The Online Annotation feedback method allows you to open PDF assignments in your browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE), provide comments and annotations and save without needing to download and upload submission into FLO.

To provide online annotations to a student's submission, the students must submit a PDF document. Therefore, restricting your assignment to accept only a .pdf submission is suggested if you want to provide online annotations to all students Note: set maximum number of submissions to 1 (if you require more submissions try using the offline annotation method).

Steps

1. Click on the assignment you wish to provide online annotations for
   
   
2. Click on Grade
   
   
   
3. The first page of the PDF submission is displayed.  The following table outlines the tools and shortcuts available for online annotation:
   
   
   

Icon	Keyboard shortcut	Description
	z	Add comments - this adds a comment box to the PDF. Once a comment has been added to a comment box, it can be added into your comment 'quicklist'. Any comments in your 'quicklist' can be quickly inserted again by right clicking anywhere on submission and choosing the comment from the drop-down menu. The small box allows you to add a comment from your quicklist. To delete a comment, right click in the small box near to the comment box and choose 'Delete comment' from the menu.   Note: The colour of the comment box can be chosen by the comment box colour picker, or using the shortcut key 'x' to select the colour picker.
	c	Used to move or deleted previously added annotations. (Deleting comments can be done using the comments tool – see above.)
	y	Add freehand line - this adds a freehand colour line to the submission.  Note: The colour of the freehand line can be chosen by the colour picker, or using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
	u	Add line - this adds a coloured to the submission. Note: The colour of the line can be chosen by the colour picker, or using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
	i	Add rectangle - this adds a coloured rectangle to the submission. Note: The colour of the rectangle can be chosen by the colour picker, or using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
	o	Add oval - this adds a coloured oval to the submission. Note: The colour of the oval can be chosen by the colour picker, or using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
	p	Add a highlight line to text / images. Note: The colour of the highlight can be chosen by the colour picker, or using the shortcut key 'r' to select the colour picker.
	n	Add a stamp to the page. The stamp appearance is chosen from the stamp dropdown list. A stamp can either be simply applied by selecting the screen, or clicking and dragging the stamp to the size you require

 

Note: shortcuts are activated by pressing Alt + Shift + the shortcut key.

To navigate between pages, either use the Previous / Next buttons to navigate forwards or backwards one page, or select a specific page number from the drop-down list activated by selecting the current page number:

Once you have finished online annotation of this submission, you can grade the submission, leave feedback comments or attach feedback files on the same screen.

Grade

Feedback comments

Feedback Files

Once completed saving the changes of the Individual Marking Form will return the annotated document to the student. Please note, if the assignment is hidden in the gradebook, the student will not be able to see the feedback file. Grades and feedback are only made available once the assignment is visible in the gradebook.

 

Saving time annotating online

Using the comment Quicklist can save time when providing comments to submissions using online annotation. To save a regularly used comment to your comments Quicklist, complete the following steps:

• Select the icon in the comment box of the comment you wish to save
• Select 'Add to comment quicklist' from the menu
  
• To add this comment elsewhere on the document, add a blank comment box and select the icon in the top right hand corner. All previously saved comments will appear in a list. Select the comment from the Quicklist.