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Submitting your work

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Deadline dates

The Assessment Statement in My Student Record is the primary way to check formal submission dates for all modules on course. The Assessment Schedule channel on each of the Blackboard site home pages shows the formal submission dates for assessments on that module. 

The Assessment Statement 

Provides you with a complete overview of the tasks and sub-tasks that contribute to your overall award for your course. This is the formal record for your assessments and should be used to plan your work.

You can access your Assessment Statement via the ‘Assessment Statement/final results’ link in the Assessment essentials channel on Blackboard or visiting My Student Record . Go to the ‘My Assessments’ page and then select ‘Assessment Statement’.

If you have an approved extension, the agreed extension date will be displayed next to the original deadline date for the task.

Some coursework assessments will be set over a date range e.g. some group or in class work. For these types of assessment, the date of the last assessment in the range will be the one initially published in the Assessment Statement. Where this is the case, exact dates for each group assessment need to be confirmed by the module leader in advance of the assessment and will be updated in your Assessment Statement when these are confirmed.

If you are referred or deferred in a task, the date for this will be shown in the statement as soon as these marks have progressed through the University assessment boards.

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Assessment Schedule

The Assessment Schedule channel on each of your Blackboard module site home pages shows the formal record of the assessments for that module. Exam dates will not show in the Assessment Statement, only that an exam is part of the assessment for the module. Exam periods are accessible from the academic calendar and this will show the date range of when exams will be held. The specific date for each exam task will be confirmed in the Assessment Statement following publication of the exam timetable. Your exam schedule can also be access through your personal exam timetable.

What if I can’t meet my deadline?

The Assessment Statement is intended to help you manage your time and plan carefully to meet all assessment submission deadlines. If you have any concerns about completing your coursework on time due to ill health or difficult personal circumstances you must speak to Student Support Services. They will advise you about requesting an extension to a coursework submission deadline. This request must normally be submitted at least 24 hours before the deadline date together with a copy of any uncompleted work and documentary evidence of your circumstances. Take a look at the guidance Request to extend a submission deadline process alongside My Student Record. 

  • Coursework submitted within one working day (24 hours) of the deadline date and time without an authorised extension will receive a mark capped at the minimum pass mark. Coursework submitted beyond that time without an authorised extension will not be classed as a valid attempt and will receive a zero mark. The assessment task will be referred (if at first submission) or failed (if at referral submission).
  • If you are submitting up to 24 hours after the deadline without an approved extension, you can notify us of any extenuating circumstances via the guidance Request to extend a submission deadline process alongside My Student Record. You must do this within 24 hours of the deadline.
  • If you have a general problem with prioritising, or working under pressure, Study Support can help you develop practical ways to manage your time and workload. Please see the Extenuating Circumstances Policy for reference. 

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Submitting your work

Online submission of coursework and the provision of feedback online is the norm across the University for all levels of study. Coursework must be submitted to the formal submission point within the relevant Blackboard module site, by the published deadline date and time. Make sure all the files needed for submission have been attached before submitting.

Your Module Leader will confirm if they require you to upload your work to Turnitin in addition to submitting to Blackboard. You must contact the module leader responsible for setting the assessment if you are unsure which assessment point they will use for publishing feedback and provisional grades. 

It is your responsibility to ensure that your work is successfully submitted. Always check your email receipt and the submission point again following each submission. This confirms that you have successfully submitted your work. 

Important information

  • If you have a Learning Contract you must type the wording from the blue sticker at the start of your work. Take a look at the guidance on mark for content and ideas.
  • Microsoft Edge when submitting work: there is a known issue when using this browser which may lead to your work not being submitted correctly. If you have inadvertently submitted an assignment to Blackboard using the Edge browser please check both your email receipt for the submission and review your assignment via the submission point. If you have ‘0’ bytes file size showing on your email receipt and/or a blank page in the assignment preview window, you will need to submit your work again by the published deadline date and time.
  • Safari 11.1 when submitting work: there is a known issue with this version of Safari which results in the message “Failed to submit Assignment. Please try again”. The only available workaround to this is to use an alternative browser such as Chrome or IE.
  • Large or media file: any files exceeding 250MB will be rejected by Blackboard. Your Module Leader will advise on alternative submission methods for large or media-based files. 

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Group work online

While all group members can attach and upload files to Blackboard, only one member of the group needs to submit on behalf of the entire group by the published deadline date and time. Make sure all the files needed for submission have been attached before submitting. Your Module Leader will advise if they use an alternative method for submitting group work online. Watch our video on How do I submit Group Work to Blackboard?

