We have been working with Blackboard to make improvements to the Assignment Handler tool, and the upgrade is planned for the evening of Friday 7 January.

If you are not familiar with the Assignment Handler it is essentially a tool that allows students to submit work online and for tutors to download, grade and provide feedback on their submissions. A key feature of the tool is that it encourages students to reflect on their feedback before they see their grade. Further details about why we would recommend this tool and approach to managing student assignments.

If you are already a user of the Assignment Handler, we are sure you will find the new features and modifications helpful in streamlining the process of setting up, grading and releasing feedback to SHU Assignments. Many of these enhancements have been requested by staff experienced in the use of the Assignment Handler.

• Use the new Feedback Templates to automatically generate an assignment feedback template file (e.g. feedback grid) for each student when using the Assignment Grades and Feedback batch download and upload options. Feedback Templates streamlines the process of generating correctly named feedback files for batch upload to the Grade Centre.
• Use the new Due Date and Due Time options to display the published assignment deadline to students, and the existing Display Until option to set the final date and time after which submissions cannot be accepted by Blackboard. Submissions after the Due Date are marked Late in the Grade Centre. Of course if you don’t want flexibility in submission dates, simply set the Display Until date and time to that of the Due Date and Due Time.
• The terms ‘Offline Submission’ and ‘Submitted Offline’ replaces ‘Submission at Faculty Reception Point’. The functionality works just the same enabling you to set an assignment that is completed and submitted by students outside of Blackboard, however the submission is receipted, graded and feedback returned within Blackboard…
• … and Assignment Receipting now displays all students (or groups connected to group assignments) on a single page alphabetically by last name and even allows you to select and receipt all students’ submissions in one go. You can, of course, still receipt submissions for each student (or group) individually.
• If you use the Assignment Grades and Feedback option to batch download student assignment files for grading you will now see your students listed alphabetically by last name.
• And finally, if you automate the release of feedback for an assignment by setting a Feedback Release On Date your students will see the expected feedback return date when completing, submitting or reviewing their assignment attempts.

Functionality for students completing, submitting and reviewing assignments, as well as receiving and reflecting on their feedback has not changed, unless you give explicit permission to allow submissions after the Due Date and Time. The key difference is that students need to click on the link of the name of assignment to view the assignment details and submit their work – they no longer see the View/Complete Assignment link.

A series of overview sessions have been planned enabling you to learn about these enhancements. Please sign up by clicking the date/time link below:

Monday 10 January, 2:00 – 3:00pm, Furnival 9012, City Campus
Thursday 13 January, 10:00 – 11:00am, Stoddart 7507, City Campus
Thursday 13 January, 2:00 – 3:00pm, Heart of the Campus H034, Collegiate Crescent
Tuesday 18 January, 11:00am – 12:00pm, The Mews N204, Collegiate Crescent
Thursday 20 January, 12:00 – 1:00pm, Furnival 9223, City Campus
Wednesday 26 January, 10:00 – 11:00am, Harmer 2216, City Campus