Assignments

Assignments allow the instructor to specify a task that requires students to prepare content and submit it for grading. Typical assignments include essays, projects, presentations, reports, audio/visual recordings, and reading analyses. There are two essential steps to using Assignments: adding an assignment and grading an assignment.

Adding an Assignment to a Course Site

1. Click the orange “Turn editing on” button in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

2. Choose the desired section to which you would like to add an assignment and navigate to it from the "Site info" section on the left of your screen.

3. At the bottom of the page, click the orange Add an activity or resource button.

4. Select “Assignment” from the Activities list.

5. Click the Add button.

You will be sent to a new page to enter details about your new assignment.

1. Provide a Name for the assignment.

2. Provide a Description for the assignment. If you would like the Description to display on the course page, click the option underneath the text box.

There are many optional settings for assignments, and they may be configured now or later by editing the assignment. If you choose to exit now, click Save and return to course to return to the course’s landing page or Save and display to see the assignment in its section. If you would like to edit an assignment at a later date, navigate to the section in which you created the assignment and, with editing turned on, click the red “Edit” button beside the assignment and select Edit Settings. 

The following information details the various settings that are available for an Assignment.

Assignment Availability 

To make assignment submissions available for only a set period of time, click the “Enable” checkboxes next to “Allow submission from” and “Due date.” Update the date and time drop-down boxes accordingly. If you uncheck all of the “Enable” checkboxes, the assignment will be available to students for the duration of the course. The “Due date” must be after the “Allow submissions from” date.

• Cut-off date

To set a cut-off date (after which the system will no longer accept submissions), check the “Enable” checkbox. Then set the date and time in the drop-down boxes. If you set the cut-off date exactly the same as the due date, no late submissions will be accepted.

If you leave the cut-off date unset, or set the cut-off date to a time after the due date, students will be able to submit after the due date, but their submissions will be stamped as late. Under the Notifications option, graders can select to be alerted by email when a student submits an assignment late.

• Remind me to grade by:

This is the expected date by which marking of the submissions should be completed. This date is used to prioritize dashboard notification for instructors/graders. 

• Always show description:

If disabled, the assignment description will only become visible to the student once the assignment is open to submissions—that is to say, when the "Allow submissions from" date is reached. This option is useful when you want students to complete the assignment only after certain material has been presented or discussed in class.

Submission Types

These fields allow you to select what type of submissions students can make. “File submissions” is enabled by default. The other available types include “Online PoodLL” (Audio Recording), and “Online text.” “Media collection” is currently disabled. You can select as many or as few submission types as you prefer. Students will only be able to submit the file types you select. There are options that are only enabled if you select the corresponding submission type. These options allow you to fine tune the assignment.

If all submission types checkboxes are left unchecked, the assignment can act as a placeholder in the gradebook. For example, student attendance and participation at an event could be recorded this way.

• Media collection (currently disabled)
  Before choosing this option, you must set up a “Media Gallery” as a separate activity using the Add an Activity or Resource button. Once the Media Gallery is set up, enable the Media collection submission type by clicking the box. 

  • Option - Media Collection: This is where you choose the Media Gallery activity that is associated with this assignment. The Media Galleries you have created show up in the drop-down menu here.

• File submissions
  A student can upload one or more files as a submission. This can be a Word document, spreadsheet, audio/video recording, or anything in digital format. Multiple files may be zipped and then submitted. After students upload their files, the instructor will be able to open the submission and use the CCLE interface to assign a grade and offer comments as feedback. A student may submit a file as many times as they like up until the deadline IF AND ONLY IF "Require students click submit button" is set to "No" (by default it is set to "Yes,” which means that after a student clicks "Submit for grading," the student cannot re-submit).

  • Option - Maximum number of uploaded files: If file submissions are enabled, each student will be able to upload up to this number of files for their submission.

  • Option - Maximum submission size: The size of files uploaded by students may range from 10kb to 100MB.

  • Option - Accepted file types: Accepted file types can be restricted by entering a list of file extensions. If the field is left empty, all file types are allowed.

• Online PoodLL
  If enabled, students are able to record audio/video, snap pictures, or use a whiteboard as per the PoodLL submission settings for this assignment.

