Teaching online guidebook

Assignments

Look for the Assignment tool icon assignment dropbox icon and link to the assignment (assessment) in the assessment hub (see FLO starter site). You can also click on the Assignment link/s quickly from the Activities block.

These types of assessment may include an essay, report, business case, presentation or any assessment that requires students to submit a text file (eg Word, PDF, PPT) via the Assignment tool. You can also set up a video assignment (instructions for student submission).

Support the assessment task/s 

You could post an announcement or post to the general or assessment discussion forum to provide tips about preparing for:

  • Assessments via the Assignment tool:
    • encourage them to discuss their ideas and share their strategies in the forums
    • ask them how they are going with assessment preparation in the chat room
  • Refer them to support resources (particularly helpful to students during the submission phase):
    • the FLO Student Helpdesk should they have any problems (contact details and opening hours). This may affect when they submit their assignments – for immediate help, they must phone or email the Helpdesk during opening hours
    • the Support materials for students FLO site (particularly Assignments), linked in the Help and support pull-down menu in the grey toolbar in FLO. (As a teacher, it is worth knowing what is in this site so you can field student questions. You can also refer them to the FLO Student Helpdesk)


Manage assignment submissions

Turnitin (text matching software) is a separate tool to the assignment tool, but integrates with it. 

  • Students can submit to a draft Turnitin draft box (available in each topic) prior to submitting their assessment item to the assignment tool
  • When students submit to the assignment tool, they will automatically also be submitting to Turnitin as part of the process


If students request an extension

If you are aware of students who have access or bandwidth issues, you can build in flexibility around assignment deadlines for these students rather than waiting for assignment extension requests.
The assignment extension tool will be available in the topic for students to apply for an extension electronically. If your role allows (depending on how the tool has been set up), you will receive an email if a student has requested an extension. You can then go into the tool to manage the extension request, and the student will receive an email notification re whether the extension has been granted, and the new closing date for assignment submission (if applicable). FLO will automatically change the due date for the assignment for that student, so they can still submit via the assignment tool.

The topic coordinator will advise the teaching team on the process for assignment extensions.


Mark assignments

Depending on how the assignment is set up by the topic coordinator and the requirements for student submission, you may mark in Word or PDF, or in an online marking guide or rubric within FLO. Most likely though, you will mark in Word or PDF.

  • If annotating (marking) in Word/PDF offline, you are most likely to either:
    • Mark students one by one, requiring you to download each submission, mark it and then upload it into the student grading screen (if small number of students)
    • Download all student submissions, mark offline, then upload to return to all students (if large number of students)
  • You could also annotate (mark) student assignments online (in FLO) in an online PDF format (if students submit Word documents, these are automatically converted to PDFs)

For the process of marking and managing assignments, see Assignment – main entry. The topic coordinator will be able to advise on marking methods the teaching team can use for assessment items.

How to