Submitting work to Helpdesks 

  • Assignments must be submitted with a completed cover sheet, available via your Assessment Statement on My Student Record.
  • Contents must be securely fastened together.  Any additional items being submitted, e.g. CDs or discs must be enclosed in an envelope/wallet and fastened to the assignment.
  • You must retain a copy of your assignment and any associated materials.
  • Please remember to bring your SHUcard.
  • For any coursework that is handed in at Helpdesks and for some work handed in, in class, you will still receive an electronic receipt from Blackboard.

Other ways of submitting work

Some assessment types may be handled in other ways. There will also be some coursework which is assessed by a presentation, exhibition or other media, which by its nature cannot be submitted online or via a College Helpdesk. When submitting a portfolio you might need to submit work via an alternative method. Where this is the case, your Module Leader will provide you with the appropriate submission instructions. Contact your Module Leader or tutors for more information on submission routes.

Submitting Assessments in PebblePad: some parts of the university use PebblePad for assessment.  In some cases, your work will be submitted automatically and your submission will update right up until the deadline – you can see if this is the case for a particular asset by looking for the ‘Auto-submit’ label next to its name. When an asset is set to ‘Auto-submit’ by your lecturers, you can just work on it as normal and don’t have to do anything to submit it.  In other cases, you will have to select the assets that you want to submit for assessment. This is done by using the ‘Share’ menu for the asset, selecting ‘For Assessment’ and then selecting where you want to submit the asset. You can see if an asset has been submitted for assessment by checking the Clipboard icon for the asset. Take a look at the Guidance on submitting assessments from PebblePad

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Here are some FAQs when submitting your work to Blackboard

Q – I’ve tried to submit my work on Blackboard and I’ve received a message that says ‘Failed to submit assignment. Please try again’, what should I do?

  • You will see this message if you attempt to submit a file directly to Blackboard that exceeds 250MB. If your file is larger than 250MB and you have not been given an alternative method to submit your work, please follow the guidance by your Module Leader on how best to manage the size of your file to try to reduce the size of the file below 250 MB and re-submit.
  • If you are still unable to reduce the size of your file to below 250MB or where the size of the file cannot be reduced due to the nature of the assessment and is in line with guidance given by the Module Leader, an alternative method of submission will be needed. In these circumstances, please speak to a Student Support Adviser in your College who will give advice on what to do next.

If your file does not exceed 250MB, try submitting again. If you still experience problems with submitting work to Blackboard, please follow the guidance below:

  • If you believe the problem is a technical problem, contact IT Help to log the issue – please ensure you attach a screen print of the issue!
  • In the event that there are problems with the availability of Blackboard, a message will go out to all students to let them know of the situation and what to do next;
  • If there are no issues with Blackboard but you still can’t submit your work, please speak to a Student Support Adviser in your College who will give advice on what to do next. Note that IT difficulties and not allowing time to submit work are not accepted as valid reasons for approving extensions to submission deadlines.

Q – I’ve submitted my work but ‘0 bytes’ file size shows on my email receipt and/or a blank page in the assignment preview window. What should I do?

This happens if you use Microsoft Edge when submitting work to Blackboard. There is a know issue with Microsoft Edge which may lead to your work not being submitted correctly, if you have a copy of the work open whilst the submission is in progress resulting in the content of the file that is submitted becoming blank (i.e. any text images etc. are removed and a single blank page is submitted). If you have inadvertently submitted an assignment to Blackboard using the Edge browser please check both your email receipt for the submission and review your assignment via the submission point. If you have ‘0’ bytes’ file size showing on your email receipt and/or a blank page in the assignment preview window, you will need to submit your work again by the published deadline date and time. If you are an Edge user who is yet to submit (or needs to resubmit because of a problem) ensure you do not have a copy of your work open whilst submitting your assignment to Blackboard, or better still, use an alternative browser, it is your responsibility to ensure that your work is successfully submitted. Always check your email receipt and the submission point again following each submission.

If you need any assistance visit contact IT Help   

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Receipts

After your work is submitted, you (or group of students if it is a group submission) will get an email confirming who submitted the work, when it was submitted, the module title, the assignment title, and the name of the file(s) submitted, including file size(s). It will also contain the name of the module leader and their email address as well as a link to College Student Support Services should further help or support be needed. For coursework that is handed in at your College Hallam Help Desk and for some work handed in in class, you will still receive an electronic receipt from Blackboard. 