  • Option - PoodLL Rec. Type: This pulldown menu allows you to select the appropriate PoodLL function for the assignment.

    • Audio Recorder (default) is used for voice capture.

    • Video Recorder allows the student to use their computer-based webcam to record their submission.

    • Whiteboard allows the student to draw freely in the space provided.

    • Snapshot allows the student to use their computer-based webcam to take a snapshot.

  • Option - PoodLL Rec. Time Limit: This option allows you to limit the length of time of a student recording (Voice or Video). The default is an unlimited amount of time (designated 0 minutes).

  • Option - PoodLL WhiteBoard Back: You may set a background for the PoodLL WhiteBoard submission using this feature.

  • Option - PoodLL WhiteBoard Size: This lets you specify the size (in pixels) of the size WhiteBoard students may draw on.

• Online Text
  This submission type asks students to enter rich text directly into the normal CCLE editor field. Instructors can grade them online, and even add in-line comments or changes.

  • Option - Word Limit: If Online text submissions are enabled, this is the maximum number of words that each student will be allowed to submit. “Enable” must be checked for this to take effect. 

Submission comments are enabled by default; this allows students to leave comments about their own submissions for instructors/graders to read.

Feedback Types

There is a variety of feedback types that an instructor can use to provide feedback to the student. They include Feedback comments, Annotate PDF, Feedback files, an Offline grading worksheet, and Feedback PoodLL.

• Feedback comments
  This allows you to enter comments directly into CCLE in the comments field for the submission. Your comments will be viewable to the student. These comments will be visible to students in the CCLE gradebook, and if you have imported the assignment into your MyUCLA gradebook, they will be visible there as well. 

  • Option - Comment inline: If enabled, the submission text will be copied into the feedback comment field during grading, making it easier to make in-line comments (using a different color, perhaps) or to edit the original text.

• Annotate PDF

This provides a set of options to make notes on a student’s submission, including basic shapes, highlighting, and comments of different colors. Despite the name of this feature, students do not need to submit a PDF for this tool to work. Instead, CCLE converts their submission into a PDF automatically.

• Feedback files
  You will be able to upload files with feedback when grading assignments. Examples include marked-up student submissions, documents with comments, or spoken audio feedback.

• Offline grading worksheet
  This allows you to download and upload a spreadsheet with student grades when grading assignments.

  • Option - Show download link: If selected, this will display a link for the instructor to download the worksheet.

• Feedback PoodLL
  This allows you to create a voice recording directly on CCLE, regardless of the type of assignment. Your audio recording is viewable as an audio file to the student.

  • Option - Show download link: If "Yes" is selected, students will be able to download the feedback file.

Submission Settings

There are a variety of options available for you as the instructor concerning the assignment submission process for students. 

• Require students click submit button
  If enabled (the default), students will have to click a Submit button to declare their submission as final. This allows students to keep a draft version of the submission on the system until they click the submit button. If this setting is changed from "No" to "Yes" after students have already submitted, those submissions will be regarded as final. 

  • Important note: The default is to have students acknowledge that their submission is final. This forces students to commit to a final version after which they cannot upload other versions or make other edits. 

    • If you choose to uncheck this, students have the option to edit or reupload their work, even after the due date.

  • If a student uploads a draft but fails to submit it as their final submission, instructors may submit the draft for grading, even after the submission deadline.

• Require that students accept the submission statement
  This option requires the student to accept the submission statement for all submissions to this assignment to complete the submission process. This is disabled by default.

• Attempts reopened
  This determines how student submission attempts are reopened. The default is “Never.” The available options are:

  • Never

    • The student submission cannot be reopened.

  • Manually

    • The student submission can be reopened by the instructor.

  • Automatically until pass

    • The student submission is automatically reopened until the student achieves the grade to pass the value set in the Gradebook (Gradebook setup section) for this assignment.

• Maximum attempts
  This refers to the maximum number of submission attempts that can be made by a student. After this number of attempts has been made, the student's submission will not be able to be reopened. 

Group Submission Settings

If you are having students work in a group or collaborative fashion, these settings assist you in organizing their submissions.

• Students submit in groups
  If enabled, students will be divided into groups based on the default set of groups or a custom grouping. A group submission will be shared among group members, and all members of the group will see each other’s changes to the submission. The default is “No.”
  

