How To: Add and Edit An Assignment in the BFCA Education Portal

The Assignment activity allows students to upload files to the instructor for grading. As the instructor, you’ll have the entire student roster and their respective submissions all in one centralized area. Instead of having students email you their papers or projects, the Assignment feature allows you to access, grade, and provide feedback to student’s submissions quickly and easily.

Students may submit digital files (such as word-processed documents, spreadsheets, images, or audio and video clips), or type text directly into a text submission box. Assignment activities can also be used to describe and grade work students will complete offline, such as art work, performances, or classroom presentations.

Add an assignment

1. Click the Turn editing on button in the top right corner.
2. Navigate to the topic/week of your choice, and click on the + Add an activity or resource menu.
3. Choose the Assignment radio button located under Activities and select Add at the bottom of the window.
4. In the following screen, type out the Assignment name and Description areas (required fields).
   • Tip: The Description area is a great location for providing assignment instructions to your students.
5. Below the Description area, is a bounded box where you can attach additional files. Drag and Drop files from your PC or Mac directly into this box to attach them to the assignment. This is useful when assignment instructions or rubrics are already built in a Word doc or PDF.
6. In the Assignment settings area, be sure to select your assignment’s Available and Due dates. Please note that Edspora uses military time. 
7. In the Submission settings area, select your preferred options:
   1. File submissions: Do you wish for students to upload files for this assignment? If so, its best to leave this option at the default (Yes).
   2. Maximum number of files: Use this drop down menu to select the maximum amount of files your students can submit.
   3. Maximum submission size: By default, the maximum submission size for a file is 1 GB, which is the highest option available.
   4. Submission comments: Changing this option to Yes will allow students to type out a comment to the instructor.
   5. Online text: Changing this option to Yes will allow students to replace the file submission area with a box for text submissions.
8. Continue down the page to the Grade section and choose how you would like to grade your assignment (point value is recommended). Optionally, change the maximum point value for the assignment. 
9. Optionally, select the Grade category if you’re utilizing categories in Gradebook Setup.
10. Select Save and return to course to return to your main course page, or Save and display to view the assignment page.

Assignments have a significant amount of customization options.  Read below to learn more about all of the options available for assignments in Edspora. Learn more about them by reviewing the article: Overview: Assignment Options.

Edit an assignment

While it is possible to edit the content or setup options for an existing assignment, proceed with caution if the assignment has already been released to students — especially if students have already submitted work. Changing some options, such as changing participants when working with groups, may result in student confusion and the loss of work that has already been submitted.

To change the content or options for an assignment you have already created:

1. On your course page, click Turn editing on (green pencil icon, top right).
2. Next to the Assignment to update, click Edit, then select Edit Settings.The assignment’s settings page will open.
3. The Updating Assignment page shows you the same options available on the Adding a new Assignment page. Here you may change your assignment options as needed, including changing the due date, grading information, and availability of the assignment.
4. Once you have finished making the necessary changes, click Save and return to course at the bottom of the page.