Brightspace Assignments

Assignments allow students to submit work through Brightspace instead of emailing assignments or submitting paper copies in class. Any instructions and file attachments that students need to complete the assignment are added at the time of creation. Assignments can be assigned to each student individually or as collaborative work for groups of students.

Topics Covered

Creating Assignments

Grading Assignments

Part 1: Creating Assignments

Screenshot of a Brightspace module page. To the left is the navigation on the content page. To the right, is the individual module page. On the right side, there is header text that says Week 1. Below that there is text that says Add dates and restrictions... Below that there is text that says Add a description. Below that, there are three buttons. The first one is Upload/Create, which has a blue background. It is clicked and the mouse is hovering over an option that says New Assignment.

Getting Started

Click on Content in the course navigation
Find the module where the assignment should live Learn more about modules and building in Brightspace
Assignments can't be created in Content without a module page
Click on Upload/Create and select New Assignment
Go to the New Assignment builder page

Assignment Builder

Give the assignment a Name
Click in the Grade Out of box, it then becomes the points box. Enter in the point value to assess students
To the right, it now says In Grade Book, click on it and choose between:
- Edit or Link to an Existing Activity: set a pre-existing category to an assignment or link an existing grade item not linked to another graded activity
- Not in the Grade book: assign a point value, but it won't add a grade book item. Use this option to give feedback/a grade, but not have it go into the grade book
- Ungraded: doesn't allow for a point value to be added or a grade book item. Use this option as a dropbox to collect something from students i.e. a survey
Set a Due Date and add instructions. If needed, upload files with instructions using the Insert Stuff button or a file using the icons to the bottom left of the instructions box.

Screenshot of the New Assignment page. In the top left there is a box outlined in red with a red triangle and an exclamation point inside of it. To the right of the box, there is text that says points. To the right of that, there is a dropdown box with text inside of it that says In Grade Book. The dropdown box is clicked and there are three additional options listed. They are: Edit or Link to Existing, Not in Grade Book, and Reset to Ungraded.

Additional Assignment Settings

The settings below set start and end dates, set individual or group assignments, conditions for student access, grading, and feedback.

Availability Dates & Conditions

Start and End Dates control students' access to the assignment. After adding a start and/or end date, decide the level of visibility of the assignment by clicking on Before Start: Visible with access restricted. Choose from:
1. Visible with access restricted: Students can see the assignment, but not open it
2. Visible with submission restricted: Students can see and open the assignment, but not submit to it
3. Hidden: Students can't see the assignment at all
After choosing an option, choose to Add availability dates to Calendar. The calendar shows up on the course homepage and the Brightspace homepage for students in the course.
See below for more information on managing special access and release conditions.

Please note to make an assignment visible on a start date, make the overall assignment visible.

Submission & Completion

Choose to set up:
- Individual Assignment: it is each student is responsible for submitting their own assignment
- Group Assignment: students are put into groups and then one person in each group uploads for their group. When graded, each student in a group will be given the same grade. For group assignments, set up groups first. Once groups are set up, set which category (group set) to include.
Set the submission type (The last two won't give students a dropbox):
- File submission
- Text submission
- On-paper submission
- Observed in person
Files Allowed Per Submission: choose between:
- Unlimited files: no restriction on file uploads
- One file: restricts the number of files the student can upload when they submit
For Allowable File Extensions, choose from the following options:
- No restrictions: students submit any type of file
- PDF only: students can only submit PDFs. This is usually the option recommended as anyone can open a PDF on computer, tablet, smartphone, etc.
- Annotated Files: Files that have been marked up
- Files that can be previewed without conversion: Files that Brightspace can show a preview
- Images and Videos: JPG, MP4, MOV, and other image and video files
- Custom file types: type in one or more file extensions
Under Submissions: choose from:
- All submissions are kept: students submit as many times as they want and everything is kept in the system
- Only one submission allowed: students can only submit once
- Only the most recent submission is kept: students can submit as many times as they want, but only the latest version is kept
Enter an email address to be alerted of new submissions to this assignment

Release Conditions

Release conditions: prevents users from accessing until specific conditions are met

1. If release conditions are set up in the course, select Add Existing
2. To set up new conditions, click Create New and a new window will open
3. Set the condition type, set condition details, and select Create
4. Questions about release conditions? Please reach out to cite@sjf.edu

Special Access allows for different due dates/timing to be set for specific groups or to set up an assignment for only a certain student or students.

