Introduction

This page includes a comprehensive overview of all major settings in the Assignment activity. There are many, many settings available for use. For a more streamlined version that focuses just on how to quickly create a simple assignment, please see  Creating a Simple Assignment  for additional context.  

Assignment settings

What does this button do?

In the Assignment activity's settings, and throughout AsULearn, teal question mark icons ((question)) are available next to some settings. Clicking these icons will open a popover menu with additional context about that setting, and how it works. 

Additional files

Upload any files for students to download related to the assignment.

Assignment submission start date defaults to the date and time you begin creating the Assignment, with a due date one week in the future. The Enable option must be checked for each date option below to be active.

Due dates in AsULearn

A time of 00:00 is midnight at the beginning of the date specified, which will be shown to students as 12:00 AM. Be sure to make this clear to your students: if you set a Due date for 1 September 2019 at 12:00 AM, then the assignment must be submitted by 31 August 2019 at 11:59:59 PM to be on time. The latest time you can set for the end of the day is 23:59 (11:59 PM). 

Allow submissions from: Enable and enter the first day and time students can submit. The assignment can be seen by Students before this date. Use the Availability setting in Common module settings to show or hide an assignment on the main course page for Students.

Due date: Enable and enter the day and time when the assignment is due. Assignments edited or submitted after this time will be marked Assignment submitted late (in red). 

Cut-off date: When enabled, the assignment cannot be submitted or edited after this date without an extension. 

No late work accepted

If you do not accept late assignments, the Cut-off date is critical. It determines when the Add submission, Edit submission, and Submit assignment buttons in AsULearn are removed for students.

Students are likely to request extensions. If you will likely provide an extension, a time-saving strategy is to disable the Cut-off date and simply rely on the "Assignment submitted late" label as you begin grading. This saves you the extra steps required to provide an individual extension.

If no attempt is made to complete an assignment until after the Due date it will be labeled "Assignment is overdue". If no Cut-off date is set, assignment submissions remain editable and removable by students - even after the Due date, and after they are graded.

Remind me to grade by:   This setting is used to prioritize the notifications on the Teacher dashboard. 

Time limit: You can enter a time limit for an assignment similar to a quiz. Once students click the Begin assignment button, a visible timer will begin counting down. Students cannot pause or restart the timer. A time limit does not prevent students from submitting their assignment after the time has passed. They can still submit but their submission is marked as submitted after the time limit.

One or both types of submission can be enabled.

Online text: Students are able to type rich text directly into an editor field in AsULearn for their submission. This might be a written assignment where formatting is not as important. 

Word limit: Can be enabled when Online text is selected. Enter the maximum number of words for the submission.

File submission: Students upload one or more files as their submission. This might be an activity where students upload a Word or PDF file for the instructor to grade. Note that PDF files can be marked up within AsULearn (select Annotate PDF in the Feedback Types section), but other file types must be downloaded and viewed and edited in an associated application, then uploaded again to the student.

These options are enabled when File submission is selected. 

Maximum number of uploaded files per student.

Maximum submission size for files per student.

Accepted file types: Specify what file types are allowed for the assignment submissions by entering file extensions; any file types are allowed if left blank.

By default, the ability to enter narrative  Feedback comments and to upload separate  Feedback files  for the student to download are enabled:

Feedback types in AsULearn assignment

You may also enable the Annotate PDF feedback type if your assignment requires the submission of a PDF, and you wish to use this option to make annotations on the submissions, or if you just wish to preview them with the grading pane on the right while you make comments and/or grade. Enable the Offline grading worksheet feedback type if you wish to download and upload a worksheet with student grades when grading the assignment. enable this feedback method. When Comment online is set to Yes, submission text will be copied into the instructor's Feedback comment field when grading the assignment.

Require students click submit button: We encourage you to leave the default of No.

Require that students accept the submission statement: We encourage you to leave the default of No.

Attempts reopened: Determines how student submission attempts are reopened. The available options are:

  • Never. Allows only one submission for the final grade: Students have until the Due date/time to submit their final version.
  • Manually. Allows an additional attempt selectively: the Teacher can, in effect, return the assignment to a Student to be resubmitted by setting Allow another attempt to Yes at the bottom of the grading screen. The Student will see two buttons on the Assignment page: Add a new attempt based on the previous submission (the text and/or uploaded files from the previous attempt will be copied into the new attempt) and Add a new attempt (the text form will be blank and no files copied).
  • Automatically until pass. When a Student's assignment is graded, if the grade is below the specified Assignment settings > Grade > Grade to pass, the Add a new attempt buttons are shown on the Assignment page for the Student.

Maximum attempts: Set the number of times a student can submit the assignment if Attempts reopened is not Never. This number is displayed on the Assignment page for Students along with the number of the current attempt, e.g., This is attempt 2 (4 attempts allowed).

Set  Students submit in groups  to Yes to enable groups of students to submit an assignment for scoring. A group submission will be shared among group members and all members of the group will see each other's changes to the submission as well as your final grade on the assignment. 

It is important to have all students in Groups set up prior to enabling this option. Students not assigned to a group would be put into a default group.

Notify graders about submissions: Set to No unless you want an email every time a student makes a submission.

Notify graders about late submissions: Set to Yes if you want to receive an alert about late submissions.

Default setting for "Notify students": Set the default for the Notify students checkbox on the grading form for this assignment.

AsULearn assignments have the Turnitin Plagiarism Plugin feature, which allows for originality reports to promote academic integrity. We encourage you to talk with students about originality and academic integrity, rather than using it simply as a "gotcha" feature, by displaying originality reports to students as they submit.

AsULearn also offers standalone Turnitin assignments , which will give you access to all of the features of a Turnitin assignment, such as its unique grading interface. However, the advantage of using an AsULearn assignment with the Turnitin plugin enabled means you can use any groups you have set up within AsULearn. Standalone Turnitin assignments do not recognize your AsULearn groups, though they are integrated in AsULearn. 

Specify the  Grade Type, either Point with the  Maximum grade  score set below, or Scale with the  Scale type selected below.

Set Grading method to Simple direct grading, or one of the advanced grading options: Rubric  and Grading guide . Click the question mark icons for more help with each option.

For additional assistance in setting up your assignment, please open a support request.

see Assignment: Grading

Availability: show or hide the assignment on the main course page for Students.

Options to make your assignment compatible with groups and grouping. For more information about using groups, see Groups in AsULearn .

Use this feature to restrict access to the assignment for students based on Date, Grade, Group, Grouping, User profile. 
You can check this box to let course participants know that the assignment has been updated.

Search Knowledge Base

Submit a Service Request