The Assignment tool allows students to submit written assignments directly within Quercus. This gives instructors (or anyone with grading privileges) the option of assigning grades and providing feedback (e.g., as a message attached to the grade) within Quercus. Assignments can be added to any module, and you can create as many of them as you need.
Once your students have submitted their assignments, you will be able to view and grade their work using the SpeedGrader tool that is accessed via the Gradebook. You may also want to provide a link for your students to the instructions for students on how to submit and verify assignments in Quercus.
If you have questions about setting up a Quercus assignment, please contact the UTM Library & Instructional Technologies team at utml.instructech@utoronto.ca.
If you have questions about online assignments that will meet student learning outcomes and objectives please contact the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre at eddev.utm@utoronto.ca.
Instructions for Creating a Quercus Assignment
1. Select Assignments from the Course Menu.
2. Select the + Assignment button.
3. On the next page, enter an Assignment Name.
4. In the Rich Content Editor field, enter instructions for how students must complete or submit their assignments. You can also link to or upload an assignment file and/or rubric by using the Content Selector in the Sidebar.
Information that could be included in instructions to assist students with completing a Quercus assignment includes:
- Goal of the assignment.
- Information regarding the assignment deadline.
- Documents needed to complete the assignment.
- Number and types of questions and suggested time per question.
- Instructions regarding how students are to complete the assignment.
- Any word limits.
- The type of assignment (e.g., a file upload assignment that is integrated with Ouriginal).
- Formatting requirements. Note: If you will be using SpeedGrader, ensure students use recommended file types and fonts.
- Authorized aids / Unauthorized aids.
- Academic Integrity reminder, some wording is suggested below:
- In submitting this assignment, the expectation is that your conduct during this assessment adheres to the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters and that you have not acted in such a way that would constitute cheating, misrepresentation, or unfairness, including but not limited to using unauthorized aids and assistance, impersonating another person, and committing plagiarism.
5. Enter Points for the assignment. Note: "Points" represents the scale used to mark the assignment (e.g. /5 or /100), and not the relative weight of the assignment within the course. For assignment weighting, please see the Assignment Groups and Weighted Grades page.
6. Select the Assignment Group from the drop-down menu. The percentage weight within the total of the course can be set by first creating Assignment Groups and assigning Assignment Group Weights.
7. In the Display Grade as drop-down menu, select the method (Percentage, Complete/Incomplete, Points, Letter Grade, GPA Scale, or Not Graded) you want to use for grading.
8. Check the "Do not count this assignment towards final grade" box if you do not want this assignment to be used in the calculation of the students' final grades.
9. Select the Submission Type that you want to accept from the drop-down menu:
- Online (default): allows you to collect student submissions in the form of a webcam photo, files, or O365 submissions.
Notes regarding Online Submission Types:- Only File Upload submissions can be annotated in the Speedgrader. Other types of submissions, such as Text Entry, cannot be annotated directly in the Speedgrader.
- If you need to restrict the file type, then please consider and communicate to your students all possible file types you would accept for example .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, etc.
- The Use Webcam option will not be available if the file upload type is restricted
- If students are required to use their webcam for a file upload assignment, they will be prompted by their browser to give permission to use their camera
- Students can upload media files up to 500MB and other files up to 5 GB
- Student submissions will not count against the course storage quota
- Instructors can view uploaded student submissions, including webcam photos in the SpeedGrader
- You may want to consider asking students to use specific fonts if they are submitting Word format file submissions in Quercus, as indicated in the following link: Files and fonts that can be viewed in SpeedGrader.
- When students submit Word format file submissions in Quercus that contain fonts not listed in the link above, or if you would like them to add layered text or images, the SpeedGrader DocViewer will resize the text, causing it to not be visible.
- If you would like students to submit assignments using other fonts than indicated in the link above, or if you are asking them to add layered text or images, then it is recommended that you ask students to create and submit a PDF file for their assignment submission.
Instructions for students submitting an online assignment can be found at the link below.
https://library.utm.utoronto.ca/faculty/canvas/assignments#online
- No Submission: creates a column in the Gradebook that allows you to give students a grade for an activity with no submission (e.g., participation marks).
- On Paper: creates a column in the Gradebook that allows you to give students a grade for an assessment that is submitted during class.
- External Tool: choose this option when you would like students to submit their assignments using an integrated tool (e.g. peerScholar).
Notes:
- Students can only submit one submission type per assignment submission.
- Quercus will retain the most recent Assignment settings.
10. In the Submission Attempts section, the Allowed Attempts drop-down menu is set to Unlimited.
- You can change this option to Limited and specify the number of attempts.
11. Please contact us if you are interested in setting up Group Assignments, Peer Review Assignments, Moderated Grading, Anonymous Grading or using Anonymous Instructor Annotations.
12. In the Assign to section, you can assign the assignment to an individual student or course section.
Note: If you have a student who has been granted an accommodation from UTM Accessibility Services, please see the Accommodations in Quercus instructions.
13. Enter a Due Date. Submissions can be accepted after this date, but they will be tagged as "Late" in the Gradebook.
Note: Currently, when you download the Gradebook it does not indicate which submissions are late. This information is only available in the Gradebook and SpeedGrader.
14. Enter an Available from and Until date.
Please note: Until = the date and time when students can no longer submit an assignment.
15. Check the "Notify users that this content has changed" check box if you want to notify users when you have made changes to the assignment.
16. Save (create a draft of your assignment so you can publish it later) or Save & Publish the Assignment to make it available to students.
Optional: After you Save or Save & Publish the assignment, you can add a Quercus Rubric.
Select the link below for more information on creating assignments in Quercus.
Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI) - Quercus Assignment
https://teaching.utoronto.ca/tool-guides/quercus-assignment/