The Assignment Submission activity of Pathway course allows instructors to receive submissions from students and provide feedback. This article will demonstrate how to create and manage File/Text Entry type of Non-Graded assignments in Pathway courses. 

Instructor View

Step 1: Activity Creation

After choosing to add a new activity to the Pathway, select Assignment Submission.

Then, continue to the form by adding an Activity Name and Instructions. Select "File/Text Entry" as the submission type.

If you are not going to grade this assignment, choose one of the following settings for activity completion:

• Activity is Marked as Complete Upon Submission: The student receives a checkmark for the activity as soon as an assignment is submitted. No further action is required from the instructor.
• Activity is Marked as Completed Upon Instructor Approval: The student receives a checkmark for the activity after the instructor approves the assignment through the submission menu. The instructor must review and approve each assignment submission.

If you have chosen Upon Instructor Approval, you will have another option: Balanced Assessment.

This settings changes how the new assignment notifications are distributed to multiple instructors. With Balanced Assessment turned on, each notification goes to one instructor, rather than all of them being notified.

• By default (if Balanced Assessment is not turned on), all course instructors/assessors are notified of each new assignment submission.
• When Balanced Assessment is turned on, the system evenly distributes new submission notifications among the selected instructors/assessors. For instance, Assessor A will be notified to review Submission One, Assessor B will be notified to review Submission Two, and Assessor C will be notified to review Submission Three.
• Please note that even with Balanced Assessment, all instructors/assessors are still able to review any submission from the course. This setting ONLY changes how notification emails are distributed.

Step 2: Submission Review

After the activity is created, it will be added to the Pathway with a "View submissions" button next to it. Clicking this button, instructors can view the submissions from students, and mark them as Approved if the activity is set to Marked as Complete upon Instructor Approval. 

If there is a new submission from a student, the "View submissions" button will have a red dot on the top-right.

After clicking on the "View submissions" button, a menu will open where all of the student submissions are displayed. It shows the student information (name and CN Number), the submitted content, the submission time, the instructor that assessed the submission, and the submission status. 

The student submission can be viewed by clicking on the file name. The student submission status can be changed by clicking on the Awaiting Review button.

Step 3: Give Feedback

After clicking on the status button from the Submissions list (see screenshot above) or from the assignment submission notification email, the student submission page will open. Here instructors/assessors can set the submission status to Complete or Incomplete (required) and leave the student some feedback as a comment (optional).

Note: If an assignment is marked as Incomplete, the student will have a chance to submit another attempt.

After the status has been changed and feedback has been written, you can click Submit to save the changes. You can then click "View all submissions" from the top to return to the Submission list to grade other submissions.

The student will see on their Pathway that the assignment has been marked as complete, and will be able to see the comment you have left. If marked as Complete, the student will receive a check mark on this Pathway activity. 

Student View

Step 1: Make a Submission

After opening an Assignment Submission activity, a student will see a description of the activity as well as a button to submit the assignment. 

When clicking the "Make a Submission" button, a menu will open allowing the student to choose how to submit an assignment. They can choose either Text Entry, which will allow them to paste the text into an entry box, or File Upload, which lets them upload a document.

After choosing one of these options and leaving a comment (optional) for the instructor, the student can click Submit. 

Please note: Students cannot change the submission once it has been uploaded. They will only get a chance to resubmit if their previous submission is marked as "Incomplete".

Step 2: View Submission Status and Feedback

After a student submits the assignment, they will see the details of their submission on the Pathway activity page.

If the instructor sets the activity to be marked as complete upon submission, the assignment will be automatically marked as Complete.

If the instructor sets the activity to be marked as complete upon instructor approval, the assignment will be marked as Awaiting Review initially. The instructor must review the assignment manually and then the student will receive a notification that their submission has been assessed. 

Once the instructor reviews the submission and changes the status to Complete, the activity page will look like this:

Once complete the activity, the student will receive a checkmark for the activity and can move on to the next activity in the Pathway course.