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Assignment: set up

Summary

Assignment is the built-in assignment submission and marking tool in the Learn Ultra VLE. It is mostly used for formatives, non-anonymous summatives and group assignments.

This guide covers setting up Assignment submission points, and is aimed at Administrators and Teaching staff.

Relevant VLE site design principles

  • 4.1 Essential: The assessment section contains all information about module assessments.
  • 4.2 Essential: Assessment instructions are clearly labelled and explain the task and requirements.
  • 4.3 Essential: Provide marking criteria or other grading policies showing how work is marked.

Example Assignment for a formative essay with task instructions

When to use Assignment

Assignment is most suitable for:

  • formative and non-anonymous summative assignments
  • individual or group assignments
  • a range of file types up to 100MB (eg. text documents, slide decks, low res video and audio)

Do not use Assignment for anonymous submissions. This is technically possible, but we don't recommend it at UoY as anonymous marking:

  1. can be turned off with a single button click, and can't be turned back on.
  2. limits the marking tools and filtering options available.
  3. makes it very difficult to manage SSP adjustments.

If you want to run an anonymous summative assignment, see our TurnItIn Feedback Studio set up guide.

Setting up submission points

  • As Ultra Assignments are used for formative or non-anonymous summative assessments, submission points can be set up by teaching staff or admins.
  • All formal assessment information and submission points (including formative) must be located in the Assessment section of a module site. If desired, a Course Link to the submission point can also be added in a weekly content folder.
  • Give clear instructions on the assessment task and requirements, either within the submission point or in its own item also within the Assessment section.
  • Marking criteria or grading policies for the assignment must be available or linked within the Assessment section.

Warning

Files uploaded to Learn VLE sites (eg. PDF or Word documents) are technically accessible to all site users, even if hidden from students in the Course Content area.

When uploading assessment-related files where access needs to be limited (eg. assessment briefs or test materials), view and apply our guidance on Strict File Access Control for Sensitive Files.

Individual assessment

To set up an individual Assignment:

  1. In the Assessment section, hover where you want to add the Assignment and click the purple plus icon.
  2. Select Assignment.
  3. Add a descriptive title, set appropriate visibility and add instructions as text or a file.
  4. Click the cog icon to set a Due Date (this must be within working hours) and adjust other settings (see suggested settings below).
  5. Click Save when finished.

Decorative

Appropriate settings will depend on your particular assessment, but here are our general recommended settings:

  • Details & Information
    • set a Due date (this must be within working hours) or tick No due date
    • leave all other options unticked
  • Formative Tools
    • tick Formative assessment
    • leave Display formative label to students ticked
  • Marking & Submissions
    • Mark category: in most cases, leave this as Assignment, but you can change to another option (eg. Presentation). This determines the icon shown on the item in the Course Content area and can be used to filter the Gradebook.
    • Attempts allowed: set to Unlimited
    • Attempts to mark: set to Last attempt
    • Mark using: leave as Points or change to Percentage or a qualitative marking schema (eg. Complete/Incomplete)
    • Maximum points: leave as 100 or change to another amount. For formative work, that is often '1' to show the work is marked.
    • Anonymous marking: not recommended
    • Evaluation options: Peer review can't be used with if multiple attempts are allowed
    • Assessment mark: in most cases, leave Post marks automatically unticked to release marks manually. If this is ticked, marks and feedback are released to students immediately when a mark is entered for a submission; this could be useful to streamline workflow for large cohorts with lots of markers.
  • Assessment Security: leave unticked
  • Additional Tools
    • Time limit: not recommended unless there is a clear pedagogic rationale
    • Use marking rubric: if desired, attach a marking rubric to streamlime marking and feedback
    • Goals & standards: leave unticked, not used at UoY
    • Assigned groups: not relevant to individual assignments
    • Originality Report: not recommended for formative work
  • Description: if desired, enter a description to show on the item in the Course Content area (ie. students can see this before they open the Assignment).
  • Details & Information
    • set a Due date (this must be within working hours)
    • leave all other options unticked
  • Formative Tools
    • leave unticked
  • Marking & Submissions
    • Mark category: in most cases, leave this as Assignment, but you can change to another option (eg. Presentation). This determines the icon shown on the item in the Course Content area and can be used to filter the Gradebook.
    • Attempts allowed: set to Unlimited
    • Attempts to mark: set to Last attempt
    • Mark using: leave as Points or change to Percentage or a qualitative marking schema (eg. Pass/Fail)
    • Maximum points: most likely leave as the default 100
    • Anonymous marking: do not use - Assignment can only be used for non-anonymous summative assessment
    • Evaluation options:
      • Two markers per student: not recommended (ie. every assignment must be second marked)
      • Peer review can't be used with if multiple attempts are allowed
      • Delegated marking: usually not necessary
    • Assessment mark: leave Post marks automatically unticked to release marks manually once the marking process is complete.
  • Assessment Security: leave unticked
  • Additional Tools
    • Time limit: not recommended unless there is a clear pedagogic rationale
    • Use marking rubric: if desired, attach a marking rubric to streamlime marking and feedback
    • Goals & standards: not used at UoY
    • Assigned groups: not relevant to individual assignments
    • Originality Report: not currently recommended
  • Description: if desired, enter a description to show on the item in the Course Content area (ie. students can see this before they open the Assignment)

For more detail, see Blackboard Help's guide to Ultra Assignment Set Up & Use

Group assessment

Ultra Assignment is the tool we have available to facilitate group assessment. TurnItIn does not support group assessment.

Assign to Course Groups to allow a student to transparently make a submission on behalf of the whole group, and for marks and feedback to be released to all group members.

See our guide to Group Assignments for full details.

Generate Assignment prompts & rubrics with AI

You can use the AI Design Assistant Tool to auto-generate assignment prompts based on your site content.

In addition to creating assessments, this tool may also be most useful for exploring ideas for project work or discussion tasks more generally.

Using AI tools effectively

AI-generated content is a starting point for your own content development rather than a finished product. You must always carefully check that output is accurate and appropriate for your intended use and adapt as needed.

See our general guide to Artificial Intelligence tools for more details on using AI responsibly.