How to create an Assignment
Lecturers can use the Assignments tool to create and edit assignments. Students can also use the Assignments tool to upload and submit assignments directly in the Brightspace Learning Environment, eliminating the need to email their work to lecturers. On paper submissions, and observed in person assignments are also available and do not require file submissions to be made in Brightspace.
This manual will show how to:
Once an Assignment has submissions, it is no longer possible to change the assignment type (individual or group). In this case, a notification will be present on the top of the Edit Assignment Homepage.
Creating an Assignment
Navigate to your course, in the green navigation bar,
1. Click on Assessment, a drop-down menu will appear
2. Then click on Assignments
On the Assignments homepage, under the Assignments heading,
3. Click on the blue button New Assignment
This will open the New Assignment's settings page.
Assignment's settings page
On the left side of the page, you will see the most common settings used in Assignments. On the right, you will see drop-down menus that will allow you to change more settings (links to Availability Dates & Conditions; Submission & Completion; Evaluation & Feedback).
Give the assignment a clear name. Using keywords such as Assignment 1, Submit, or Group work in the assignment's name can help identify the activity for the students once you add the assignment to the (sub)module in your Content.
Also, this name will be displayed on the Assignments homepage.
This field is obligatory.
To avoid confusion, clearly indicate in the title that the Assignment is a Group AssignmentÂ
Under Grade Out Of the maximum points for the assignment that can be assigned,
1. Click on the Ungraded box, new options will appear
- Set the score points
- Click on In Gradesbook, a drop-down menu will appear
If a value is entered, the denominator value for a user's submission score must be a number between 0.01 and 9999999999.
For further information, please visit: Â How to create a Grade Item
2.1. In Grades
There are three grading options that can be selected
When selecting the option Edit or Link to Existing, a pop-up window will appear
Only one Assignment can be linked to a grade item; use Grade Item Categories for multiple Grade Items with a similar assignment type (for example Lab reports)
The Create and link to a new grade item option is not recommended when a Selectbox grade item Type is needed for Fail/Pass grades
- Create and link to a new grade item -Â to create and link a new grade item
- Link to an existing grade item - to link an existing grade item to the assignment
This option allows having Grade Out of maximum points without having a grading item linked to the assignment and will not be recorded in the Grades tool
If the Assignment was linked to a grade item, this option will remove the linkage
This option does not allow to provide a grade nor grade item for the assignment. This will revert to the default Ungraded option
Under the heading Due date,
1. Click on the boxÂ
A monthly calendar will appear,
2. Select a dateÂ
ORÂ
Click on Set to Today
By default, students can still submit after the due date, but the submissions are marked as late. If submissions should no longer be possible, see End Date under Availability Dates & Conditions
Use this space to describe the Assignment and to give instructions for the students
The instructions will also appear when adding the Assignment to Content
For more information, please visit: the Editor
It is possible to add video or audio recordings, links or documents or links to external sources to support the assignment
- File Upload - to Upload a File from your computer
- Attach Link to Existing Activity - to attach a link to an existing activity via a Brightspace quicklink
- Attach Weblink - to link to an external website
- Attach from OneDrive - to attach a link from OneDrive
- Record Audio - to add an audio message (when a microphone is available)
- Record Video - to add a video message (when a webcam is available)
When expanding this Heading further restrictions and options can be added to the Assignment
The Start Date indicates the date the submission will be opened to students
When there is no Start date the Assignment will be immediately  available to students
The End Date indicates the date the submissions will be completely closed to students
Students will still be able to view the Assignment, but will no longer be able to open nor submit the Assignment
Additional release conditions can be added to the Assignment
For further information, please visit: Release Conditions
Special Access can be granted to specific students
For further information, please visit: Special Access
When expanding this Heading further settings and options can be added to the Assignment
For the Assignment Type, specify if this is an Individual or Group Assignment
1. Individual Assignment - for student to submit their Assignment individually and be assessed as such
For students to submit their Assignment as a group and be assessed as such
Groups must be created beforehand to set an Assignment as a Group Assignment
Select the Group Category,
- Click on the downward arrow, a drop-down menu will appearÂ
Select to which category you want the assignment to be part of
