WebCT Vista has been retired as of June 30, 2008. LATTE is now Brandeis University's only online learning environment. Log into LATTE here. As of Summer 2008, all courses at Brandeis now use LATTE. If you are an instructor who previously used WebCT and have questions about your WebCT course content, please contact LATTE Help at (781) 736-5883 or latte@brandeis.edu. For those getting started in LATTE, Library & Technology Services offers regular workshops and assistance at the Faculty Resource Center.

Using the Assignment Dropbox in WebCT Vista

The Assignment Dropbox allows your students to submit files electronically and permits you to keep track of who has submitted, who has not yet submitted, and who has been assigned a grade for his/her submission.

Creating Assignments in the Build Tab

There are at least two different ways you can add assignments to a WebCT Vista class:

1. you can display assignments within the Assignments tool, and
2. you can create individual assignment icons that you place within your content (e.g., inside an organizer page called "Week 3" in which you place a discussion thread, reading materials, and an assignment all relevant to Week 3's work).

Of course, you are not restricted to an either/or choice; you may choose to use a combination of these two. There are advantages to each method.

Adding the Assignments Tool, My Grades tool to the Course Toolbar

In order to have you students access assignments within the Assignments tool, you'll need to make sure that the Assignments tool has been made available to them in the Course Toolbar. To add the Assignments tool,

1. click on the Build tab
2. check to see whether the Assignments button appears in the white box area.
   
   
3. if it does not appear in this white box area, but in the grey box area above it, click on the button to add it to the Course toolbar.

If you plan on assigning grades within WebCT Vista, you may want to add the My Grades tool so that your students can see their grades within the course.

Placing an Assignment Icon within your Course

Alternately, you may want to place an icon for an individual assignment within an organizer page or learning module. To add an individual assignment, navigate to the location where the assignment should be placed (e.g., within an organizer page called "Week 3") and click the "Assignments" button on the left hand side. You will have an option to create a new assignment or to add an assignment already created. Press the "Create Assignment" button to create a new assignment.

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Editing Assignment Settings (in the Teach Tab or Build Tab)

Assignment settings allow you to specify

• what the students will submit (attached files or websites)
• whether the students will work in groups or individually
• when the project is due, and when they are no longer able to access their files to make changes
• whether and how the assignment is to be graded
• whether students can retrieve their work and resubmit it (before the final cutoff date)
• whether students or only instructors can make the work available to others in the class

It may be helpful to keep these tips in mind:

• you cannot edit who the assignment is assigned to if the assignment has been viewed by a student (instead, you'll have to delete and recreate the assignment)
• students cannot make edits to files once the cutoff date has passed (you may want to have the cutoff date late in the semester as a consequence)
• instructors cannot return submissions for additional work to students after the cutoff date has passed
• assignments that are to be submitted as a website will need to have an index.html page along with any associated image files and pages all zipped up as one file

For more information about these features, please contact the WebCT Support Desk at 6-4739 or at latte@brandeis.edu.

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Downloading Student Submissions

To access student submissions, you'll need to log in to the Teach tab. You'll then need to navigate to the assignment (which will vary depending on how you have set it up in your class).

Once you're inside the assignment, you'll notice a series of tabs corresponding to the status of each student's progress:

• Submitted
• Not Submitted
• Graded
• Published (i.e., released to everyone in the class)
• All (i.e., every item, no matter what its status is)

To download and assign a grade a single file, click on the title to view more details, assign a grade, download the file, and upload the file.

You may want to download multiple submissions at one time. To do so, select all the student assignments that you want to download. If you click on the checkbox next to the "Title", it will select all viewable submissions.

Next, click on the "Create Printable View". Once the list appears, click on "Save to File". This will zip up all of the student submissions including all attachments.

The resulting "zip" file will be saved to your My Files space that can be downloaded from the File Manager. A quick way is to just click on the link and when your browser prompts to "Open or Save", just click the "Save" button.

When you unzip the file, folders will be created by student ID with their attachments in the folder.

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Assigning Grades and Returning Files

You can assign grades to submissions either within the Assignments tool or inside the Grade book. You may also attach files for your students to review (or, you may wish to upload your comments within their submission). The Assignments tool allows you to add comments, attachments, and grades within one screen.

You can change the grade at any time inside the grade book (but the change will only show up in the My Grades tool; in the assignment graded tab as it currently exists, the grade "disappears" and appears as an empty set, e.g., ' out of 100').

Please note: if you choose to save the grade and return the assignment submission to the student, the submitted materials go back to the student, but the grade will remain hidden unless the gradebook column for this assignment has been released. (By default, all classes are set to hide grade book columns.) Please review these instructions to learn how to reveal a column in the grade book inside the TEACH tab.

Using the Comments Field

You may wish to add a note or two to your students; the Grader/Reviewer Comments field makes it possible to do so.

Please note that you probably will want to keep comments here to a minimum; the display for students can be hard to read, and, in most cases, it does not maintain line breaks.

Using the "Save for Further Review and Editing"

If you decide to use the Assignments tool to return files and assign grades, we recommend that you confirm that the attachments and comments you wish to return to the student are correct. With this in mind, WebCT Vista has at least two options within this screen:

1. Save for further review and editing, and
2. Return submission....

Use the first option to give yourself to double check your own work. Files returned incorrectly to the student cannot be easily undone inside WebCT Vista!

Adding a Grade for Students who Submit the File Outside of WebCT Vista

Occasionally a student will submit their assignment (by permission after the deadline date) as a hard copy or send an email attachment.

To enter a grade in these situations, enter the grade into the gradebook (not into the assignment tool) when an assignment was not submitted in the usual way.

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This page was last modified on: May 30, 2007