The Announcements Tool

LMS Weekly Update: The Assignments Tool in Brightspace

We are repeating the LMS Weekly Update on the Assignments Tool, as this has been one of the most common questions you asked our LMS Team this past week.

  • How do I create an assignment? Click here for step by step instructions.
  • Why do I see my course Assignments under the Activities menu on the nav bar, but not under the Content area? Once in a while we see a bit of confusion about the area where you should make your assignments accessible for your students. Regardless of the way you create your assignments, they will ALWAYS exist under the Activities menu on the course nav bar. There is nothing wrong with directing your students to access the assignments from the Activities menu, but sometimes, depending on how your course is structured, you might want to make them available under one particular module, under the Content area. This is when you will be using the Existing Activities/Assignments to create a link to the existing assignments.

Important! Removing the link from the Content area and choosing the second option on the confirmation pop-up screen, will delete the assignment from your course.

  • I need to allow some of my students alternate time restrictions, due dates, etc. How do I do this? You can accomplish this by using the Special access option from within the Assignments properties screen.
  • How do I grade an assignment using a Pass/Fail scheme? An assignment can be associated only with the numeric or selectbox types of grade columns, allowing you to grade using numeric or letter grades. For a Pass or Fail grade, ensure that you use a selectbox type of grade column at the same time with a Pass/Fail Grade Sheme.
  • Can I make annotations when grading assignments? Assignment submissions will automatically load with the Annotation Tool bar withing the Evaluation Submission Screen.
  • I have different points possible for the assignment and for the grade column. What do I do?
    • If there are no submissions for the assignment, you only need to edit the associated column from Grades/Manage Grades and adjust the points.
    • If you already have graded the assignment, once you edit the grade column and change the points, the existing grades won’t get automatically adjusted. You will need to go to Activities/Assignments/View Submissions and Update the grade for each student (the same screen you use when you first graded the assignment and published the grades).
  • I deleted an assignment by mistake! To recover deleted assignments go to Activities/Assignments/More Actions/Event Log. The deleted assignment will have a Restore button available.
  • Need to grade assignment files offline? You have the option to download all the assignments files in a zip file, grade them, save the files, create a new zip file and upload all the graded files as a package file. Go to Activities/Assignments/View Submission and then the Submissions tab. Select all submissions and click Download. When you are ready to upload them, from the same screen, click on the Add Feedback Files tab and upload the zip file.
  • Grade Sync – When you enter a grade for an assignment submission in the standard or spreadsheet view of GradeBook, the grade will appear with the submission in the Assignment tool.
  • How do I check students’ assignments for plagiarism? When you create an assignment you have the option to enable Turnitin. Click here to learn how to do this.

Message from LTS on Honorlock

Honorlock is a remote proctoring solution that is integrated in Brightspace and can be used for final exams. If you are interested in using this tool, please first attend an information session. There are two sessions next week, and you can register for these sessions and the other remote teaching PD sessions offered by LTS via www.algonquincollege.com/lts/facultypd.