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Blackboard 8: The Assignment Tool

How do I use the Assignment tool?
Solution

The Assignments Tool provides students with a place to upload documents or submit work. Instructors can then use the Grade Center to view and grade student submissions.
Choose Assignment from the Select drop-down list and click Go.

Go to the control panel of your course site and click on the Content Area you wish to deploy the assignment to. In this example, we will use the Assignments content area.

In Section 1, type a name, points possible, and the optional due date for this assignment.

In Section 2, click on Browse to locate and attach any files related to the assignment such as a reading or a list of questions for students to answer.

In Section 3, choose the availability of the assignment to students, and the date restrictions if desired.

Finally, click Submit in section 4 to save your changes.

IMPORTANT:

Once you have created an assignment, Blackboard will automatically create a column in the Grade Center to track student submissions. From there you can download all submissions at once for printing or grading and add any grades and feedback for students also.
If you do not want students to view the grades for an assignment you must ensure that both the column in the Grade Center and the assignment in the content area are set as unavailable. Just making the column in the Grade Center unavailable to students will block the grades from the My Grades area but if the assignment itself is still available, students can view their grades for that assignment.

The Student View

If the assignment is available to students, they will see a View/Complete Assignment button.

In the Upload Assignment screen, students can download any assignment files. When they are ready to provide their submission, they can type in their comments and then Browse to add one or more files.

Students can click Save to save a draft submission (which an instructor cannot see) or Submit to send their submission to Grade Center for viewing and grading by the instructor or TA.

IMPORTANT

Students must be aware that clicking the Save button will NOT submit their assignment to the instructor. They must click Submit in order to get credit for completing the assignment by the deadline.

Viewing & Grading Student Submissions

As previously mentioned, once the assignment is created in a content area, Blackboard will automatically create a column in the Grade Center to track student submissions.

In the Grade Center, you will see a green exclamation point when a student has submitted
a file.

You can choose to download a specific submission or all received submissions.

To download a specific file, click on the Extra Options icon to the right of the green exclamation point, and choose Grade Details.

Click on View Attempt to view and download the student's file, enter any feedback to the student or any instructor notes (which can only be seen via the Grade Center by other instructors or TAs on the course).

Tip:

If a student submits the wrong file, or the wrong version of a file, an instructor or TA can clear their original attempt which will allow a student to submit a new file for a specific assignment. To do so the instructor or TA must use the Clear Attempt tool in the above window.

You can choose to download all current submissions for a specific assignment.

To do so, click on the Extra Options icon to the right of the column name and choose the Assignment File Download option.

Click on Select All or Select Ungraded and Blackboard will select the required students names. Click Submit to save your changes.

Right-click on Download assignments now to download the documents to a zip file on your computer. The zip file will contain two files per student, one is the actual submission and the second is a text file with the submission information such as time, date, and any student comments.

IMPORTANT:

If you do not want students to view the grades for an assignment you must ensure that both the column in the Grade Center and the assignment in the content area are set as unavailable. Just making the column in the Grade Center unavailable to students will block the grades from the My Grades area but if the assignment itself is still available, students can view their grades for that assignment.

This Blackboard tutorial is also available as a video(Flash Player required) or as a downloadable PDF (Adobe Reader required).

The Assignment Tool Video Tutorial

The Assignment Tool PDF Tutorial

Click here to download a PDF version of this tutorial.

For a complete list of ITS Blackboard tutorials, please visit www.nyu.edu/its/blackboard/tutorials.

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Go to the control panel of your course site and click on the Content Area you wish to deploy the assignment to. In this example, we will use the Assignments content area.

In Section 1, type a name, points possible, and the optional due date for this assignment.
In Section 2, click on Browse to locate and attach any files related to the assignment such as a reading or a list of questions for students to answer.
In Section 3, choose the availability of the assignment to students, and the date restrictions if desired.
Finally, click Submit in section 4 to save your changes.

In the Grade Center, you will see a green exclamation point when a student has submitted a file.
You can choose to download a specific submission or all received submissions.

	To download a specific file, click on the Extra Options icon to the right of the green exclamation point, and choose Grade Details.
Click on View Attempt to view and download the student's file, enter any feedback to the student or any instructor notes (which can only be seen via the Grade Center by other instructors or TAs on the course).

	To do so, click on the Extra Options icon to the right of the column name and choose the Assignment File Download option.
Click on Select All or Select Ungraded and Blackboard will select the required students names. Click Submit to save your changes.
	Right-click on Download assignments now to download the documents to a zip file on your computer. The zip file will contain two files per student, one is the actual submission and the second is a text file with the submission information such as time, date, and any student comments.