Setup an Assignment

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Overview

The Assignment tool is used by instructors who want students to submit assignments electronically, via either entering text into the submission box, or attaching a file. The assignment tool provides a single location for assignment submittals and displays the scores for these assignments once they have been graded. Students may upload Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or any other file type.

For help adding the Assignments tool to your course, see Adding a New Tool.

Create an Assignment

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  • Under the Build Tab, click on Assignments.
  • Click on Create Assignment in the top toolbar.

Create Assignment

  • Give your assignment a title.
    WARNING: Avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; ) in filenames and titles.
Suggested Title Format
It is best to name your titles such that they appear in chronological order (i.e. 01 title, 02 title, 03 title...) when they are displayed alphabetically. Although it is possible to define the order in which items are displayed, a problem in Blackboard causes all defined sorting to revert to an alphabetical order whenever the Web Links tool is entered during session.
  • Give your assignment a description and include necessary instructions.
Session Timeout
WARNING: Blackboard sessions timeout after 30 minutes of inactivity. Web Browsers DO NOT register typing as activity. If you're typing an assignment, assessment, or discussion submission for longer than 30 minutes, the session may timeout when the submit button is pressed. This means that you may lose your work.

TIP: To prevent lost work, create your content in a word processor,
         and then copy & paste the content into Blackboard.

  • Click on the Add Attachments button to attach any files associated with the assignment.
    TIP: See the Deliver Files tutorial for help on choosing the right file types.
    TIP: See the File Manager tutorial for help on uploading files.

  • Choose your Submission Format, Text is the default.

Set Availability

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  • Set the Dates of the Assignment
    • The Due Date is the date the students will see
    • The Cutoff Date is the last day the system will accept submission
  • To create a graded assignment, click on the Allow the assignment to be graded checkbox
    • Check Release grade to Students in My Grades
    • The Numeric option is recommended so that you can total it in the future
    • Optional: See the tutorial on Grading Forms if you plan to grade with a rubric
  • Click Save

Assignment Settings

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Still have a Question? Click Help in the top right corner of your Blackboard course.