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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
  • doubleblind marking
  • a range of file types up to 100MB (eg. text documents, slide decks, low res video and audio)

The Assignment tool does techncally allow anonymous submissions, however we don't recommend using Assignment anonymously as this can:

  1. be turned off with a single button click, and can't be turned back on
  2. limit the marking tools and filtering options available

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

Submission points

Warning

All formal assessment information and submission points (including formative) must be located in the Assessment section of a module site.

  • As Ultra Assignments are used for formatives or non-anonymous summatives, submission points can be set up by teaching staff or admins.
  • Submission points must appear in the Assessment section of the 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.

Individual assessment (Formative or non-anonymous summative)

  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 title, set appropriate visibility and add instructions as text or a file.
  4. Click the cog icon to set a Due Date and adjust other marking settings.

Decorative

For more detail, see Staff Help: Ultra Assignment Set Up & Use - Blackboard's Own Guide

Group assessment

Assignment can be used with 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.

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.