• Require group to make submission

If enabled, users who are not members of a group will be unable to make a submission.

• Require all group members submit
  If enabled, all members of the group must click the “submit” button for this assignment before the group submission will be considered as submitted. If disabled, the group submission will be considered submitted as soon as any member of the student group clicks the “submit” button. The default is “No.”

• Grouping for student groups
  This is the grouping that the assignment will use to find groups for student groups. If not set, the default set of groups will be used. The default is “None.”

Notifications

According to the instructor’s preference, CCLE will send notifications upon assignment submission and/or late submission from students. 

• Notify graders about submissions If enabled, graders receive a message whenever a student submits an assignment (i.e. early, on time, or late). Message methods are configurable. The default is “No.”

• Notify graders about late submissions If enabled, graders receive a message whenever a student submits an assignment late. Message methods are configurable. The default is “No.” This cannot be set to “Yes” if general notification, which notifies graders about every submission, is “Yes.”

• Default settings for “Notify students” Set the default value for the "Notify students" checkbox on the grading form. The default is “No.”

Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings

Instructors may set up an assignment to make use of the Turnitin plugin. This feature checks all submissions for possible instances of plagiarism without the need to set up a separate Turnitin activity. A report will be generated for each submission, including highlighted sections of a submission that may match published resources or other students’ submissions.

• Enable Turnitin
  If enabled, student submissions will be sent to Turnitin to check for potential plagiarism. The default is “No.”

• Display Originality Reports to Students
  If enabled, students will be able to see the report generated by Turnitin detailing where plagiarism might have occurred. The default is “No.”

• When should the file be submitted to Turnitin?
  Instructors can specify here if files should be submitted to Turnitin as soon as a student uploads them or only when the student officially submits them.

• Allow submission of any file type?
  If enabled, Turnitin will accept any file type, although it may not be able to check for plagiarism depending on which the student submits. The default is “No.”

• Store Student Papers
  If enabled, Turnitin will store student submissions to compare to future submissions as part of its plagiarism check. Turnitin does not use stored submissions in any other way. The default is “No.”

• Check against stored student papers/Check against internet/Check against journals, periodicals, and publications
  These options instruct Turnitin about the types of sources it should compare student submissions to as part of its plagiarism check. At least one of these must be selected in order for Turnitin to prepare an Originality Report for submitted items.

• Resubmissions
  If resubmissions are allowed for an assignment, this option instructs Turnitin how often to generate a new Originality Report. Instructors may indicate: 1.) resubmissions are not allowed, and so, reports can be generated immediately; 2.) resubmissions are allowed, but reports can be generated immediately (any submissions after the first three will take 24 hours to have a report generated); or 3.) generate the report only once on the due date.

• Exclude Bibliography/Quoted Material/Small Matches
  These options instruct Turnitin to exclude certain parts of a submission from its Originality Report. If selected, these options will ignore a submission’s bibliography, quotations, and small phrases that match other sources, respectively. The default is “No.”

• Attach a rubric to this assignment
  This option allows instructors to upload a rubric that they will use to grade the assignment.

• Enable e-rater grammar check
  This option instructs Turnitin to use an automatic grammar and spelling check as part of its report. If enabled, instructors may specify which ETS© Handbook and which dictionary Turnitin should use as part of its check. Instructors may also specify what types of errors Turnitin should look for (i.e. spelling, grammar, style, etc.).

Grades

The instructor can establish the desired grade criteria for an assignment. Note that these settings must be finalized before any submission is received.

• Grade
  Select the type of grading used for this activity. If "Scale" is chosen, you can then choose from the "scale" dropdown. If using "Point" grading, you can enter the maximum grade available for this activity.

  • Type

    • You may choose None, Point, or Scale. “Point” is selected by default.

  • Scale

    • This is only available if “Scale” was chosen. Options are:

    • Excellent - ranges from Disappointing to Excellent

    • GEMBA-Customized Scale - Anderson Mgmt Use Only.

    • Pass Scale - Assign grades as Pass-, Pass, or Pass+

    • Satisfactory - Assign grades as Not satisfactory, Satisfactory, or Outstanding

    • Separate and Connected ways of knowing - Individual posts can be rated using a scale based on the theory of separate and connected knowing. The results are not used towards student assessment in any way, they are used to help improve communication and learning. 

