---
title: "Assignments Overview"
canonical: "https://helpcentre.macewan.ca/space/ETS/2631696389/Assignments%20Overview"
format: markdown
---
**AUDIENCE: ****FACULTY**** | ****STAFF**
---
## Introduction
*Assignments* are typically used for submissions that students work on for days or weeks before submitting. This is in contrast to *quizzes* that are completed synchronously within a set number of hours.
*Assignments* may also be used for time-limited assessment (e.g., quizzes) if the instructor wants to use the rubric or marking guide functionality available in *Assignments*.
Within *Assignments* are settings for when to accept the submission, accepted document types, and various feedback options.
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## General
- **Assignment name** – Choose a descriptive name. If students submit several similar assignments throughout the term, include a date in the assignment name.
- **Description** – You can put an overview of the assignment here.
- **Activity instructions** – Share the details of your instructions and expectations for the assignment with your students. This information includes written instructions, audio or video recordings, or links to outside resources. This is only shown on the submission page, where students can edit and submit their assignment.
- **Additional files**– Upload additional resource files such as PDFs here.
## Availability
- **Allow submissions from** – If you will accept submissions at any time, this can be left unchecked. If there is an earliest date on which you will accept assignments, set that date here.
- **Due date** – If there is a specific due date for submissions, set that date here.
- **Cut-off date** – If you accept late submissions (i.e., after the due date), enter the last date that submissions will be accepted here. After this date, mêskanâs will no longer accept student submissions for this assignment.
- **Remind me to grade by** – If enabled, mêskanâs will send you a reminder to grade submissions on this date.
- **Time limit **– An assignment may have a time limit, similar to the Quiz activity. However, the time limit does not prevent learners from submitting after the time has passed. They can still submit, but it is marked as submitted after the time limit.
**Recommendation****:** Use 23:59 instead of 00:00 for end-of-day times to minimize confusion.
## Submission types
- **Online text** - allows students to type directly into mêskanâs. If selected, the instructor can set the word limit for the assignment. Students can copy and paste into the *Online text* box.
**File submissions** - allow students to upload files as their submissions.
- **Maximum number of uploaded files** – Limits the number of files students can upload. This can be useful if you prefer fewer, larger files instead of more, smaller files.
- **Maximum submission size** – The Default is set to the largest file size allowed by the site (2GB).
- **Accepted file types** – You can limit the file types you accept as submissions. Click **Choose*** *and then find the file category relevant to the assignment. Click on **Expand,** then the specific file types that students should upload. If no file type selection is made, students can upload any file type.
> ℹ️
**If you want to mark up papers online, *****only***** PDF must be selected; Word documents cannot be marked up**.** **When done, scroll to the bottom and click **SAVE CHANGES**. More information about marking up written submissions in mêskanâs is available in the ***Annotate PDF*** resource.
## Feedback types
- **Feedback comments** – provides a text box beside the student’s work to add feedback when grading.
- **Annotate PDF** – allows you to mark up student work directly on the student’s submission (i.e., just like writing on paper). For this to work, students must submit their work in PDF format. More information is available in the **[Annotate PDF](https://macewan.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ETS/pages/2601091075)** resource.
- **Offline grading worksheet** – you can download an Excel worksheet to enter grades, then upload the completed worksheet back into your course, where grades will be shared with students.
- **Feedback files **– enables you to upload feedback files (including marked-up files, audio, and video recordings) to your course to share with students.
- **Comment inline** – If checked, the student’s work is copied into a separate text box, and the instructor can intersperse comments in the same text box, for example, with ALL CAPS or a different font colour to set the comments apart from the student’s work.
## Submission settings
- **Require students to click the submit button** – This allows students to upload a draft version of their work, then click **Submit*** *when the work is in final form; helps stop “accidental submissions.”
- **Require that students accept the submission statement** – If selected, students must check a box beside text that reads, “*This submission is my own work, except where I have acknowledged the work of other people.*” This is a tool to promote academic integrity.
- **Additional attempts** – Choose between *Never*, *Manually *(extra attempts, as permitted by you, the instructor), or *Automatically until pass*, in the case of mastery learning.
## Group submission settings
Only available if Group mode is switched on in the **Edit course settings** menu.
**Settings tab → Groups → Group mode.**
## Notifications
- **Notify graders about submissions** – Recommend ***No*** to avoid message overload.
- **Notify graders about late submissions** – Recommend ***No*** to avoid message overload.
- **Default setting for “Notify students”** – Set the default for the ***Notify students*** checkbox at the bottom of submitted assignments. If this setting is changed to ***No***, students will be notified simultaneously when all assignments are graded.
## Grade
- **Type **– choose between ***None***, ***Scale**** *(select which scale), and ***Point**** *(select Maximum grade). Most instructors will use ***Point*** most (or all) of the time.
- **Maximum grade **– the number of points the assignment is “out of” in the gradebook. Setting this to 100 will report grades as a percentage, regardless of the raw score.
### **Grading method**
- **Simple direct grading **– Allows the instructor to enter only the final grade for the assignment.
- **Marking guide** – A user-created marking guide is displayed beside the student’s submission so you can grade according to predetermined criteria. Students can see the grade associated with each criterion from the marking guide. This tool thereby combines grading and feedback. This tool is best used for assignments with detailed grading criteria.
- **Rubric **– Allows grading to be completed by simply clicking on the descriptor that best describes the student’s work in a particular area. Using a rubric can be a huge timesaver when grading relatively simple and/or repetitive assignments.
- **Grade category** – Select the gradebook category to which the assignment should be added. The choices available will depend on how you set your gradebook up.
- **Grade to pass** – This is used to indicate if a grade is a passing or failing. You may want to use this when ***Activity Completion*** or ***Course Completion*** options are selected. Otherwise, it can be left as ***No***.
- **Anonymous submission** – Hides the student's identity while the assignment is being graded.
- **Hide grade identity from students** – Hides the name of the grader from students in sections with multiple graders.
- **Use marking allocation** – Allows graders to be assigned to grade specific students’ work.
## Common module settings
- **Availability **– Determines if the assignment is visible to students on the main course page. This setting can also be changed on the main course page.
- **ID number** – Only used for very specific situations. Recommend leaving unchanged.
- **Group mode** – This setting defaults to following the course default ***Groups**** *setting. The default can be overridden here unless ***Group mode*** is forced at the course level.
- **Grouping **– A grouping is a collection of groups within a course. If a grouping is selected, students assigned to groups within the grouping can work together.
## Restrict access
Instructors can limit access to the assignment based on:
- **Activity completion **– Require students to complete (or not complete) another activity.
- **Date **– Release and/or hide dates can be set.
- **Grade **– Students must have achieved a predetermined grade in selected other activities or assignments before this assignment becomes available to them.
- **User profile** – Selected characteristics of the student’s profile must match selected criteria for the student to be allowed access to this activity.
- **Restriction set** – This allows you to require multiple conditions to be met before students are allowed access to this activity.
## Activity completion
Instructors can set **Completion conditions**. These settings determine what condition(s) need to be met for mêskanâs to consider this activity as having been completed.
## Tags
Instructors can create tags for the assignment to allow searching and categorizing.
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