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The Assignment tool and Good Teaching Practices

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Learning Outcomes

Understand and learn how the Assignment tool worksUnderstand and learn the educational benefits of the Assignment toolLearn how to set up/design an assessment submission area/AssignmentLearn how to use/implement the Assignment tool within a courseDefine Assignment best practice techniques and tipsLearn about Academic honesty and plagiarism

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Description of the Assignment tool

•It allows students to submit work _____•It allows lecturers to download, grade and provide _________ on submissions. •It encourages students to reflect on their feedback before they see their grade. •It allows lecturers to exchange ___________ with students in an organized fashion.

online

feedback

documents

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Capabilities, features and benefits of the Assignment tool

•Students submit their response to the assignment - can attach a file and include additional information •Provide feedback for each student (viewed online when checking grades)•Provide students an option of saving an assignment that is still in progress•Download the submissions from an entire class simultaneously through the Grade Centre • The option to grade and comment on assignments without even downloading them•Convenient grading - assignment items are automatically entered into Grade Centre 

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Capabilities, features and benefits of the Assignment tool

•Deploy assignments individually or to groups of students •Submit multiple attempts for the same assignment – each attempt graded and commented on individually•Can give specific students an additional attempt at an assignment in order to accommodate extenuating circumstances•SafeAssign - feature to deter student plagiarism by identifying derivative content in student papers•Submission history - Provides a quick recap of the submission content, feedback, comments, grades and participants of each submission •Blackboard automatically creates a column in the grade center for any assignments the instructor creates 

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Limitations of the Assignment tool

•An assignment may not always copy over when copying content into a new course > may have to be recreated•Requires more set-up time. •Display assignment content in the assignments page - Assignment file and instructions are displayed after clicking the name of the assignment. Better to display the content in the assignments page before view complete link•Work that cannot be (or is not) prepared electronically, students must digitise it before submitting it (e.g. paper-based assignments may have to be scanned)•For work that is not marked electronically, or viewed on a screen whilst marked, a process will be needed to print it out and distribute it > negates the administrative benefits of online submission 

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Limitations of the Assignment tool

Discussion

Questions & comments

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Good Teaching Practices the Assignment tool supports

•Good Practice: Uses Active Learning Techniques•Good Practice: Gives Prompt Feedback•Good Practice: Emphasizes Time on Task•Good Practice: Communicates High Expectations•Good Practice: Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning 

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Additional ResourceAll resources available in electronic format

PDF document: Tips and best practices for the Assignment tool

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Pedagogical Issues

Academic honesty and plagiarism

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/9481395/Academic-Honesty-and-Plagiarism

http://www.uhd.edu/library/guides/plagiarism.html

http://academichonesty.unimelb.edu.au/plagiarism.html

http://www.charleslipson.com/Reading-Writing-Plagiarism-and-Academic-Honesty.htm#Anti-plagiarismResources

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Examples of using the Assignment tool

•Students are given a scenario/practical issue to solve according to the theory taught in class

•Students may be required to do an exploratory study/assignment on worked not yet covered in class, or work not mentioned in the syllabus 

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GTP & examples discussion

Group Discussion & Reflection