Assignment Workflow

Overview

There are a number of possible steps involved in the lifecycle of a typical assignment.  Below are links to two examples of possible workflows of a single assignment.

• Assignment Workflow: Basic
  The Basic version of the assignment workflow is the minimum steps a teacher must follow to create and grade assignments.
• Assignment Workflow: Comprehensive
  The Comprehensive version of the assignment workflow includes all possible steps a teacher could follow to create and grade assignments.

This article describes the comprehensive set of activities for a single assignment.  Different schools and different teachers may only use certain subsets of this workflow. Additional assignment setup options such as extra credit are included at the end of the article.

Summary

1. Add a new assignment
2. Attach files to the assignment
3. Display the assignment for parents & students (required)
4. Open the dropbox for all students (optional)
5. Receive dropbox submissions from students (optional)
6. Mark assignments as “Turned In” or “Late” (required)
7. Enter private notes about student assignments
8. Assign scores for students
9. Send assignment feedback
10. Close all assignment dropboxes (optional)
11. Publish Scores for students and parents (optional)
12. Send notifications to parents or advisor (optional)

1. Add a new assignment

• Click “Add Assignment”
• Ensure that the dates are between the start and end dates of the class and between a valid grading period
• Enter a description of the assignment in the “Assignment Detail” field.” This will appear below the assignment date information in the Assignment section in the Student and Parent portal.
• Note: “Description” has a 100 character maximum length. “Assignment Details” has a 1000 character maximum length.

2. Attach files to the assignment

• Click “Select from Library”
• This will open a Resource Library dialog and allow a teacher to select multiple files from their Library to attach to this assignment.

3. Display the assignment for parents & students

• By default, assignments are not displayed on the Parent and Student Portal
• Teachers may decide when assignments show up for parents and students

4. Open the Dropbox for all students (optional)

• It is possible for a teacher to accept online submissions from students via the assignment dropbox, provided that the Class Configuration Setting for ‘Assignment Dropbox Method’ has been set to ‘Enabled’ by an Administrator. The default is ‘Disabled’
• Go to the “Student Scores” tab on the Assignment Detail Window
• Click “Dropbox” and then “Open all dropboxes”
• The orange triangle indicates that the teacher is still expecting to receive a submission from the student

5. Receive dropbox submissions from students (optional)

• When a student submits a file for that assignment, the dropbox status will change to “Received” and the triangle badge will change to green.

6. Mark assignments as “Turned In” or “Late”

• Veracross does not automatically change a student’s grade
• Teachers are in control of what official completion status to assign to each student
• Typically, a teacher will batch update all student scores to “Turned In” to confirm they have received the student’s work

7. Enter private notes about student assignments

• Teachers may enter private notes about a student’s performance on an assignment
• Private notes are not ever visible by parents or students

8. Assign scores for students

• Teachers may enter scores for students in the Gradebook grid or in the Assignment Detail Window on the “Student Scores” tab

9. Send assignment feedback

• Teachers may choose to send students a comment about their assignment
• Teachers may send multiple feedback comments to students

10. Close all assignment dropboxes (optional)

• When the assignment is complete, the Teacher may close the dropbox to prevent further submissions
• Go to the “Student Scores” tab of the Assignment Detail window
• Click “Dropbox” and choose “Close all dropboxes”

11. Publish Scores for students and parents (optional)

• By default, raw scores are displayed automatically on the Parent and Student Portal
• Optionally, teachers may decide they want more granular control over when raw scores are made available to parents and students. If this is desired, an Administrator must Change the Class Configuration Option called “Assignment Score Publishing Method” to “Manual”
• This setting only affects the raw scores.  Completion Statuses are always displayed immediately.
• Unpublished scores will have a black circle around them in the Gradebook
• Unpublished raw scores do not factor in to the calculated grade and are not available on the grade detail report
• When the teacher is ready to make raw scores visible to Parents and Students, go to the “Student Scores” tab on the Assignment Detail window
• Choose “Publish” and then “Publish All”

12. Send notifications to students, parents, or advisors (optional)

• Teachers may choose to notify students, parents, advisors or homeroom teachers about an assignment.
• Selecting any of the system email notification buttons will immediately send an email to the corresponding constituent.
• The email sent to students and parents will include a link to their portal which will direct them straight to the assignment detail window.

Additional Assignment Setup Options

In addition to the above basic and comprehensive setup outline there are a few additional options that may be configured for each assignment on the “General” tab of the Assignment detail screen. These options allow the teacher to define how the assignment functions in the Gradebook and in relation to other sections of the same course.

Include in Calc. Grade

Teachers can decide per assignment whether they would like the grades students receive to be factored into the calculated grade for the class. Use the YES/NO toggle button to include or exclude the assignment from the calculated grade.

Extra Credit

Assignments may be specified as “Extra Credit.” When the YES/NO Extra Credit toggle button is set to “YES,” the grade received for this assignment will be added in to the calculated grade. The assignment status for all students enrolled in the class will update to “Not Required to Complete.” Learn more about the three options for adding Extra Credit in Veracross.

Applies to All Sections

For teachers that instruct multiple sections of the same course, assignments may be shared across all course sections using the “Applies to All Sections” toggle button. When this button is set to “YES,” all fields on Assignment detail screen will apply to each section of the course, including any files that are added or removed from the assignment. The exceptions to this are:

• Assignment Start Date
• Assignment Due Date
• Extra Credit

These fields maintain their original information when the assignment was created unless manually changed in each copy of the assignment across each section.

Note: Applies to All Sections will only work for Teachers specified in the class Teacher field, not additional teachers added on the class permission page.