Originality Checking

Turnitin – online tool

Turnitin is a text-matching tool available via Blackboard that provides feedback about the originality of student work through the production of ‘originality reports’.  It shows the percentage of a submission that matches other sources on the internet including a range of electronic journals and existing student papers from subscribing UK institutions.  Originality checking has been shown to enable students to develop their academic writing and referencing skills and reduce the number of incidents of plagiarism. Turnitin makes no judgement about whether a student has plagiarised.  It does, however, enable your tutors to objectively assess the proportion of a student’s work that is original and identify possible plagiarism and collusion. Turnitin examines the originality of student work submitted in a variety of formats including Word, PDF, Excel or PowerPoint.

Important: the upload limit to Turnitin is a single file of 40MB or 400 pages.  Your Module Leader will inform you if you are required to upload any work to Turnitin.

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Uploading work to Turnitin

Your Module Leader will confirm if they require you to upload your work to Turnitin in addition to submitting to Blackboard, of for the upload of draft work. Turnitin is used only for the checking of assessments for the originality of text. If you are uploading final assessments to Turnitin, please be aware that this is not your formal submission for marking.  Assessments must be submitted to the official submission point (e.g. Blackboard, PebblePad or Helpdesk) as specified in the assessment submission instructions. If you are in any doubt, please contact your Module Leader or College Student Support Advisers.

Important: Do not use Safari 12 (or later) when uploading work to Turnitin. There is a known issue with Safari 12 (and later versions) which results in the upload process ‘hanging’ and the file will not upload. The only available workaround is to use an alternative browser such as Chrome. (Even if you have an earlier version of Safari installed, it is strongly recommended using an alternative browser when uploading work to Turnitin).

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Turnitin Originality Reports

The Originality Report generated by Turnitin indicates if you have cited sources correctly enabling you to make any necessary changes to your draft work before final submission. The Originality Report is the result of a comparison of the submitted text against potentially billions of pages of active and archived internet information, student work previously submitted to the text matching software, and tens of thousands of periodicals, journals and other publications. Originality Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper.

  • The Originality Report should be used as a tool to develop your academic writing and referencing skills. It is not your goal to get zero per cent matching in your work.
  • There is no set threshold for an acceptable or unacceptable similarity index: because this value can be arrived in different ways. For example, a number of small matches can result in a large overall percentage which is relatively unimportant, but a small overall percentage may be the result of one or two copied paragraphs and this is more significant.
  • A Turnitin Originality Report can take from a few minutes to 24 hours to generate. The first three times you upload work to the same Turnitin assignment, the report will begin generating immediately. From the forth time onwards, the report will not start generating until 24 hours after you upload the file. Your Module Leader or tutor will inform you if you can upload a piece of work multiple times.
  • Take a look at the guidance How do I view and analyse Turnitin originality reports

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Here are some FAQs when submitting your work to Turnitin

Q – I am using the Safari browser to access Turnitin, but my file won’t upload.

Do not use Safari 12 (or later): when uploading work to Turnitin. There is a known issue with Safari 12 (and later versions) which results in the upload process ‘hanging’ and the file will not upload. The only available workaround is to use an alternative browser such as Chrome. (Even if you have an earlier version of Safari installed, it is strongly recommended using an alternative browser when uploading work to Turnitin).

Q – I can submit my work to the Blackboard submission point but I get a message when uploading to Turnitin that my file is too large.

  • Not all assessments will require you to upload your work to Turnitin. Your Module Leader will provide you with information as to whether you are required to upload to Turnitin; please check the assessment section on your Blackboard site for information. The requirement to upload to Turnitin is set by the Module Leader and the tool is designed to be used for text-based work so in some cases the Module Leader my not deem this necessary or appropriate.
  • Turnitin only accepts files of up to 40MB: if the size of your file exceeds this you will not be able to upload to Turnitin. In the first instance, please follow the guidance by your Module Leader on how best to manage the size of your file to see if you can reduce the size of the file to below 40MB and re-submit. If you are still unable to reduce the size of your file to below 40MB please submit your work to Blackboard only and contact your Module Leader to advise you have been unable to submit to Turnitin due to the size of the file.

If you encounter issues when submitting work online or accessing marks and feedback, please contact your Module Leader for advice. If you are unable to submit work online due to system downtime, your College will be in touch and provide you with clear guidance on what to do. If Blackboard becomes unavailable at the time you need to submit your work online, a message will be posted on Blackboard and your College will be in touch with further details.

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Last updated: 13th November 2023 NB. For all enquiries regarding this page, please contact the ADI Team.