Jump to: Overview

Blackboard: Assignment Tool

Overview

Adding an Assignment to a Content Area will create a secure location for students submit work for a course assignment. Instructors and others with Control Panel access use the Gradebook to monitor submission process, to view and download submitted work, and to compose and send confidential feedback to students.

Adding an Assignment to a Content Area

1. In your site's Control Panel, click the link for the Content Area in which you'd like students to access the Assignment.

2. Locate the down arrow action link to the far right of the Add toolbar. Learning Unit will be the default selection. Click the down arrow action link arrow to display other options, and select Assignment from this list.

3. Click GO (to the right). The Add Assignment page opens. Note that it is divided into four sections: Content Information, Availability Options, Assignment Attachments, and Submit.

4. In the Content Information section, enter a Name for the Assignment. If you'd like, you can customize the name's Color by first clicking the Pick button. Select a color from the Color Picker window by clicking on a color swatch. The default color is black.

5. For Points Possible, enter the highest score that a student could earn on the assignment.

6. Into the Text box, type or paste text copied from a word processing program. If you plan to attach a file with an assignment description or instructions, you can either skip this step or enter a description of the file that you will attach.

7. Scroll down to section 2, Options. If you want students to be able to submit their assignments immediately after you finish creating the assignment, leave the default Yes option for Do you want to make this assignment visible? Otherwise, click No. Once you have created the assignment, you can modify this option at any time.

8. For Do you want to track the number of views?, the default option is No. Because the Online Gradebook also records when students have submitted an assignment, you will not need to enable tracking, unless you want to know whether an individual student has accessed the assignment to read your instructions or guidelines.

9. If you would like to place date/time restrictions when students can access the assignment, use the down arrow action link for Display After and Display Until to select the desired dates and times. You can also use the Calendar tool to specify dates.

10. If you are attaching a file with the assignment description or instructions, scroll down to section 3, Assignment Attachments. Otherwise, skip to step 14.

11. To attach a file, click Browse. Your web browser will open a window in which you locate and select a file to attach. Use the Look in area's down arrow action link at the top of this window to navigate to where the file is stored.

12. Once you find the file you want to attach, click its name. Then click Open in the lower right corner. You can also double-click the name instead.

13. The browser now returns to the Blackboard window. The Name of Link to File field allows you to specify what text should display for the link. If you leave it blank, the file name (e.g., syllabus.doc) will display as the link text. You can enter any text you like here: you might include the title of the document, what file format the document is in (e.g., Microsoft Word .doc file), or a simple directive (e.g., click here to view file).

14. Click Submit at the bottom of the page.

15. Click OK to return to the content area page. The assignment will appear at the bottom of the page, along with a View/Complete link. (Don't click this link yet, because it will take you outside the Control Panel into the main view of the course, and you're not quite finished!).

16. If you want to change this item's placement in the list of materials in the content area, click the number down arrow action link. After a moment, the items will be reordered on the page.

17. Click OK at the bottom of the page to return to the Control Panel.

18. Now click the Grade Center link in the Control Panel. The Grade Center page opens.

19. Locate the assignment column, scrolling to the right, if necessary. Click the down arrow action link in the assignment column and select Modify Column. The Modify Column page opens.

20. If you don't yet want a column for the assignment to appear when students check their grades, you will need to make its column not visible to students. On the Modify Column page, scroll down to the Options section and click No for Show this column in My Grades.

21. Make any other changes that you would like, and then click Submit at the bottom of the page.

Instructions for Students: Viewing Assignment Instructions

Refer to Viewing Assignment Instructions.

Instructions for Students: Submitting Your Assignment

Refer to Submitting Your Assignment.

Viewing an Individual Student's Submitted Work

1. You can determine which students have submitted files for an assignment by viewing the assignment's information in the Grade Center. In the Control Panel, click Grade Center. A hyphen indicates that a student has not saved or submitted the assignment. A green exclamation mark in a student's field indicates that the student has submitted that assignment. A notepad and pencil icon indicates that a student has saved but not submitted an assignment.

2. To view the file(s) submitted by an individual student, click the down arrow action link next to the green exclamation mark to open the Grade Details page. This page shows submission date, student comments, and once entered, instructor feedback to student as well as instructor's notes. A grade may be entered here or the Grade Assignment page that opens in the next step.

3. To access a student's submitted files, click View Attempt. Note that the grade assignment page consists of five sections: Assignment Information, User’s Work, Feedback to User, Instructor's Notes, and Submit.

4. In the Assignment Information section, all assignment information that you provided for students is displayed.

When clicked, the Clear Attempt button in this section permanently deletes a student's submitted file(s) for this assignment from Blackboard.

5. The User's Work section includes comments entered by the student and the file(s) attached by that student. To open a student's file, click the linked file title.

6. The Feedback to User section has three features: Grade, Comments, and File to Attach. Enter a grade for the assignment in the Grade field; this grade is also entered into the online grade center. You can provide additional feedback either by entering your observations directly in Comments box or by attaching a file with your comments. Multiple files can be attached using this feature.

7. Use the Instructor Notes section to make notes and attach files which are not visible to students. You can enter text in the Notes box, and browse for files and attach them. These notes are preserved for subsequent reference and are accessible to other users with grading permissions (other Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Graders).

About help.unc.edu