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Add an Assignment to a Course

  • Updated

Overview

Assignments are used when students need to submit a project, writing activity, essay, or term paper to their teachers. Assignments can be scored or non-scored.

Offering several options in a single location, the assignment activity is one of the most commonly used options for adding a new activity to a course. Administrators and Teacher-Authors can add:

  • Activity Directions 
  • Website links
  • Embedded videos
  • Attached documents or other files
  • A student dropbox
  • Images

Administrators and Teacher-Authors can use the Syllabus tab to add assignments to courses.

Add an activity to a course

  1. Select the Editor tool from the desired course card on the Home page.
  2. Select and expand the module to which you want to add the assignment.
  3. Select + Add to… > Assignment.

Add_Activity.png

Assignment

  1. Select Assignment on the Add to sub-screen.

SelectAssignment.png

With the activity editor:

  1. Use the Filter by group icon to make and/or review activity settings that apply only to specific groups (if groups have been created in the course).
  2. Preview the activity.
  3. Save changes.
  4. Depending on the type of activity you're editing, the Activity Editor can include up to four tabbed screens:
    • Use the Activity screen to add/edit basic content, information, and metadata about an activity that is visible/accessible to the students (e.g., activity titles, thumbnail images, introductory content, instructions, attachments students need to complete the activity).
    • Use the Settings screen to configure the way you want the activity to work for the students (e.g., gradebook settings, objective mastery and badge details, visibility, access).
    • The History screen only displays when changes have been made to an activity since its creation. Use it to review changes and restore previous versions of the activity's content.

Activity Editor tabs are activity, settings, and history.

Some cards in the Activity Editors are collapsed by default; to expand them, select the arrow.

Sample of the Badge box with the small dropdown arrow highlighted on the right.

Activity tab

Use the Activity tab to:

  1. Provide the Title.
  2. Provide a Thumbnail image to represent the activity by selecting the plus sign next to the thumbnail.
    • Recommended file type: PNG or JPG (Pearson converts all files into PNGs.)
    • Ideal size: 400px x 400px (Pearson automatically resizes images, so uploading images smaller than 400px x 400px may reduce quality.)
Sample of the assignment activity window with prompts for adding a title and adding a thumnail image.
  1. Create descriptive Content that displays at the top of the activity. You can choose between:
    • Creating it with the Rich text editor.
    • Attaching a Course resource.
    • Linking a Website, which requires you to:
      • Provide the website's URL.
      • Indicate whether you want Pearson to Fit content to available height and width.
      • Indicate whether you want the site to Popup in a new window.
      • Indicate whether you want to Digitally sign the request for LTI. If you check this box, either:
        • Select Load LTI configuration, paste the configuration XML, and select Parse XML to automatically populate the Key and Secret fields.
        • Select Supply LTI key/secret for this activity and enter the Key and Secret in the appropriate fields.
      • Select Add POST parameter and provide the Post Name and Post Value where necessary. You can use replacement variables in the website URL or in POST-parameter values to pass user-, course-, or domain-specific data to external websites.
  2. Select Add Activity Instructions to open a rich text editor to create instructions. Students can access this content by selecting the pencil icon at the top of the activity.
  3. Select Add attachment to provide files for students to review before starting the activity.
Sample of the content window with a rich text editor to Add content and instructions for students

Settings tab

Activity settings

If you choose to set a Due date (not available for continuous courses), you can specify:

  1. The Due date and time.
  2. Whether you want to Allow late submissions, and if so, what the Late rule and Grace period rules are.
Sample of activity settings window prompting users to enter a due date, allow late submissions, and add a late submission rule.

Gradebook and submission

If you choose to make the activity Gradable, you can specify:

  1. One of the following Submission types:
    • None
    • Single document
    • Multiple documents
    • Web address or URL
    • Notes only
  2. The activity's numeric Weight in category; this number defines how much impact this activity's grade has on the final grade, relative to the other gradable activities in the same category. (Weight in category is not available in courses using Multi-Outcome Scoring.)
  3. The desired Score entry type (Points, Rubric, Percent (%), or Letter grade):
    • If you choose Rubric, select Add rubric to define it (not available for all assessments).
    • If you choose Letter grade, a field appears where you can select the desired Grade scale.
  4. The Grading category you want the activity to be a part of. Grading Categories allow you to apply different grade settings to groups of activities within the same course.
  5. The grading Period you want the activity to be a part of. Separate grading Periods allows you to divide grades by date range without building additional courses.
  6. Whether you want the activity to be considered Extra credit.
  7. Whether This is a group assignment, and if so, choose the desired Student grouping from the dropdown menu. Select Manage groupings to edit, delete, and/or create new groupings. Learn more: How do I create and manage groups?
Edit Gradebook and submission settings

In Multi-Outcome Scoring courses, Gradebook and submission allows you to align activities with Scoring objectives and requires you to use Points as the Score entry. Assign the desired number of Pts possible for each objective that you want aligned.