  • Maximum Points

    • This is only available if “Point” is chosen. You may set the maximum number of points for an assignment.

• Grading method
  Choose the advanced grading method that should be used for calculating grades in the given context. To disable advanced grading and switch back to the default grading mechanism, choose “Simple direct grading.” Available options are: 

  • Simple Direct grading (default)

  • Grading guide

  • Rubric

• Grade category
  This setting controls the category in which this assignment’s grades are placed in the gradebook. If no categories have been created in the gradebook, this defaults to “Uncategorized.” Use the drop-down to add your assignment to a grade category based on those set in the CCLE Gradebook. Grade categories are especially useful if you would like to weigh graded items differently.

• Blind grading This option hides the identity of students to graders. Blind grading settings are locked once a submission or grade has been made in relation to this assignment.

• Use grading workflow
  If enabled, grades will go through a series of workflow stages before being released to students. This allows for multiple rounds of grading and allows grades to be released to all students at the same time. The default is “No.”

• Use grading allocation If enabled together with grading workflow, graders can be allocated to particular students. The default is No. 

Common Module Settings, Restrict Access, and Activity Completion (optional)

• Visible

  • Choose whether to Show or Hide the assignment to students.
    

• ID number: Setting an ID number provides a way of identifying the activity for grade calculation purposes. If the activity is not included in any grade calculation, then the ID number field can be left blank. The ID number can also be set in the gradebook, though it can only be edited on the activity settings page.
  

• Group mode: When course group mode is turned on, the group mode can be one of three levels: No groups, Separate groups, or Visible groups.

  • No groups: There are no groups and all students submit their assignments in one Assignment area.

  • Separate groups: Students submit their assignments within a separate group-based submission area, and all students within the group can see the work of the other group members.

    • Note: This setting is extremely useful for large classes as it allows instructors to sort submissions by Registrar sections. Students from other groups cannot see the assignments of other groups.

  • Visible groups: All students submit their assignment within a single Assignment area but may choose with which Group to associate their submission before uploading. Group members can see other groups.

The group mode defined at course level is the default mode for all activities within the course. Each activity that supports groups can also define its own group mode, although if the group mode is forced at course level, the group mode setting for each activity is ignored (see warning below for more information).

Warning about Group submission settings and Common module settings: Please be aware that there is an interplay between "Group submission setting" of "Students submit in groups" to "Yes" and the "Common module settings" of "Group mode."

The following screenshot explains what will result from the "Group submission setting" of "Yes" and the various Groups: No groups, Separate groups, Visible groups.

Access restrictions

You can add restrictions in regards to:

• Date: Prevent access until (or from) a specified date and time. This will restrict students from viewing an activity either before or after your desired dates. You can adjust the “Before activity can be accessed” drop-down to either show the activity as grey or to make it completely invisible until you would like students to see it. 

  • Note, if the “Allow access until” date is set, and that date has passed, and the checkbox for “Enabled” is selected, students will not be able to view the Feedback comments or Feedback files. To allow student viewing of Feedback, either extend the date or disable.
    

• Grade: This will require students to achieve a specified grade. Select another graded activity in the course from the drop-down and enter conditional percentages in the provided fields to restrict an activity based on a student's performance on another item in the course. This is useful if you would like students to have a fundamental understanding of one activity before moving on to the next. You can adjust the “Before activity can be accessed” drop-down to either show the activity as grey or to make it completely invisible until you would like students to see it.

• Restriction set: Add a set of nested restrictions to apply complex logic.

Viewing and Grading Submitted Assignments

To view a submitted assignment, click on the assignment activity. This provides an overview of the number of participants, drafts, submitted assignments, and assignments that need grading. It will also tell you the due date (if any) for the assignment. Click View all submission to go to the submissions page and begin grading. There is also a Grade button that launches the grading window with the first submission.

The list of submissions may be sorted by clicking on a particular heading. Clicking twice on the same heading sorts the list in the opposite order. If the table is too large, then columns may be collapsed by clicking on the “Hide” icon next to a particular column heading.