Click Manage Special Access and choose from two options, which are listed below
1. Allow users with special access to submit outside the normal availability dates for this folder: Students who need more time, missed the assignment for an excused reason, etc. can access the assignment
2. Allow only users with special access to see this folder Set an assignment only for an individual or a group i.e. making up a missed assignment
Select Add Users to Special Access, and customize due date, availability, and add users

Evaluation & Feedback

Rubrics: create a new rubric or add an existing one
Learning Objectives: Create and tie them to an assignment.
Sset by programs, departments, and schools, learning objectives are pre-built in the system. Questions about Learning Objectives? reach out to the DePeters Family Center.
Annotation Tools: markup and feedback tools on student assignments. Leave this turned on
Anonymous Marking: allows for blind grading (hides student names)

Assignment Visibility

Find the visibility button at the bottom left of the screen. To make the assignment available, but not until a specific date, set the visibility to visible and use the availability start and end dates. When an assignment is scheduled to be visible, students see it on their upcoming assignment list, but can't engage with it until it is available.

Screenshot of the visibility options for assignment. To the right, there is a oblong oval shape with a circle inside of it to the left. Inside the shape and to the right is an eye with a slash through it. To the right of the oblong shape, there is text that says Visibility.

Screenshot of assignment details. There is text that reads Assignment 2. Below that is text that reads Opens Oct 13, 2022 2:00 PM

Part 2: Grading

Once students submit to the assignment, use QuickEval to grade. Watch the video to the right that walks you through the following things in QuickEval:

How to use filters and sort by date submitted
How to grade and publish grades

Accessing QuickEval

QuickEval will populate items in the course that need to be graded. Note: QuickEval won't populate group assignments.

To start grading, go to Students & Grades in the course navigation and select QuickEval
On the QuickEval page, choose to:
1. View by Submission or Activity in the top left.
2. Filter the activity by clicking on Activity Name in the top right
3. Search for a specific assignment via the Search Box in the top right

Screenshot of the Quick Eval page in Brightspace. In the top left, there is header text that says Quick Eval. Below that, there is text that says View by. To the right of that, there are two boxes. The first is a light gray box with text that says Submissions. The second is a dark gray box with text in it that says Activities. There is a pink box around both boxes. Below that, there is text that says Emma's Test Course. Below that, there is a long rectangular box. Inside the box to the left is text that says Week 1 Assignment, Assignment, Due 10/11/2022 2:17 PM. To the right, there are four sections. The first section has text that says 1 New Submission. The second section has an icon of two pages with a ribbon on top of it. There is text underneath that says Evaluate All. The third section has a page icon with a magnifying glass and text below it that says Submission List. The last section has three dots and text that says More Actions. To the right of that, there are two circles stacked vertically. The one on top is white with a black outline. The one below is a solid black circle. There is a pink square around the two circles.

Grading & Feedback

To grade an item, go to the submissions tab in QuickEval and click on the name of the student to evaluate
The QuickEval window will open
1. To the left, see all attempts and files students submitted
  1. Click on a file to preview the file and see annotation tools
  2. Choose to download all of the files
2. Draw, add a note, insert a textbox, and draw a line with the annotation tools
3. To the right, add the overall grade, feedback, upload a file, link to an existing activity, and record audio or video. If using VideoNote to record audio or video, please note that there is currently a bug with VideoNote that prevents users from recording more than 3 minutes on an iPad. If you need to record for more than 3 minutes, please use a computer.
4. Save it as a draft or publish it for students to view. Save as a draft allows for a bulk publish of all drafts together so students get grades/feedback at the same time.
  1. Chose to save as a draft, choose to release all feedback at once
    1. To do that, go to the Assignments page in the course navigation
    2. Click on the assignment and select the items to release and then click Publish Feedback

Screenshot of a Brightspace assignment submission window. Across the top, there are three icons with text. They are a cloud with an arrow pointing down and text that says Download, a paper airplane with text that says Email, and an envelope with a piece of paper with text that says Mark as read. Below that, there is a table with two rows and two columns. The top row is a header row. It has a checkbox that is checked in the first cell. The second cell has text that says Last Name, First Name. The second row has a checkbox that is checked in the first cell and text in the second row that shows someone's name.

Downloading Student Submissions & Uploading Feedback

Download student submissions and then upload a feedback document for each student.

Go to the Assignments page in the course navigation
Find the assignment to download and click on the name of it
Click the checkbox in the upper left corner to select all of the assignments
Click Download and a file will be zipped to download
Double-click on the zipped file in the downloads folder to unzip it
Each student submission has a folder. Don't change the names of the folders as that is how Brightspace aligns feedback to each student's submission
Open a file and mark up the document
Save it in the folder where it was downloaded
Repeat steps 7-9 as needed
Select all folders that were updated and compress the folders:
1. On a PC: Send to, and then select Compressed (zipped) folder.
2. On a Mac: Right click and select Compress
Go back to the assignment window in Brightspace and select Add Feedback Files
Find the compressed file and click Upload
Once complete, the file will show up as an attachment below the overall feedback.

When using educational technology tools, be FERPA aware. To learn more, visit the Registrar's FERPA Guidelines site.