< Sample of the gradebook and submission box with this activity is gradable selected.

Objective mastery

Select Choose Objective to align the activity with one or more objectives. Objective mastery will only display in core courses or courses that objectives have been added. 

Objective mastery drop down menu

Visibility and access

With Visibility and access settings, you can choose to:  

  1. Make the activity visible to:
    • Students, teachers and observers: This is the default setting for activities intended for students to complete.
    • Teachers and observers: This setting works well for Lesson Guide materials that observers like parents, mentors, etc. need access to. A map icon appears next to these activities in the Activities pages for teachers and observers.
    • Teachers only: This setting works well for Lesson Guide materials that only teachers need. A map icon appears next to these activities in the teacher Activities page.
  2. Check the Hide from student's table of contents and to-do list box. Note that it is still accessible with course links and bookmarks unless otherwise restricted.
  3. Check the Block access until student completes other activity box.
    • If it appears, you can check the Require passing score if gradable for mastery(optional).
    • Select Choose Activity, and select the activity or activities that you want to make access dependent on.
  4. Check the Block access until student masters objective(s) box, select Choose Objective, and select the objective(s) you want to make access dependent on. This option only appears for core courses with objective mastery.
  5. Check the Block access until a specified date box and enter the desired date and time. This option does not appear for continuous courses.
  6. Check the Student must enter a password box and enter the desired Activity password in the field. This is different from assessment-specific passwords, which must be entered each time a student attempts the assessment and are managed in the assessment Advanced options card.
    • By default, students must enter this password only once and can access the activity without entering the password thereafter.
    • Also, you can check the Require password each visit to override the default if needed.

Badges

Select Choose Badge to select one or more badges that you want automatically awarded to students who successfully complete this activity.

Learn more:

Award Badges window

Metadata

Admins can create custom Metadata fields for activities in their domain. This content is only visible to teachers, teacher course-authors, etc. and provides further insight into an activity, such as:

  • An activity Description for course authors.
  • An idea of how this activity fits into the goal of the course or the Big Picture.
  • Essential Questions that should be answered by the activity or that students should keep in mind as they complete it.
  • Any relevant Vocabulary.
  • Associated Resources.

Some of the fields under Metadata ask for content that, if set up by your system admin, can be used to make an activity searchable in the Library. Contact your system admin to find out if there are fields in your domain that can be used this way.

Add metadata for digital library searches window prompts users to edit description and other activity metadata for course authors, a description, and a richtext editor.

Advanced gradebook options

Manage Advanced gradebook options (only available for gradable activities), like:

  1. Defining the minimum Passing score (%).
  2. Whether:
    • The assessment's Score can be dropped from calculated course score (unavailable if the activity is marked as Extra Credit in Gradebook and submission).
    • To Include this activity's score in the final grade calculation.
    • To Require a passing score for course credit.
    • To Treat as zero in gradebook until this activity is scored (unavailable if the activity is marked as Extra Credit in Gradebook and submission).  
Sample of the advanced gradebook options window.

Advanced activity options

Manage Advanced activity options, like:

  1. Completion requirements. You can set the activity to Mark as completed when the student:
    • Submits this activity
    • Receives any score
    • Receives a passing score
  2. If the Student must complete this activity before continuing to the next one.
  3. Changing the activity's folder Location using the dropdown menu.
  4. Giving the activity a new Activity ID in the field.

Sample of advanced activity window with Mark as complete selected when students submit the activity, and the activity id entered.

History tab

The History tab records changes made to the activity and allows you to retrieve previous versions:

  1. Select the version you want to restore.
  2. Preview the content.
  3. Select Restore.

Pearson does not itemize changes to all settings, but does track them. Users can access them by selecting the Details link that appears at the bottom of the history table.

Sample of the history tab with dates listed when changes occurred. Additional Articles: 
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