Evaluate Submissions and Add Feedback in the Assignments Tool

The Evaluate Submission page within the Assignments tool enables you to evaluate and leave feedback on individual and group assignment submissions.

If you make evaluations directly on the Evaluate Submission page, you can publish evaluation feedback immediately, or save your feedback as a draft and release it at a later time. This enables you to revise and review evaluation feedback prior to publishing it, and then publish feedback in bulk. You also have the option to retract published feedback if you want to provide an update to past evaluations but only want students to access your most recent feedback. You can also annotate students’ web and plain text file submissions with the HTML Editor and attach those annotations as part of feedback.

Watch how to evaluate submissions in Assignments tool

  1. On the nav bar, select the Activities menu, then click Assignments.
    Assignments on Nav Bar
  2. On the Assignments page, from the context menu of the folder you want to evaluate, click View Submissions.
    Assignments View Submissions
  3. On the Submissions page, click the Evaluate link for the submission or select the student’s name.
    Assignments Evaluate Submission
  4. The submission evaluation page for the student will display. If a single file was submitted, the file opens directly on the page. If multiple files were submitted, instructors can select the dropdown menu at the top of the page to view each file.
    Note: The evaluation pane divider can be dragged to suit a user’s preferences and screen size.
    Assignment Evaluation Page
  5. Select the options below to learn about the evaluation options for the submission.

View the Paper Inline and Access Annotation Tools

  1. To view the submission with the inline viewer when Turnitin is also enabled for the assignment, select the dropdown menu at the top of the page.
    Assignment Evaluation Switch Eval view
  2. Then select the filename from the dropdown menu. If a single file was submitted, the file opens directly on the page. If multiple files were submitted, instructors can select the dropdown menu at the top of the page to view each file.
    Assignment Evaluation with TII view inline annotation view
  3. The inline viewer will display the file, depending on the file type, or download the file. Learn which types of files can be viewed inline in Assignments and how to Use Annotations for Instructor Feedback in the Assignments Tool.

Assignment Annotation Inline Viewer

View Student's Profile Card

When hovering your mouse over a student’s profile picture on the submission evaluation page, the student’s user profile card appears. The card displays the student’s name, role in the course, TCU ID number, online/offline status as well as links to email, instant message, user progress, and user profile. Clicking any of the links opens a new window.

Profile Card within Assignment Evaluation Page

Download the Submission Files to View Offline

Submissions can be downloaded in the following ways:

  • Click Download All Files.
    Download All Files - Assignment Evaluation with TII
  • Click the File Options menu, then select Download.
    Assignment Submission File Options
  • From the Inline Viewer, select the download icon. If annotations have been added, there will be two options: either download the original submission file and / or the annotated PDF file by clicking the Download button in the Annotations viewer.
    Assignment Evaluation Download from Inline viewer

Launch TurnItIn Feedback Studio

The following steps require Turnitin’s Feedback Studio to be enabled for your assignment. Using Turnitin is optional for your assignments.

  1. Click the Similarity Score to view the originality report for the submission.
    Turnitin Simliarity Score
  2. Turnitin’s Feedback Studio will launch, which will allow you to Use GradeMark to Create Inline Feedback, Annotate, and Assign a Grade to Assignment Submissions.

Evaluate the Submission with an Attached Rubric

A rubric must be created in TCU Online and attached to your assignment in order to evaluate the submission with the rubric.

  1. Click the Rubric title to expand it to allow for inline evaluation.
  2. Optional: Click the pop out icon above the rubric to view and evaluate the rubric in a new window.

Learn more about Evaluating an Assignment Submission with a Rubric.
Click Rubrics on Assignment Submission page

Group Assignments

  1. On the nav bar, select the Activities menu, then click Assignments.
    Assignments on Nav Bar
  2. On the Assignments page, from the context menu of the folder you want to evaluate, click View Submissions.
    Assignments View Submissions
  3. On the Submissions page, group assignments will display the Group number/name and the student who submitted the assignment. Click the Evaluate link for the submission, click  the Group number/name, or click View Submission.
    Evaluate Group Assignment
  4. Click the Group action menu to Email the Group (opens in a new window), See All Group Members, or send an Instant Message to the group (opens in a new window).
    Group Action Menu on Group Assignment Evaluation Page
  5. Evaluate the submission using the tools on this page.
  6. Grading: When entering a score in the Overall Grade field, the grade will automatically be pushed to all group members. If you wish to adjust the grade for individual group members, you can make modifications in the Gradebook directly.
    Evaluate Assignment Overall Grade

Enter a Grade

  1. Add a grade for the submission, by entering a numeric value in the Overall Grade field. If you evaluated the submission with a rubric, a grade will be auto-populated based on the rubric.
    Assignment Submission Grade.

Add Feedback, Attachments, and Audio/Video

  1. Optional: Type in the text box to add Overall Feedback to the student about their submission. Use the HTML editor to format text, add links, images, and embed multimedia. Learn more about how to Format HTML Course Content. This feedback will display both in the Grades tool and in the Assignment tool for the student.
    Assignment Feedback
  2. Optional: Located below the Overall Feedback text box click the icons to Attach files, Link to an Existing Activity or Content, Link to a Website, Attach a Google Drive file, Record Audio, or Record Video.

    Assignment Submission Evaluation Attachments

    Attachments toolbar with icons for Upload File, QuickLink, Web Link, Google Drive, Record Audio, and Record Video

Edit Assignment, Preview Assignment Instructions, or Set Special Access Dates

Instructors can edit the assignment (for all students), preview the assignment instructions, or grant special access for the student they are evaluating from the evaluation page.

Action Menu in Assignment Evaluation

Edit the Activity

To Edit the Activity (for all students), click the action menu on the side panel of the screen, then select Edit Activity. The assignment page will open in a new tab.

Make modifications as needed. See the Edit an Assignment page for more information.

Preview the Activity

To Preview the Activity, click the action menu on the side panel of the screen, then select Preview Activity. The Assignment Preview page will open in a new tab. This will allow instructors to review the instructions and see the assignment as students do. Click Exit Preview to return to the Assignments list, or close the tab to return to the Assignment Submission page for the student you were viewing.

Assignment Preview

Set Special Access Dates

The following steps will allow you to set special access dates only for the user you are currently viewing.

  1. To set special access dates for this student, click the action menu on the side panel of the screen, then select Special Access.
  2. A pop-up window will allow you to add a new due date, start date, and/or end date for this student for this assignment.
    Special Access Dates Pop Up

Save Draft or Publish

  1. When your evaluation is complete, click Publish or Save Draft, located on the bottom right of the screen.Note: if you choose Save Draft, you can publish all feedback for all students later from the View Submissions page. See Step 3 below for more information.
    Publish or Save Draft
  2. To view another student’s submissions, do one of the following:
    • Click the right or left arrows on the top right of the page to evaluate the previous or next student’s submission.
      Previous or Next Submission
    • Click the next arrow at the bottom of the page to evaluate the next students’ submission.
      Publish or Save Draft
    • Click Back to Submissions to return to the Submissions page.
      Back to Submissions
  3. If you saved your evaluations as Draft, and are ready to publish feedback, from the Submissions page, check the box on the table header row to select students who you want to publish feedback for. Then click the link for Publish Feedback.
    Assignments Publish Feedback
  4. If you are publishing feedback for All Students you can click on the Publish All Feedback button for all students to receive the feedback at the same time.
    Publish All Feedback