Assignments

Submitting a Text-only Assignment to an Assignment Submission folder

When instructors create a new assignment submission folder, they can opt to make this a text-only submission folder by selecting Text Submission under Submission Options.

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Improvements to TurnItIn Integration

Dates – Date management is automated so Start and End dates are no longer managed separately in TCU Online and the TurnItIn.

GradeMark – Inline editing of submissions is available through GradeMark, TurnItIn’s commenting tool. Students have access to formative feedback left in GradeMark through the assignment submission folder, in User Progress, or in Grades). By default scores and feedback from GradeMark will be saved as draft, no longer requiring manual sync for each submission.

Group Assignment Feedback – Feedback on Group Assignments is now provided to all students in the group. Previously, feedback was only provided to the individual learner that made the submission.

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Discussions

Linked discussion threads

When assessing a discussion post in the Assess Post pop-up, an instructor sees a list of posts authored by the student. Each post’s title is a link to the original discussion post which, allows instructors to see the full context of the discussion.


Grades

Adding feedback in bulk

Instructors can add generic feedback to multiple students’ grades in bulk. Generic feedback is feedback that applies to multiple students and is not specific to an individual student’s performance. Instructors can also sort the Feedback column in the Grades tool and quickly determine which learners require feedback.

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Locked Name column and header row

The locked Name column and header row will display in the following pages within the Grades tool, so that instructors can scroll through user grades without losing the context for which and whose grades they are looking at:

  • Standard View
  • Spreadsheet View
  • Grade Category
  • Grade Individual Item
  • Final Grades

For those using legacy web browsers (Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge) or a small screen space such as a mobile device: the existing solution that repeats the Name column and header row every x columns / rows is available in the Grades settings.


Groups

Create sub-groups from sections and groups

Users can now create sub-groups based on Section or Group enrollment. To create a sub-group, instructors would add a new group category, then use the Restrict Enrollments To option to designate the course-level group or section from which the sub-groups will be drawn.

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Manage Dates

Improvements to the Manage Dates tool

Instructors can manage all course dates from a single location.

The Manage Dates tool within Course Admin now displays dates for the following activities:

  • Quiz submission view names and dates
  • Quiz report names and dates
  • Topic unlock dates
  • Forum unlock dates
  • Checklists
  • Surveys
  • Manual Calendar events
  • Course Start and End Dates

The Status column on the Manage Dates page now reads as Visibility Status and include updated status options: Hidden, Visible, and Visible with conditions.

Dates in the Due, Start, and End columns are clickable and instructors can launch the Edit dialog box to make any changes.

When instructors copy course components, they will be presented with the option to Review and Manage Dates; clicking this button will take them to the Manage Dates tool to make any necessary changes. Instructors can offset old dates or times relative to the new semester by using the Offset Dates option. This feature also eliminates the burden of individually adjusting start, end, and due dates.

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Rubrics

Control visibility of rubrics associated with activities

Within the Rubrics tool, instructors can set the visibility of individual rubrics based on whether or not they want students to see rubric previews prior to completing an activity, and published rubric feedback after completing an activity. This may be useful if using rubrics in alternative ways. Creating or editing a rubric within the Rubrics tool includes the following new visibility options: Rubric is always visible to learners (default), Rubric is hidden until feedback is published, and Rubric is never visible to learners. Rubric visibility settings are unchanged when items are copied or imported.

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Display graded rubric feedback in Grades and other tools

For a consistent user experience, students can now view their graded rubric (including the selected levels and instructor feedback) for Discussions, Assignments, and Quizzes in Grades.

Additionally, students can view their graded rubric (including the selected levels and instructor feedback) in the following tools:

  • Assignments
  • Discussions – Note: When an instructor assesses a student’s discussion and saves the discussion assessment, but does not select Publish to Grades, students will immediately see their score, selected levels, and feedback within the Discussions tool, within the discussion item in the given module, and within User Progress. The discussion score, selected levels, and feedback will only appear in the Grades tool upon clicking Publish to Grades.
  • Quizzes
  • Content, where the activity is included in a module

This strengthened connection between the Grades tool, the Rubrics tool, and Activities (Discussions, Assignments, Quizzes) means that instructors must associate the rubric only with the activity, not the grade item. Instructors will then assess activities using the rubric from within the given activity, not from within the Grades tool. If a grade item has a rubric associated with it, then this grade item cannot be associated with an activity. Note that grade items such as class presentations or other observational activities (elements not associated with TCU Online tools) can still have rubrics attached to them from within the Grades tool.

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Additional Improvements to Rubrics Display

Changes that make rubrics more clear for students and more visible within TCU Online:

  • Total score row replaces the overall score row on points- and percentage-based rubrics
  • For the Assignments tool, all instructor feedback now appears separately at the top of the View Feedback page, above the full graded rubric
  • Within the Content tool, when a student clicks on an Assignment or Discussion, the student will see their submission(s), score, graded rubric, and instructor feedback
  • The presence of quiz feedback is now denoted by a “View Feedback” link instead of a text bubble icon

Quizzes

Question pools replace random sections

When creating randomized sets of quiz questions from a larger set of questions, instructors will now use question pools instead of random sections. There is no change in functionality associated with this update. The work flow has been improved so that naming the question pool, indicating the desired number of questions to be provided to the student, designating the points per question, and selecting the individual questions that will comprise the random set are all accessed from the initial question pool creation page.

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Virtual Classroom

Interface and work flow changes

Virtual Classroom by YouSeeU features a new, responsive interface design that is optimized for mobile users, to make scheduling class meetings easier. The functions of the Class Meetings and Settings tabs have been replaced with an easy mobile-optimized menu that lets you manage and edit meetings in one step.

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