By default, 10 submissions are shown per page, though this may be changed at the bottom of the page.  The top of the grading screen is seen below:

The Grading action drop-down menu gives you three immediate options:

• You can download all of the submission files: If you choose this option, the files will include the name of the student, their UID, and the name of the assignment. The files will be downloaded in a zip file.

• You can download all of the submission files (UID format): If you choose this option, the files will not include the name of the student in the name of the file, only their UID. The files will be downloaded in a zip file.

• You can go directly to the full course gradebook.

• If the feedback option was implemented for the assignment, you will also have the option to upload multiple feedback files in a zip file.

Assignments per page: is self-explanatory, while “filter” allows you to see submissions based on not submitted, submitted, and requires grading criteria.

There are also checkboxes allowing various settings. Quick grading is the most important. This allows the instructor to enter grades directly on the grading main page without going into the separate grader workflow window. You can also add comments via this window at the right side of the grid.

Also note the edit button in each row. Here, you have quickly accessible options to update a grade, grant extensions, or open the submission to draft (depending on settings). A very useful trick is also here. Even with the submit button setting set to “No” (thereby allowing a student to always change their assignment), an instructor can lock an individual’s submission into place by choosing Prevent submission changes.

This brings us to the bottom of this window, where there are several other settings that can be enacted on various participants at once.

Enabling “Notify students” will send an email to any student whose assignment was graded or commented on in this window.

Save all quick grading changes must be clicked for any changes made in the overview window to be saved.

Finally, With selected… will enact an action on any selected submission(s). This is where the instructor has the ability to grant an extension or revert a submission to draft status. Draft status can only be done if submission settings allow this to happen (if set to “never,” a submission cannot be unlocked).

Grading

Grading can be done either through Quick Grading in the overview pane or by clicking the Grade button on a submission row and launching the grading window, which can be seen in the screenshot that follows. The grading window is also launched if the blue Grade button is clicked in the opening assignment window instead of View All Submissions.

Before grading an Assignment, you should hide the Assignment from students (In a section, select “Hide” under “Edit”). “Hide” will allow you to grade the submissions until you choose for grades to be released collectively when the Assignment is unhidden (Select “Show” under “Edit”). Otherwise, as each submission is graded, the grade will become available to the individual student upon next login or browser refresh. The student may also be sent an email that the submission has been commented on if this is enabled. 

• Note that MyUCLA does not work exactly the same as CCLE. If a Grade is Hidden on

MyUCLA, it will be Hidden but the Comment will be displayed to the student. 

Besides hiding the entire Assignment, Grades can be hidden. This allows grading to start while submissions are ongoing. Here are your options:

• Hiding the Assignment in a section will hide the entire assignment, and the entire item will not be visible to the students.

• In Hiding via Grades, students will see the assignment on the site, including a "Submission status" of "Submitted for grading.”

• In the student "Control Panel," "Grades" for the Assignment will not show.

  • Only after the "Hide" is released will "Grade" and instructor "Feedback comments" send an email notification to the student (if the Assignment setting of "Notify students" of "Yes" and "No" is the persistent default for any Assignments created after December 22, 2015—Assignments created prior to December 22, 2015 retain the default of "Yes").

    • Therefore, if the assignment is set to "Hide" and the "Notify students" is set to "No," the assignment will need to be set to "Show" and the "Notify students" set to "Yes" for students to see the "Grade" and "Feedback comments.”

• Grades are hidden inside the Gradebook as explained below.

  • From your course website, click “Admin Panel.” Choose Grades under the “Course administration” tab.

  • This will bring you to “Grader report.”

  • Click on the “Setup” tab, and choose the tab “Preferences: Grader report.”

  • Under “Show/hide toggles”, choose from the “Show/hide icons” dropdown menu.

• If enabled, a show/hide icon appears for each grade to control its visibility to the student.

It is possible to set a release time for the Grades. Go back to the tab “View” and the tab “Grader Report.” Click the gear icon under the name of the course. Click “Show more…” and then “Hidden.” To set a date and time, click the checkbox for “Enable.” The screenshot below shows the Hidden Checkbox checked and the Hidden until, click the “Enable” checkbox. If you check the “Hidden until Enable” Checkbox, when you Save, the “Hidden” Checkbox will automatically uncheck as “Hidden” and “Hidden until” are mutually exclusive.

