Grade students in a Pathway course

In CN, instructors grade student submissions via the CN DropBox tool. The final scores will be automatically populated in the GradeBook. This article will introduce the different ways to access student submissions and grade students in the course DropBox. 

1. Notification Emails for New Submissions

When your students submit an assignment, you will receive a CN notification email. Clicking an assignment link in the message will take you directly to the submission(s) in the course Dropbox. 

By default, the notification emails for new assignment submissions are sent out daily. You can log in to your CN account and go to Notification Settings to modify its frequency. 

2. View Submissions on an Activity

To view all of the submissions on an activity, you may click the blue "View submissions" button next to the activity title in Edit View. This button will take instructors to the course DropBox with the corresponding GradeBook item filtered. 

Note: if an assignment is marked complete upon submission (not graded) or instructor approval, this "View submissions" button is the only place for you to view the submissions. When you click it, a pop-up with a list of student submissions will show up. 

3. View and Grade Submissions in CN DropBox 

View and Filter submissions

The CN DropBox is where instructors receive and grade assignment submissions. The course DropBox can be accessed from Menu>>CN Dropbox on the left side of your course.

On the specific DropBox page, you use the three tabs from the top to view different types of submissions: Files/Multimedia, Posts/Polls, and Quizzes. 

By default, newer submissions are listed on the top. You can use the member search box and the three helpful filters to locate specific submissions based on your needs. 

In this example, I switched to the Quizzes tab and selected student "Jue Wang" and item "4.1.5 Check for Understanding" to view her submission on this specific quiz.  

In this example, I switched to the Posts/Polls tab and selected the item "6.6.1 Final Coding Project" and "Not Graded (last submission only)". This helps me quickly find the student posts that I have not graded. 

Grade

Grade File/Multimedia Assignments

When you are ready to assess a specific File/Multimedia submission, click the "View Details" link. 

The entry will expand to show submitted content and student submission comment. You may download the submitted file or click "View Multimedia Entry" to view the detailed content. Then, you will need to enter a score. Instructor comment is optional. If you are going to leave a comment, you have the option to embed images, videos, audio files, and/or files. 

This example includes video feedback. Remember to Save your assessment once done. Now, the student can view their grade from both GradeBook and the corresponding activity. 

*If your institution/program's CN Admin has enabled the CN Grader tool, you will have the option to grade students' file/multimedia submissions using this tool.

The CN Grader displays a student's submission on the left and you can grade and leave a comment on the right. In addition, you can directly annotate student-submitted PDF files. Learn more about CN Grader. 

Grade Posts/Polls

If you prompt students to create a post or poll and grade their posts or polls, you will switch to the Posts/Polls tab, locate a submission, and simply enter a score. "Add a reflection" is optional and if you ever write a reflection to provide feedback or comment, please keep in mind that everyone this post is made visible to will be able to view your comment. 

Grade Quizzes

If a quiz only contains close-ended questions, the CN system will automatically grade student submissions. Short-answer questions need instructors to grade unless you have set up auto-grading. When a quiz needs instructors to grade, it will show a red "!" icon. You will click "view results" to open up student answers. 

When you review a student quiz submission, you may score short-answer questions (see 1) and leave a comment on any question (see 2). 

Note, for students to see your comments, you must allow View Submissions on quiz settings. 

Grade Students on GradeBook

Course GradeBook can be accessed from Menu>>GradeBook. 

After a student has made a submission, a submission icon appears in the corresponding cell. Clicking it will take you to the submission in CN DropBox. You can then view and grade it there. 

Typically, instructors do not grade on the GradeBook for submissions made within CN because DropBox will automatically feed in the scores. Under the following circumstances, you may grade directly on the GradeBook:

• Manually adjust/override a score. Note, the associated score in DropBox will not be updated, 
• Enter scores for non-submission and external assignments,
• Add missing scores, such as giving 0 points

You can click a cell and enter a score in the little blue box. It will be automatically saved after you leave the cell. 

If it is challenging to enter scores in the entire GradeBook table, you may switch to the "Grade Individually" view to grade one assignment or one student at a time. For details and other GradeBook management options, please refer to this article.