Best Practices: Add, Edit, and Grade Assignments

Add assignment instructions and edit directly in bCourses

When you set up an assignment to be collected via bCourses, you'll notice that there is an editing window where you can add text, links, videos, and images. You can use this space to add the specific instructions you'd like students to follow when working on their assignments and submitting. By adding the instructions to the assignment, you ensure that students will have easy access to the assignment information without needing to refer back to the syllabus. It also allows you space to give more details about what you're looking for and any specific requirements you have for submission.

After you've created the assignment, you may find you need to make edits to it. When making edits, it's better to do it directly in bCourses, rather than copying and pasting from a word processing document. That is because in the word processing documents, when you copy over the text, you will also copy over the formatting from the document. In some cases, this will be evident because you will see the formatting within the text editor, but in other cases, you may copy over formatting that is not evident. Even if the formatting is not obvious, it will be noticed by a screen reader and potentially make the content inaccessible for students who are using such a tool.

Ensure your assignment instructions and settings in bCourses match the assignment description and grading stated in the syllabus

If you do choose to include instructions with the assignment in bCourses, it's essential that those instructions mirror what has already been stated in the syllabus. That may be any specific requirements you put in the syllabus, but also making sure you've set the grading requirements in bCourses to mathematically match the assignments' value and its contribution to the final grade.

Add low-stakes assignments throughout the course to monitor student comprehension and provide feedback

Formative or low-stakes assessments are an effective tool to confirm students are comprehending the class materials and for you to provide feedback. As we discussed in Module 3, that could take the form of quizzes, but it can also be assignments, especially if you feel like the quiz format will not adequately work for your subject matter. It allows you to assess what students have taken away from the week's content and provide opportunities for you to readjust if you're seeing misunderstandings. Since they are low-stakes, you also do not need to spend much time grading them in order to give students timely feedback that they can use.

Review assignments from student view before they are available to students

It is good practice to review your course assignments in bCourses from Student View Links to an external site. before they become available to students. This will allow you to catch any potential errors in the instructions or associated files and correct them before students begin working on the assignment. You can also confirm the assignment availability settings and see the different paths for submitting the assignment to provide guidance for students who need help.  

Grade all assignments before the next assignment is due

Students rely on the feedback they receive via their assignments to monitor their comprehension of materials and progress in the course. That is why it is essential for students to receive feedback in the form of grades in a timely manner and in enough time to make adjustments before the next assignment is due. This best practice is mostly relevant in the context of formative or low-stakes assignments that are meant to guide learning. 

Use grading tools to streamline grading and feedback

Using bCourses provides an opportunity to take advantage of many tools designed to help streamline grading. The bCourses SpeedGrader allows for you to annotate and comment on student submissions and Gradescope can be used to automatically generate comments and points that are repeated across assignments. As with all courses, a rubric will also help to have consistent grading and help you to move through assignments more quickly to give feedback relevant to the assignment.

Leave assignment availability dates open to easily accept late or revised submissions

bCourses makes a distinction between an assignment's due date and its availability dates. You can set a due date for an assignment without closing it for submissions by leaving the "Until" field empty. This means students can continue to submit the assignment after the due date. In the Gradebook, you will see any assignments submitted after the due date flagged as "Late," and if a student submits more than once, you will see both versions and the submission dates in SpeedGrader. 

Leaving an assignment open so that students can submit past the due date allows for you to accept late or revised work without adjusting the assignment settings. Even if as a class policy you do not accept late assignments, you will find there are times throughout the course when you may need to, most notably in the case of students who need to have the due date adjusted to accommodate a Letter of Accommodation (LOA).