Assignments

Assignments often make up a large portion of student interactions within a course. They can include active learning, group work, formative assessments, culminating projects and much more.   

The Assignments tool in UB Learns offers robust features to customize instructions, submissions and assessment types. As always, ensure any embedded multimedia or attachments are accessible for all students. 

For additional support beyond this page, visit Brightspace’s Create an assignment webpage.

There are several considerations to make before creating an assignment. Although assignments can be edited later on, it will be more time efficient to plan ahead.  

Before creating an assignment, it is helpful to have some information upfront such as the assignment name, description and point value. If your syllabus is finalized, you may also want to include the due date while creating the new assignment.

• Rubrics: Consider how this assignment will be graded. If grading with a rubric, it is best to first create the rubric and then attach it to the assignment. 
• Grade Categories: You may want to create weighted categories within the Grades Tool before creating assignments. This will allow you to categorize assignments as they populate the grade book. 
• Assignment Category: This category is separate from grade categories. It serves more as an organizational tool. For example, this can be used to categorize items such as homework, presentations on the Assignments tool page.
  
• Release Conditions: You may choose to limit access to this assignment until after completing a prerequisite task such as a quiz or discussion post. Create the first task prior to creating the release condition in the assignment. 
• Group Assignments: In order to assign collaborative assignments, the groups must already be created.
• Special Access: Special access allows you to set different availability dates and times for specific users. For example, you could extend the deadline for users who require remedial help or who are submitting work beyond the original scope of the assignment. Learn more about Special Access.
  

You can begin creating a new assignment in two ways. Both will take you to the same page.

• On the navbar, click Content. Navigate to a module, click Upload/Create and selectNew Assignment.
• On the navbar, click Assessments and select Assignments.

Use the Assignments tool to create and edit assignments, add rubrics, view student submissions and add grades and feedback.

1. On the navbar, click Assessments and select Assignments.
2. Click New Assignment. 
3. Enter a name in the Assignment Title field.
4. Click in the Grade Out Of field to add the maximum point value of the assignment. This will add a grade item to Grades. You can also leave the assignment ungraded.
   • Once you enter the maximum points, a drop-down menu will appear to the right of Grade Out Of. The menu contains additional options: Edit or Link to Existing (when you have already created a grade item in Grades), Not in Grade Book and Reset to Ungraded.
     
5. Add a Due Date if  necessary.
   
6. Add Instructions if necessary
   
7. Upload files (cloud icon), add links, record audio and record video if necessary.
   
8. Click Availability Dates & Conditions in the right-hand column to set the following:
   
   • Start and end dates and how how the assignment appears to students before the start date and after the end date.
     
   • Release conditions. 
   • Special access (allow the assignment to be available at different times for specific students) . 
9. Click Submission & Completion in the right-hand column to set the following:
   
   • Type of assignment (individual or group).
   • Category the assignment will be placed under in Assignments. This is for organizational purposes only.
     
   • Submission type (file, text, on paper submission or observed in person).
   • Files allowed per submission (students can upload only one file or an unlimited number of files).
   • Allowable file extensions that can be uploaded.
   • Whether all submissions are kept or only the most recent. Note: if you select Only the most recent submission is kept, UB Learns will permanently deletes past submissions.
     
   • Add an email address to be notified when an assignment is submitted
     
10. Click Evaluation & Feedback in the right-hand column to set the following:
    
    • Add a rubric.
      
    • Enable the annotation tool when grading.
    • Anonymous marking (hide student names during assessment).
      
    • Evaluators (assign who can grade and provide feedback for the assignment)
      
    • Turnitin settings (plagiarism and AI detection). 
11. Click Save and Close.

1. On the navbar, click Assessments and select Assignments.
   
2. Locate the assignment.
   
3. Click the chevron icon and select Edit.
   • You can also copy or delete the assignment from this menu.
     

1. On the navbar, click Content.
2. Locate the appropriate module in the Table of Contents.
3. Click Existing Activities in the right column and select Assignments.
4. Select the assignment you would like to add, searching by name if necessary.
5. Drag the assignment to the appropriate place in the module.  
   

We recommend creating rubrics before creating the assignment and ensuring it is complete and its status is set to published. 

1. Open the assignment edit page.
   
2. Locate the Evaluation & Feedback category in the right-hand column and expand the section.
3. Click Add Rubric in Evaluation & Feedback on the right and select Add Existing.
   • Select Create New to create a new rubric. A new browser tab will open.
     
4. Click the checkbox next to a rubric.
5. Click Add Selected.
   
6. Click Save and Close.

1. On the navbar, click Assessments and select Assignments.
2. Click the name of the assignment.
3. Click the submission name or Go to Evaluation.
4. Click the rubric on the right side of the page.
5. Click the performance level for each of the criterion.
   • If the rubric uses points or percentages, the grade will calculate automatically. However, you can manually change category scores, total score and overall score.
6. Add feedback in the Overall Feedback field if necessary.
7. Click Publish or Save Draft.
   

There are several ways to grade in UB Learns. If grading submissions from a single assignment, locate it within the Assignments tool. If grading submissions from several assignments, you can use the Quick Eval tool.

While grading students’ submissions, you can insert notes, highlight text and write directly in the uploaded file to give meaningful feedback.

The following submission file formats are supported:

• doc, docx, rtf, odt, txt
• ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, odp
• xls, xlsx
• jpg, jpeg, png, tif, tiff, gif (once converted to PDF, only the first frame of the
• .gif displays)
• pdf