The categories can be created/edited in Edit categories
Select under Submission Type how students will submit their assignment
Depending on the submission type, several options are available, which are described in the following sections
Students will upload their assignment as a file
- This can be anything ranging from a Word® document or pdf-file to a webpage or video
For further information, please visit: Assignment submission file requirements
- Under Files Allowed Per Submission, select whether students are allowed to submit:
- Multiple files per submission(Unlimited) or
- A single file per submission (One file)
- Under Allowable File Extensions, select which kind of file students should submit:
- No Restictions
- PDF only
- Annotable files, includes all file types that are supported by the Annotation tool in Assignments
- Files that can be previewed without conversion, such as .HTM, .HTML, .MHT, .MHTML, and .BMP
- Images and Videos
- Custom Files Type, you can enter file extensions that you want to allow for the submissions. When this restriction is set, students are presented with a list of acceptable file extensions for their assignments
- Under Submissions select whether:
- All attempts should be saved (All submissions are kept)
- Students can only submit a file once (Only one submission allowed)
- Only the last submission is saved (Only the most recent submission is kept)
When the Only the most recent submission is kept option is selected, make sure that students are aware that the last student to upload documents should upload all documents; when students choose to divide the workload, with this option only the last submission will be used.
Similarly, when the Only one submission allowed option is selected, the assignment will be closed to submissions if any group member uploads (a) file(s).
If students should be allowed to submit multiple files, select Unlimited combined with All submissions are kept.
Students will enter the assignment as text within the assignment. Images or URLs can also be submitted.
When you select Text submission as a submission type for your assignment the following options appear
Then, under Submissions select:
- Whether all submissions are saved (All submissions are kept),Â
- If only the last submission is kept (Only the most recent submission is kept), orÂ
- If only a single attempt is allowed (Only one submission allowed)
With this option, students submit their assignment as hard copy, instead of through Brightspace. When opting for this setting grading is still possible via Brightspace.
When you select On paper submission or Observed in person as a submission type for your assignment you will have the following options:Â
Under Marked as completed,
- Click on the downward arrow, a menu will appear
- Select one of the following options:
- Manually by learners - students will mark the assignment as complete themselves
- Automatically on evaluation - the assignment will be marked as complete after the assignment has evaluated by a teacher
- Automatically on due date - the assignment will be marked as complete on the due date, regardless of submission or evaluation
With these two options the student can only see the title and the description of the assignment, and (if selected) the rubric
Notification Email is only available with File submission and Text submission types
Be aware that this option will send a message for each submission, and therefore it is not recommended for large groups
- Enter email or multiple emails - Â to send an email when a student submits an Assignment
When expanding this Heading further tools and options can be added to the Assignment
Under Rubrics it is possible to assign a Rubric to the Assignment
For more information, please visit: How to create a rubric
1. Click on Add rubric, a drop-down menu will appear
2. Select one of the following options:
- Create New - to create a new Rubric
OR
- Add Existing - to add an already Existing Rubric
The Learning Objectives are not yet available
The Annotation tool is selected to be on by default
- Check the box if you want the annotation toolbar available when reviewing students
- Uncheck the box if you want to hide the annotation toolbar in the document viewer of the submission
For more information, please visit : The Annotation Tool
Tick the box Hide student names during assessment when student names should not be visible when evaluating and grading submissions.Â
This option is only available for File Submissions and Text Submissions
Assignments can be linked to Turnitin to detect plagiarism
For more information, please visit: How to enable Turnitin® for a Brightspace Assignment
Saving and making the assignment visible
The progress or the assignment is not automatically saved while being created
Once you are finished creating the assignment, you can decide to make the assignment visible or invisible for students.
- Save and Close  - to save and close the current Assignment settings and return to the Assignments homepage
- Save - to save the current Assignment Settings
- Cancel - to not save a recently created assignment or to not save editing changes in an already existing assignment
- Visibility - to make the Assignment visible/invisible to students
You now know how create an Assignment in Brightspace!
Related topics
Want to know more about Assignments via Brightspace?
Please visit: