Assignments
Quick Start Guide
The Brightspace Assignments tool provides the functionality for creating and editing assignments, setting up submission details, associating rubrics, viewing and grading submissions, and providing feedback.
Things to consider
Before setting up an Assignment Submission Folder in Langara’s instance of Brightspace, consider preparing the following:
Rubric: A well-designed rubric enhances consistency in grading and clarifies grading criteria and performance expectations for students. Brightspace allows you to create a grading rubric directly within the system, which can be linked to assignments, grade items, or other assessed elements. It is advisable to design your analytic or holistic rubric on paper first and then manually input the criteria into Brightspace. Please note that Brightspace does not support direct uploads of rubrics from Excel or other tabular formats.
Assignment Instructions: Clearly written, detailed instructions are crucial for guiding students. Consider drafting and reviewing these instructions to ensure clarity and comprehensiveness before attaching them to the assignment. The instructions could also include:
- Assessment Criteria: Beyond the rubric, explicitly outline any specific criteria or learning outcomes that will be assessed. This helps ensure that both students and graders clearly understand the expectations.
- Feedback Methods: Decide on the methods and tools you will use to provide feedback. Brightspace offers several tools for giving feedback, including inline comments, attached files, or video or audio feedback. Setting expectations for feedback can improve the learning experience.
Grade Item: Prepare a Grade Item in the Brightspace Gradebook for the assignment beforehand. This item can then be connected to the assignment via the Grades tool, streamlining the grading process.
Release Conditions: Consider setting release conditions to control access to the assignment. For instance, you might restrict access until a specific date or until students complete a prerequisite task, such as a quiz or discussion post. It’s practical to establish these conditions or complete these prerequisite tasks before creating the assignment.
Group Assignments: For collaborative assignments, ensure that the necessary groups are already formed in Brightspace prior to assignment setup.
Special Access: This feature allows you to provide exceptions or special access to certain students or groups. For example, you might extend a submission deadline for students requiring additional support or for those undertaking tasks that go beyond the initial assignment parameters.
By organizing these components in advance, you can streamline the setup process and enhance the educational experience for both instructors and students.
To create an assignment in Brightspace:
Navigate to Course Materials > Content.
Best practice: We recommed creating assignments and assessments directly in Content. Why? When you create an assignment via Tools, students will only be able to access the assignment through the Tools menu in your course navbar. The assignment will not be visible in the content area of your course page unless you add it to a module/submodule using the existing activities menu.
From the Table of Contents, select the module/week section where you’d like to add the assignment > Click Upload/Create button > New Assignment.
Give the assignment a title.
Click Ungraded to set the grade points for the assignment.
An In Grades drop-down menu will appear where you can select Choose from Grades to add an item to the course gradebook. In the Choose from grades pop-up window, you have the following options:
- In Gradebook will be selected by default, meaning a new assignment grade item will be added to your gradebook. If you have set up categories in the gradebook, you will be able to select it from the Grade Category dropdown menu.
- Edit or Link to Existing allows you to link your assignment to a grade item you have already added to your gradebook. If you have already created a grade item for your assignment, you can select it from the drop-down menu.
- Not in Gradebook – Choose this option if you do not want your assignment to appear in the gradebook.
- Reset to Ungraded – If you do not want to create a graded assignment, you can reset to ungraded using this option.
Provide a detailed description of the assignment. You can format the text and include links, images, or videos.
Set submission options on the Submissions & Completion menu.
- Choose the Submission Type (e.g., file upload, text submission, etc.).
- Decide if the assignment will be an individual task or a group assignment.
- Specify the Number of Allowed Attempts.
Attach a rubric on the Evaluation and Feedback menu, if applicable.
Please contact Langara’s EdTech if you need help with Brightspace Assignments, including the more advanced Assignment Submission Folder options, or with help creating groups, release conditions, Special Access, or any other support needs.Contact edtech@langara.ca for more information.
