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How do I create an Assignment?

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Create an Assignment

  • Click Activities in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Assignments. You will land on the Assignments homepage, wherein an overview of all assignments will be displayed. 
  • Click New Assignment.

Important: First create a rubric and/or grade item, before creating assignments. Also make sure to set up groups beforehand, if you are planning to let students work on an assignment together or if it will be assessed as a group assignment.

  1. Provide the assignment with a clear title: this will be displayed on the Assignments homepage. 
  2. Go to Grade out of and click Ungraded to change the linked Grade Item. You have the following options:
    • Edit or Link to Existing: a window will open where you can link an item to a new or existing Grade Item.
    • Not in Gradebook: The assignment will be scored based on the grade you enter for Grade Out Of, but it will not appear in the Gradebook.
    • Reset to Ungraded: Reset to no grading for this assignment.
  3.  If you wish, add a due date to the Assignment.
  4. Explain the assignment with a short instruction in the HTML editor.
  5. You can also use the bar at the bottom to add instructions for the assignment. From left to right you will see the following features:
    • Click the cloud icon to upload a document (File).
    • Click the lightning/chain icon to create a Brightspace quicklink to an Existing Activity.
    • Click the chain to add an external Link.
    • Click Record Audio to record an audio file.
    • Click Record Video to record a video message.

Please note: If you enter a grade for Grade Out Of without choosing an option from the menu, then Brightspace will automatically create a Grade Item in the Grade Book (without a Category). The name of the Assignment will become the name of the Grade Item. If you accidentally clicked in Grade Out Of field, then choose Reset to Ungraded to make sure there will be no unwanted Grade Item created.

You can connect one grade item for each assignment. This means that you can only connect grade items that have not yet been linked to a different assignment. Keep your grade book clear by naming the grade item something that clearly relates to the connected assignment.

Graders in the course cannot download attachments from Content. This means that if graders need a file with extra information when assessing the assignment, you must add it here as an attachment to the assignment.

Are you creating a group assignment? Give the assignment a name that clearly indicates that it concerns a group assignment, to make sure that students hand in their group work at the correct assignment. 

Availability Dates & Conditions

The first tab on the right contains functionalities concerning  Availability Dates and Conditions:

  1. Start Date and End Date: Add a start and end date for the Assignment to become visible and/or invisible for students.
  2. Release Conditions: Add conditions students must adhere to before they can complete the assignment. Read more about this in the manual What are release conditions and how can I use them?
  3. Special Access: Make the assignment visible for a specific group of students, or add different due dates for certain students. A more in-depth explanation about this can be found here: How do I set restrictions for an Assignment?

Submission and Completion

  1. Choose the type of assignment below Assignment Type:
    • Choose Individual Assignment if students submit their work individually and you assess them individually.
    • Choose Group Assignment if the students submit one assignment as a group, and they get the same grade. Select a group below Group Category.
  2. Below Category, choose in which category the assignment should be listed.
  3. For Submission Type, choose how the students should submit their assignments:
    • File submission: Students upload their assignments as a file in the assignment (for example: a Word or PDF file).
    • Text submission: Students submit a text, image, or link to their work in a text box in the assignment (for example: when students have to create a webpage, they can add the link here).
    • On paper submission: Students submit a hard copy of their assignment and do not need to upload them. This option allows you to enter an assessment of a hard copy submission in the grade book.
    • Observed in person: You have observed the student while they performed certain tasks during class (for example: a presentation) and then enter the assessment in the assignment. The student does not have to upload a file in the assignment. This option allows you to enter an assessment of a presentation or performance during class in the grade book.
  4. Below Allow File Extentions, choose which file type can be submitted:
    • No Restrictions: No restrictions for certain file types.
    • PDF Only: Only PDF files can be submitted.
    • Annotatable Files: Only files that are suitable for the Brightspace Annotation tool can be submitted.
    • Files that can be previewed without conversion: Only files like .HTM, .HTML, .MHT, .MHTML, and .BMP can be submitted.
    • Images and Videos: Only images and video files can be submitted.
    • Custom File Types: Choose which file types can be submitted.
  5.  For Submissions, choose between: 
    • All submissions are kept: All submitted assignments from a student will be saved.
    • Only one submission allowed: Only the first submitted assignment from a student will be saved. 
    • Only the most recent submission is kept: Only the assignment that was submitted last by a student will be saved.
  6. For Notification Email, choose whether and on which email address you want to receive a notification email when a student submits something for the assignment.
  • If you select the option Only the most recent submission is kept when it concerns group assignments, be sure to communicate to your students that the last one to hand in a document, has to submit the work in total. If students split up the work among themselves and upload the files separately, only the last uploaded file will be saved. If you select the option Only one submission allowed, the assignment will be closed as soon as one of the group members has submitted something. Make sure to communicate this clearly to your students as well!  
  • If you want students to submit multiple files, choose Unlimited in combination with All submissions are kept.

Once you have chosen the assignment type, you cannot change it later on.

Brightspace supports different file types in Assignments. The following file formats are compatible:

  • Web document: HTM, HTML, MHT, MHTML
  • Text document: RTF, PPT, PPS, PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPTX, XML, XLS, TXT, WPD
  • Image: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIF, TIFF
  • Media: SWF, MPG, MPEG, RM, MP3, MP4, M4V, M4A, AVI, WAV, RAM, ASF, MOV, RA

Evaluation and Feedback

  1. Use Rubrics to determine whether you want to add a rubric. Click Add Rubric to add a previously created rubric. Click Create New to create a new rubric. Please note: you will be creating the new rubric in a new window. Before you can add it you have to click Save in the assignment and reload the page. Then you can connect the new rubric.
  2. Below Learning Objectives, choose any if you wish to.
  3. For Annotation Tools, choose whether you want to use the annotation tool when you are assessing the assignment.
  4.  Use Anonymous Marking to determine if you want to see the student's names when assessing. 

Click Save and Close to return to the Assignments homepage.

In order to assess an assignment with a rubric, the maximum number of points that can be achieved for the assignment (Out of Score) needs to be the same as the maximum number of points in the rubric you link to the assignment. Read more about assessing an assignment with a rubric here.

Make assignment visible for students

New assignments are hidden for students by default. You can make them visible by toggling the visibility at the bottom of the screen. 

Create a video assignment

You can also utilize the options above to create a video assignment where students need to submit a video. For this students have to first upload a video to Kaltura, and thereafter submit it in the assignment. In the process of creating a video assignment, you need to select either File submission or Text submission when choosing your submission type:

  • File submission: use this option if students have to hand in another file aside from the video (for example a text-file with a description or explanation). Students upload the file in the assignment (for example a Word- or PDF-file) and place the link to the video in the comment section in Kaltura.
  • Text submission: students place the link to the video in Kaltura and have the option to add a short summary in the comment section of the assignment. Use this option if students do not need to hand anything else in, aside from the video.

The remainder of the settings of a video assignment are the same as for any other assignment.

The way students can submit a video assignment, is explained in the student manual: How do I hand in a video assignment? It is useful to share this manual with your students, for example by putting a link to it in the description of the assignment in Brightspace. This way it is clear to them that they first need to hand in their video in Kaltura, before they can submit it in the assignment. 

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