Assignments Tool

The assignments tool allows you to create homework and other types of assignments for your students. You can set the start date and due date, the grading options, the submission options, and more in this tool. You can check to see who has submitted which assignments, and grade assignments which have been submitted.

In the Assignments tool, there are several tabs across the top: Add, Assignment List, Grade Report, Student View, and Permissions.

The Add tab allows you to create a new assignment. Here you can give the assignment a title, select the open date (the assignment will be hidden until that time), the due date, and the latest date when OWL-Space will accept submissions for the assignment (allowing you to accept late submissions if desired). Next you can select the type of submissions that are allowed: Inline (using the OWL-Space interface text editor), Attachment (uploading a separate file), Inline and Attachment, or Non-electronic (for assignments the student should hand in). The type of grading can be chosen (letter, points, check mark, pass-fail, or ungraded), and the amount of points the assignment is worth can be entered as well (if using point grading).

The assignment instructions can be input using the OWL-Space text editor interface. It is also possible to add additional instruction or resource materials to the assignment using the Add Attachments button at the bottom of the page.

Other options allow you to automatically: show the assignment due date in the Schedule tool, send out an announcement of the starting date for the assignment, add the honor pledge to the assignment, add the assignment to the Gradebook tool, and have OWL-Space send you an email whenever a student submits this assignment. You can also choose whether to display the assignment to the entire membership of the site, or only to certain groups.

When you are done with your assignment, you have the option to Post it, which will put it in the assignment list and activate it. You can also Save Draft, which will put the assignment in the list but not activate it (it will be marked with Draft in red). You can Preview the assignment to see how it will appear to students, and you can Cancel and abandon this assignment.

The Assignment List tab shows all your assignments on this OWL-Space site. In view, you can select either Assignment List, which shows all assignments, or Assignment List By Student, which shows a list of all students. Expanding a student using the arrow next to their name shows all assignments for the site, and whether that student submitted the assignment, the status of the assignment, and the student's grade for that assignment.

The Assignment List view shows details about each assignment. The Title column shows the assignment title and several actions that can be taken on the assignment. The For column shows if the assignment is visible to the entire site or to only a certain group. The Status column shows whether the assignment is not yet open (Not Open), is currently Open to student submissions, is past the Due date but still open to late submissions, or is Closed and no longer accepting submissions. The next two columns show the Open and Due dates. The In / New column shows the number of assignments that have been submitted (In) and the number that have yet to be graded (New). Scale shows the possible grade range, and Remove allows you to delete assignments by checking the box and then pressing the Update button at the bottom of the page. A confirmation page will appear before the assignment is actually deleted. Deleting assignments that already have graded submissions will remove those grades from the Gradebook tool.

The actions available under each assignment title are Edit, Duplicate, and/or Grade. Edit will open the assignment like in the Add tab, allowing you to change all the options and text you entered when you created the assignment. Duplicate will create a copy of the assignment, give it the name Copy of ..., and create it as a Draft so that you can edit the assignment before posting it. Grade opens a page containing a table of all students, when they submitted the assignment (if it was submitted), whether the assignment has been graded or not, what grade was given, and whether the assignment has been returned to the student.

Clicking on a student's name will bring up their submission for grading or re-grading. If the student submission used the OWL-Space text editor, you can make comments directly within their text (you can make your comments appear in red by entering them between double brackets {{ }} , or red or another color by using the text color function built into the text editor. Following this are any files the student submitted as attachments. Next is another box for you to provide comments in, separate from the student's submission, and a button to allow you to add attachments to send back to the student. Finally, you may enter the student's grade, and check the box of you wish to allow them to resubmit this assignment.

The Grade Report tab shows each assignment for each student, the grade that was received, the possible range of grades on the assignment, and the date and time the assignment was submitted. Clicking on Download Spreadsheet will download a spreadsheet of the same information in MS Excel format.

The Student View tab shows what the Assignment tool looks like from the student perspective. You can click on Submit as Student below each assignment to test out the student submission process for that assignment. You can even then test out grading yourself from the Assignment List tab, but those grades are not saved in the Gradebook.

Lastly, the Permissions tab allows you to set what kind of actions different types of site members (students, TAs, etc.) can take in the Assignments tool.