North Dakota State University

Blackboard Assignments 

What is an Assignment?

The Assignment tool allows instructors to provide assignment instructions and/or assignment materials to students via Blackboard, and allows students to view and submit required assignment materials online for grading.

Why Use Assignments?
New Assignment Capabilities

How-to Tutorials

• The Blackboard Assignments tool - PDF
• Creating Assignments - Video Tutorial
  
• Grading Individual Assignments - PDF
  
• Creating and Grading Group Assignments - Video Tutorial
• Downloading Assignments for Offline Review - Video Tutorial
  
• Deleting Assignment Files - Video Tutorial
  
• Assignments from the Student's Perspective - PDF

Why use Assignments?

• The Digital DropBox is no longer available in Blackboard 9.1.
  • Instructors can use an Assignment to distribute files students need to complete the assignment (optional).
  • Students use an Assignment to submit files to their instructors for grading.
• Assignments are tied directly to the Grade Center.
  • A grade column is automatically created in the Grade Center when an Assignment is created.
  • Student Assignment submissions are automatically recorded in the Grade Center column for that Assignment.
• Instructors can download student file submissions as a ZIP file, review them off-line, then enter the grades online in the Grade Center.
• Assignment files can be quickly deleted using a simple batch process when they're no longer needed.

New Assignment Capabilities

• Instructors can allow multiple attempts for Assignments - useful if instructors wish to have students submit multiple drafts of a paper or project.
  • The number of attempts allowed can be unlimited, or limited to a set number of submissions.
• Instructors can create Group Assignments for collaborative assignments.
  
  • Group Assignments are visible only to members of that Group.
  • One member of the Group submits all assignment files for the whole group.
  • Grades entered in the Grade Center for one student for the Group Assignment will be automatically entered for all Group members -- individual student grades can still be manually entered for Group Assignments if necessary.
  • Students can submit Assignments as text, as attached files, or using a combination of text and attached files.