JT Learn Week: Assignment Submission

Students can submit assignments on JT Learn for two main types of assignments: documents or URL links to work students have stored online.  The process to set up assignment submission doesn’t take very long now that JT has a custom built web part called Feature Builder. 

First, teachers decide if they would like students to submit work on the course page or the period page.  There is no right or wrong place.  For example, a teacher might prefer to have their Physics students from all periods submit on the course page, while another teacher might prefer to have each period submit separately on the period level pages.  The key is to be consistent and only set up assignment submission in one place for general submission. 

What types of assignments will students be submitting?  Some common types are documents, presentations, spreadsheets, links to items stored in OneDrive or Google Drive, or links to other work students have online (i.e. Thinglinks, LiveBinders, screencasts, etc.).  So, there are types of assignments where students upload an actual file and there are types where they copy and paste a URL link to their assignment.  Feature Builder can help set up both types. 

On most JT Learn sites students have “read” permissions, but for assignment submission there are two main changes.

1. Students need to have “contribute” permissions.
2. Content approval needs to be turned on so that students can only see their own work. 

Feature Builder takes care of these changes.  Watch this video (Introduction to Feature Builder) to see how to add Feature Builder to JT Learn and how to use it to create a “Document Library for Student Work” or a “Links Submission Library.”

At the beginning of a semester when a teacher has a new roster of students, teachers will need to use Feature Builder to create a new submission library.  Wonder why? Students new to the class will not be able to see the assignment submission library that was used during a previous semester.

In regards to submission libraries, there are two common problems:

1. Teachers report that students can’t see or don’t have access to a submission library.  This usually happens at the beginning of a semester when new students are in class. Students do not automatically have permissions to a submission library used with previous sections of students. Teachers should use Feature Builder to create a new submission library.  It is quick and provides proper permission and access to the new students.
2. Teachers report that students can see each other’s work.  This is a sign that “Content Approval” needs to be turned on.  Teachers can delete the current library and use Feature Builder to create a new submission library.  This will turn on “Content Approval.”