• The Gradebook will show an eye icon with a strike over it.
   

Basic grading assignments

To grade or mark a submission, click on the Grade link opposite a particular student's name, or choose Update Grade from the drop-down options under “Edit.”  A new window will open containing a feedback area.

Once you've reviewed the student's assignment, enter the grade for the assignment as a number or from the drop-down list if a scale is used (You set the scale when you created the assignment.) Below the grade scale, you can type comments regarding their work. When you are done, click Save changes. Check the box beside “Notify student” if you would like the student to know that a grade and/or feedback has been added.

Providing Feedback via Comments and/or Files

The Grade window allows entry of a Grade, Feedback comments, the upload of Feedback files, and Notification to students. Feedback comments is the usual CCLE HTML editor.

Upload Feedback files by a drag and drop, or via the “File picker” option for student viewing.

Quick grading assignments

Quick grading is set to on by default and allows grades to be entered on the main submission panel instead of in the separate grading pane. Enter the grades, and when you are done, click Save all quick grading changes at the bottom of the page. Quick grading is a user setting, and if the user turns Quick grading off, the creation of any new assignments will have Quick grading turned off. To turn Quick grading on, check the Quick grading checkbox. 

Quick edit bulk grade entry

You do not need to grade each assignment individually if all are the same grade and all students have submitted the Assignment.

For example, say you want all students to have a grade of three. You will need to do a bulk insert in the grades section of a course. To get to the section, you will navigate via the Administration block on the left hand side of the course page:

1. Course administration > Grades 

   1. On the page that appears, click the Single View tab, then choose the assignment from the drop-down “Select Grade Item” list.

2. You will arrive on the view for a single assignment.

Check “Perform bulk insert” located at the bottom of the page and choose either “Empty grades” or “All grades.” Type in a value and click “Save.” The entered grade will be inserted.

Note that only Students will appear on the Grader report page. Participants do not show up here.

How to grade by Registrar sections

If your course has Registrar sections, and you wish to grade by those sections, you will first need to Edit the Assignment under “Common module settings.” Change the “Group mode” to “Separate groups.” Click “Add group/grouping access restriction.” Be certain to click one of the Save buttons at the bottom of the screen.

On the main assignment page, a drop-down box will appear at the top of the page. Instructors can filter by sections.

How to grade by Groups

This is a multiple step process.

• Edit the Assignment settings for "Group submission settings;" Students submit in groups, set to "Yes.”

• After the students in the group have completed their submission, select Assignment, View and grade all submissions, and the group to be graded. In the example below, the assignment is called GROUP ACTIVITY—Citation map and the Separate groups is Group 1.

• You will need to grade the first student in the Group. Select "Edit," "Grade," and enter the grade.

• After the first student in the Group has been graded, scroll down to the bottom, choose Group submission settings, and select “Yes” for "Apply grades and feedback to entire group.” You may or may not want to notify students. Save changes or Save and show.

How can I grant a student an extension?

On the assignment submissions page, using the “Edit” drop-down menu to the right of the student's name, and select Grant Extension. You will be shown a new screen where you can set a new, extended deadline for a student. When you have set the date, click Save changes. 

Allowing resubmissions

On the Assignment submissions page, using the “Edit” drop-down menu, select Revert the submission to draft. The student may need to refresh the browser. Then, the Edit/Add submission button will become available on the student’s screen.

The student can then click on the previously submitted file. This will bring up Download and Delete buttons. The Delete button will allow the previously submitted file to be deleted, and a new file can be uploaded.

Note that if the assignment due date has been set and enabled, and the grant extension is not set, the submission will be marked as late.

To avoid late submission (or to allow beyond a cut-off date), select Grant extension and set a date and time. Be sure to click the “Enable” checkbox.

If the “Grant extension” is set and enabled, the assignment grading tool will show "Extension granted until." 

Viewing Participant submissions

Assignment and Participant role can affect how grades appear. A Participant does not appear in the CCLE Grade administration tools as only Students are in the Gradebook. However, a Participant can submit an assignment. The Participant can see the results of the graded assignment on their side. The Instructor can see the assignment of the Participant via Assignment window where all submissions are visible. The role of the Participant does appear in the assignment report (Student and Participant roles are displayed together in one list).