Assignment Annotations

Overview

Assignment annotations allow teachers to annotate (“mark up”) assignments that have already been turned in via the Veracross assignment dropbox. A number of options are available to approximate the types of annotations teachers can make on physical copies of assignments, e.g., arrows, underlining, comments, etc., all in a variety of colors, line thickness, etc. This functionality is enabled in Veracross by integrating with a service called PrizmDoc. This article explains how teachers can annotate (“mark up”) files that students have uploaded via the Assignment Dropbox.

Assignment Annotation

Assignment annotation functionality allows teachers to make annotations on files that students have submitted through the Assignment Dropbox. Veracross integrates with PrizmDoc to provide teachers with the tools to annotate (“mark up”) Word, PowerPoint, or PDF files uploaded by students.

Access the Uploaded Document

All assignment feedback is located on the assignment score detail for an individual student. To access the detail screen, click the Gradebook link of any class in the Teacher Portal. While numeric scores and statuses can be assigned directly from the Gradebook grid, feedback for a particular student’s assignment score must be entered on the assignment detail. Click on the appropriate assignment name to open this detail, and then select the Student Scores tab. Finally, select the specific student’s name from the list on the left to view their assignment grade to enter and/or review feedback and uploaded files.

Annotate the File

To begin annotating a file, use the Preview link available below the feedback details. Clicking this link opens a new view that displays the uploaded document. The header on the detail screen contains several tools for commenting, drawing, highlighting, and crossing out details on the document.

Annotation Tools

A variety of annotation tools are available on the taskbar of the annotation window to allow a teacher to provide feedback to the student. Once a particular tool is selected, the annotation options menu will appear up the upper-right corner of the annotation window.

Common Annotation Options

Annotation menu options will vary depending on the annotation tool selected, but there are several options which pertain to many or all of them:

• Move Menu: Toggles the positioning of the Annotation Option menu between the upper-right and the lower-right corners of the annotation window.
• Delete Selected: Removes the annotation that is currently selected.
• Add Comment: Add a comment detailing further information about the selected annotation on the right side of the screen in the Comments Panel. To display the annotation option menu for an already existing annotation, clicking on the annotation itself will display the menu in the location it was set previously.

Annotation Types

• Arrow: Use the left click mouse button to draw an arrow on the document. Annotation options include fill color, border width, and opacity.
• Line: Use the left click mouse button to draw a straight line on the document. Annotation options incude fill color, border width, and opacity.
• Rectangle: Use the left click mouse button to draw a rectangle on the document. Annotation options include border color/width, fill color, and opacity.
• Ellipse: Use the left click mouse button to draw an ellipse on the document. Annotation options include border color/width, fill color, and opacity.
• Freehand: Use the left click mouse button to draw a freehand line on the document. Annotation options include color, opacity, and border width.
  Once you draw something using this tool, you are immediately able to make edits to what you have drawn. Click the Freehand icon again if you want to draw aditional objects.
• Text: Use the left click mouse button to draw a text box on the document. When it is drawn, type text inside the box. Annotation options include fill color, fill color opacity, border color/width, and various font options, e.g., font, color, size, alignment, bold, italics, underlined, and strike-out.
• Highlight: Use the left click mouse button to highlight text. Annotation options include highlight color.
  Important Note: The Highlight Annotation is only available on assignments that contains text, e.g., Word docs.
• Strikethrough: Use the left click mouse button to strike through text on the document. Annotation options include color and thickness of the strikethrough line.
  Important Note: The Strikethrough Annotation is only available assignment that contains text. 
• Stamp: Use the left click mouse button to place a small, predefined “stamp” on the document. Options include stamp color and text (Approved, Reviewed, or Rejected).

Legacy Annotation

Prior to switching annotation software to PrizmDoc on January 15th, 2018, Veracross integrated with a different piece of annotation software that has since been discontinued by the developer. If the user wishes to view any previous annotations made using this software, access the detail screen that the file is opened from. To the right of the Preview and Download buttons, click Archived Annotations to view a PDF of all annotations made prior to the integration with PrizmDoc. The button is only aviaalble if there are previous annotations available to be viewed.

Deleting Feedback

Occasionally, feedback needs to be removed from a particular student’s assignment. In order to delete the feedback, hover over the feedback details (i.e. the date, time, and teacher’s name) and a Deleteicon will appear. Clicking on this icon will remove feedback, including uploaded files. If the feedback contains both an inaccurate comment and a correct annotated document, be sure to download the annotated document prior to deleting the feedback. Use the Download button on the feedback details to download the document.