Blackboard Assignment tool

Transcription

1 Blackboard Assignment tool Blackboard (Bb) has developed a tool called: Assignment to give Assignments within the Blackboard environment. This may cause some confusion because there is also a Content Area in a Bb course with the same name. The Assignment tool has four successive parts: 1. providing the Assignment by the lecturer 2. submitting the Assignment by the student 3. grading and giving feedback by the lecturer 4. view grades and feedback by the student To keep it clear for students, we recommend placing the Assignment in the Content Area: Assignments (just like the Tests and Surveys). For grading and giving feedback on an assignment, you can use the Grade Center. The Grade Center provides you with a good overview on the status of completion, and you get access to the individual results. We now briefly describe the first step: how an Assignment can be created and made available. Then we look at step two, submitting the results. Then we will discuss step three: grading and giving feedback, and the role of the Grade Center with regard to these activities. Finally step 4 describes how a student can view his grades and comments from the teacher. 1. Creating an Assignment An Assignment is always created and made available in one of the Content Areas of a Bb course. Go to one of the Content Areas, the screen below will become visible. Click on the button: Create Assessment to open the pull down menu and select Assignment. Section 1, Assignment Information, is the information part which includes a title and short instruction. In section 2 you can attach files if necessary. In section 3 you can give the number of points that can be earned. 1

2 In section 4 some options concerning the availability of the Assignment can be set. You can determine how many times an Assignment can be handed in. Also you can choose to make the Assignment available in a later stage and for a specific period of time. In section 5 you can specify until when students can hand in the Assignment. 2

3 In section 6 you can indicate whether the Assignment must be handed in by all students personally or by a group of students. Once the Assignment is completed, you have to click Submit in section 7. The Assignment is now placed in the chosen Content Area and is available to students unless stated differently in the options part (see above After you have made the Assignment available, you need to communicate to your students where to find the Assignment. A possible tool for this process is the use of an Announcement with a Course Link, referring to the location of the Assignment. 2. Submitting the Assignment by the student Students can go to the designated location in the Bb course and can open the Assignment by clicking on the name of the Assignment (in this example: Paper). You can now open and/or save attached files that can be found under Assignment Information. Students can start completing the assignment. After completion of the Assignment, the student can use the Assignment tool to hand in the Assignment. In section 2, the results of an Assignment can either be typed in the Submission field or added as a separate file at Attach File (which is preferred). In the latter case, it is recommended to let students fill in their name and ANR (administration number) in the Comments field. The Save as draft button, in section 3, saves the Assignment, however it is not sent to the lecturer. The student can add changes in a later session. Only after pressing the Submit button, the student actually sends the Assignment to the lecturer. 3

4 3. Grading and giving feedback by the lecturer The Grade Center indicates which students have handed in the Assignment. After a student has handed in the Assignment, an exclamation mark will be visible in the column of the Assignment. You can view the Assignments one by one on-screen or download the Assignments. If you want to review the Assignments and want to give feedback to the students you need to view the assignments one by one. 4

5 a) Reviewing and grading the Assignment of each student individually By clicking the exclamation mark the Assignment can be graded. Clicking the double chevron in the specific cell opens a menu. Selecting View Grade Details will show the status overview of the student s Assignment in question. Clicking the View Attempt option will reveal a detailed overview of all sections of the Assignment. If you click Assignment Information it will show additional information about the submitted assignment. At section 2, (Review Current Attempt) you will find the submitted results, click on the name of the attached file to open the file. At section 3 (Grade Current Attempt) you can add a grade and give feedback to the student. At section 4 (Instructor Notes) you can make notes for yourself or a co-lecturer. 5

6 b) Downloading Assignments If you, as a teacher, don t want to read and review the Assignments on-screen, you can choose to download all submitted documents in one zip file and then print them for example. Click the double arrow next to the title (1) of the Assignment s column and a menu will open. In this menu (2) select the option Assignment File Download. 6

7 Choosing this option will show you a screen where you can indicate which files should be downloaded. This can be done by marking the names of the students. If you want to download all files click the box before Name. After selecting the files, click Submit and all documents will be placed in a zip file. 7

8 By clicking on the link: Download assignments now the zip file can be saved. The zip file will also contain, in addition to the submitted file, a small text file containing meta-information for each student. It is possible to send the documents in the zip file to the printer at once. When reviewing in this way (on paper), don t forget to enter a grade in the Grade Center, so students will be able to see their grades in My Grades. 4. Viewing grades and feedback by the student A student can view his grades and feedback, given on an Assignment, in My Grades. 8