Assignment Management Through the Student Portal

Overview

• Class List
• Assignment Planner
• Class Tab
• Assignment Dropbox Submissions
• Grade Detail Report

View the companion article to portal assignment management: Parent Portal: Assignment Management

Class List

The Class List on the portal homepage displays a basic summary of all class data for classes the student is currently enrolled in. Block and time information for each class will also be available. If the class is not meeting today, “Not Scheduled Today” will appear in place of the time.

Students can also view whether any of their classes have new updates. Updates total in the “New Updates” box in orange so students can easily view the assignments that need attention. The number in the “New Update” badge indicates the total number of assignments that have unseen updates a student needs to review. For example, if there is a number 5 in the new updates badge for a particular class, then that class has 5 assignments with new updates. Each assignment, however, could contain multiple updates (e.g. the teacher changes both the score and completion status). The student will only receive one notification for all the updates contained on that one assignment.

Clicking on the new updates button opens the “New Updates” filter on the “Assignments” tab on the class detail page. Assignments with unread updates will be highlighted in yellow.

 The portal will display a “New Update” notification for the following changes to an assignment:

• The teacher enters or updates the student’s score on an assignment.
• The teacher enters of updates the student’s completion status on an assignment.
• The teacher posts feedback for an assignment.
• The teacher sends a notification email to the student about an assignment.
• The teacher enables dropbox submission for an assignment.

Assignment Planner

The Assignment Planner is available from the “Assignments” tab in the primary navigation.

The Assignment Planner is the primary place for students to see an overview of their upcoming assignments. The Planner shows all assignments across all classes in a timeline view.

By default, the Planner only displays each assignment on the day that it is due.  It is possible to preview the assignments before their due date.  Click on the “Class Name” to expand that row.  This will reveal upcoming assignments.  Assignments will be displayed on each day starting on the date they are assigned until their due date.

Clicking on an assignment will bring up the preview window with the assignment instructions and related file attachments.

NOTE: If the Assignment Planner is not displaying properly, check the Active Grading Periods system parameter (from the System homepage) and make sure that the Active Grading Periods are set correctly.

Class Tab

Detailed class information is available from the Classes and Reports tab in the portal. From here students can view information regarding report cards, enrollments, and the schedules. Students can filter their classes by class status: active, future, past, or withdrawn.

The Class page, accessible by clicking “View All Assignments” is the primary place for students to see a comprehensive list of all their assignments, comments, and scores for a single class. Students may also submit files to the dropbox for specific assignments from this page. If a teacher has opened the dropbox for an assignment a blue “Submit” button will appear in the assignment row. Once the student has submitted a file, a green “Done!” badge will appear.

Assignment Sorting

 There are two sorting options for assignments in the Class Tab:

• Due Date: assignments are grouped and sorted by due date descending.  The page will automatically scroll to “Today” for convenience.
• Assignment Type: assignments are organized by type (e.g. homework, classwork, quizzes, etc.).

Assignment Filters

Students may filter their assignments by new updates, notifications, feedback, problems, or display all assignments.

• All Assignments
  The All Assignments filter displays all the student’s assignments for the class. This enables students to view the complete picture of all their assignments, any comments made by the teacher that need attention, and scores and completion statuses. Assignments will be flagged accordingly if an update is made or a teacher leaves a comment for the student. Clicking on each assignment will reveal the assignment details and feedback conversation if present.
• New Updates
  New updates indicate any change or notification the teacher has made that the student has not seen for an assignment. Updates include assignment scores published, changes made to a student’s score or completion status, new feedback, etc. Students may filter assignments by new updates to easily view all assignments that contain update(s). Assignments with new updates will be highlighted in yellow. Clicking on the assignment will indicate it has been “read” and the yellow new update highlight will disappear.
• Notifications
  Teachers may send notifications to students through the “Notify Students” button on the assignment detail. This will send an email to students immediately, providing a summary of the assignment. Assignments in which notifications have been sent are indicated by a in the assignment row.
• Feedback
  Teachers may choose to send students feedback about their performance on an assignment.  Students view this feedback using the Class Tab.  The badge will be in the assignment row to indicate when a teacher has entered feedback for a student about an assignment.  Clicking into the assignment will reveal the entire feedback conversation.By default, students are not allowed to send replies to teachers.  There is a class configuration option to enable student feedback replies.
• Problems
  Problems indicate assignments which have a completion status of late, not turned in, incomplete, or received no credit. The completion status will be in place of the grade in the assignment row.

Assignment Dropbox Submission

The Assignment Dropbox allows students to submit files for assignments online.

Students may submit files (with a max size of 25MB) from the class tab.

Class Detail Page
The dropbox is available on the “All Assignments” tab on the class detail page. When a teacher has “opened” the dropbox for a student, a blue “Submit” button will be displayed next to the assignment. Students are able to click “Submit” which will open the submission wizard. The submission wizard walks students through the steps of selecting a file for the assignment. Students may also include a note with their submission. After a file has been submitted for an assignment, a green badge labeled “Done!” will be displayed next to the “Submit” button to let the student know they have successfully turned in the assignment.

Assignment Dropbox Submission Wizard

Google Drive Integration (optional)

By default, students submit files by selecting a file from their computer and attaching it to the assignment.  More schools are choosing to use Google Docs for the students to create and manage documents.  It is also possible to configure the Veracross Dropbox so that students can select files from their Google Drive when submitting to the assignment dropbox.

Before a student can select files from their Google Drive, they will need to grant Veracross access to their Google Drive account.  This is a one time process. See more about integrating Veracross Dropbox with Google Drive.

Grade Detail Report

The Grade Detail report provides a detailed explanation of a student’s calculated grade in a class during a single grading period.  The calculated grade is made up of the student’s individual assignment scores as well as the aggregate calculations which roll-up the assignment scores into the overall calculated grade. By default, the current grading period’s grade detail report is displayed on the Grade Detail tab on a class’s detail page, but students can view reports for prior grading periods from this tab.

The Grade Detail report is available via the student portal homepage as well as on the class’s detail page. When a student clicks on their grade in the Class List section of the homepage, the Grade Detail report will open in the “Grade Detail” tab on the class’s detail page.