methods in Brightspace.
• Manually by Learner – The student will mark the assignment as complete.

The assignment can be assessed using text/audio/video feedback, Brightspace interactive rubric, or by assigning a grade.

Want more information?

What is an ‘Observed in Person’ assignment?
Create assignments and assess submissions
Brightspace Tip #329: Simplify Assignment Collection
Brightspace Tip #204: Interactive Rubrics
Brightspace Tip #299: Video Notes
Brightspace Tip #300: Video Notes - Closed Captions

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Use the Assignments tool to help you set and manage deadlines, unclutter your inbox, and save trees!

The Assignments tool is an efficient way to manage and collect your student's individual and group assignments digitally. Brightspace's Assignments Tool allows instructors to create a secure location for students to submit class assignments.

The Assignments tool allows instructors to set up a place for students to submit their assignments digitally, with the ability to:

• Control the window for submission
• Facilitate individual submissions or group submissions (provided the groups have been set up using the Groups tool first)
• Collect and assess submissions (with a connection to the Grades tool, if needed)
• Enable plagiarism detection through Turnitin

Additionally, you can use Brightspace's Interactive Rubrics to increase efficiency. The interactive rubrics allow instructors to establish set criteria for grading assignments. Instructors can attach rubrics to assignment submission folders so that the criteria are visible to students at any time, only after grading has been completed, or not shown to the students at all. The rubrics click-and-score simplicity saves time when grading because rubrics are built into the grading workflow. For more information about rubrics refer to Brightspace Tip #204: Interactive Rubrics.

Follow these steps to do it.

To create an assignment submission folder:

1. On the NavBar (of the course you want to create a submission folder), click Activities and then choose Assignments from the drop-down menu.
2. Click New Assignment.
3. Enter a Name for your submission folder.
4. To evaluate the assignment with a numeric value, enter a Grade Out Of. A grade item with the same name as your assignment is automatically added to your gradebook. Alternatively, you can click on the "In Grade Book" menu item to reveal a drop-down list. Select the "Edit or Link to Existing" option and then navigate to a grade item that is already in your Grade Book.
5. Set a Due Date.
6. Enter assignment instructions.
7. Upload any files, link to any existing activities or external weblinks, attach any files from Google Drive or OneDrive, and record and/or upload any audio or video notes.
8. Expand Availability Dates & Conditions and do the following:
   • Set a Start Date and an End Date.
   • Attach Release Conditions.
   • Use Manage Special Access to enable the assignment to be available only to a select group of users or to add individualized due dates for certain users.
9. Expand Submission & Completion and do the following:
   • For the Assignment Type, specify if this is an Individual Assignment or Group Assignment.
   • Select an existing category to align your assignment to or click New category to create a category.
   • 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.
   • From the Allowable File Extensions dropdown menu, select an option to restrict file extensions on submissions for the assignment.
   • Use Notification Email to receive email notifications when an assignment is submitted.
10. Expand Evaluation & Feedback and do the following:
    • Click Add rubric and either create and attach a new rubric or add an existing one.
    • Under Annotation Tools, select the Make annotation tools available for assessment check box.
    • To enable anonymous marking, under Anonymous Marking, select the Hide student names during assessment check box.
    • Under Turnitin Integration, click Manage Turnitin to enable the Turnitin integration and click Save.
11. To make your assignment visible to learners, click on the Visibility toggle.
12. Click Save and Close.

Want More Information?

Assignments:

• Assignments Tool Quick Reference Guide (pdf)
• Create an assignment
• Deliver Online Assignments
• Copy assignments
• "Observed in Person" assignments
• Allow special access for assignments
• View assignment submissions
• Evaluate assignment submissions
• Annotate assignment submissions
• Email students who haven't submitted an assignment
• Assignments FAQ
• How to submit Assignments video [2:06]
• Learner FAQ - Assignments
• Learner FAQ - Assignment - Errors

Turnitin:

• Assignments and Turnitin
• Enable Turnitin Feedback Studio® for assignments
• Turnitin Feedback Studio - Instructor
• Quick Tips for Mastering Feedback Studio
• Turnitin Quick Submit
• Turnitin Feedback Studio - Student
• Students - View your Turnitin assignment feedback

Rubrics:

• Brightspace Rubrics Tool

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by gabrielle_cc from Pixabay